Back in The Emerald City

Here we are, four days home and the unpacking is mostly done, the car is washed and vacuumed, the mail sorted and routines for exercise and meals are in place. Oh how glad I am to not need to pack and unpack the car's trunk daily. Fixing meals in my own kitchen is a joyful novelty after 47 days on the road. Making as much coffee as I want and making it DARK and drinking it out of a ceramic mug; those are renewed delights! 

Before it all slips from my memories, here are some pictures and thoughts from our last day on the road which was the stretch from Spokane to Seattle on I-90. We both knew that would be minimal stopping as we drove the last 279 miles of our journey. We were eager to get home. It was a lovely still day as we left the Lilac City. I only hope that next weekend's runners in the Bloomsday Race get weather like this. 

See how still the water is? There were hundreds of water fowl on this lake, enjoying a placid swim.

One last day to make the most out of cruise control!

This is a viewpoint that convinced us to stop. I know we have been this way before but I think this was our first stop. That's the mighty Columbia River. This viewpoint is on West I 90 near Vantage, WA

It was 53 degrees and nary a wisp of wind. It was unusual to pass windmills in this area and not a blade was turning.

Up and over Snoqualmie Pass and not a flake of snow in the air and very little on the ground. Trees kept looking greener and greener.

The day was overcast but allowed us this glimpse of our familiar friend, Mount Rainier.

Home at last and the best sight of the day was our daughter, sitting at our dining room table, law books and papers spread out. She stayed and we chatted but not for long, her laundry was done and she needed to resume studying at the library. I guess her dad and I are just too distracting!

Unpacking is a chore. Here are some travel treasures from our trip; some to keep, some to share.

Souvenir pens will remind me of the different hotel rooms where we slept.  It used to be I would grab a book of matches (even though we don't smoke), but now days you don't see matchbooks much, which is a good thing. Pens are so much more useful to us.

In numbers our trip looks like this:
8264 miles
34 miles to the gallon
$576.73 spent on gas
19 states
47 days
$100.74 per night in hotels (averaged)
27 different beds
On the map it looks like this:

I'm ready to stick around home!