Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, and the kids were really excited to have cinnamon rolls and pancakes and yogurt and and and… 🙂 Then we walked along the riverwalk for a while, before it was time to head to church. This week we checked out Bridgepoint church in Boise, and it was family style, so we all sat together. The kids did a pretty good job and the children’s ministry gave them some things to keep them occupied during service.
Then we hit the road, and stopped about an hour later for gas, lunch and a trip into Walmart. We got Burger King and Taco Bell, Lover’s favorites! I tried out the Nachos at Taco Bell, and they were really yummy! We finally got back on the road again and on our way.
So it turns out that the path we are taking towards Seattle literally runs along the same path that settlers used as part of the Oregon Trail a hundred and eighty years ago! We saw signs for an Interpretive Center, and decided to stop and check it out on our way to Kennewick, Washington. I’m so glad we did, because it was fun, informative, and a nice way to break up the trip!
We all learned about the hardships of the trail (1 in 10 didn’t make it), self sufficiency, and the problems facing the settlers once they reached their destination. The kids were pretty into it, and then after we went through the center, we walked around outside. There are spots where you can still see the wagon ruts in the landscape, which is pretty incredible! Those are a bit of a hike, so we just saw them from a distance. Then we explored the covered wagons and the big kids pretended to be oxen while the littles were the settlers.
After that we turned on one of the new movies we got at Walmart, and Lover and I talked writing while the kids happily watched their movie. This was our third day of driving a lot, and we’re going on 18.5 hours over the last three days. So it was nice to have everyone distracted for the last leg of this trip today. Tomorrow we drive the rest of the way to Seattle, and then we are there for a week, with hopefully less driving! 🙂 It sounds like Seattle is pretty locked down, so it should be a quieter week.
We got settled into our Airbnb (which is lovely!) and then took the kids to a nearby park to play. On our way back home I snapped a picture of the sunset – our first PNW sunset! 🙂
