Well, not exactly empty, but our visitors have all departed as of today:-(. It was a fun few weeks! Friday afternoon I took Lynsey and Julia into Seattle to see all the sights. I took them for a ride on the Great Wheel which was pretty fun, Brian and I did it years ago with Mark and Frances but I didn't realize our kids had never done it. It's a great way to see the city. We walked through Post Alley and saw the gross gum wall, wandered through Pike Place Market and past the oldest Starbucks before walking over to the Space Needle and getting some coffee there. It was a longer walk than I thought, so we took the Monorail back which is a bit funny. We always mocked the Monorail as being a pretty useless train ride, but on Friday we finally found a good use for it! It's for people that took the long walk from Pike Place Market where they are parked to the Space Needle, who then realize they don't want to walk back lol! That evening we watched Titanic since Julia had never seen it, still as moving as ever.
Saturday we went for a day trip to Whidbey Island. I had never taken the ferry to Whidbey in the summer so was very naive about how long the wait would be for the ferry. We got in line about 11:30 and did not get on a ferry until about 2:15pm. Crazy! Thankfully we took turns babysitting the car and were able to hang out by the water, this was especially important for Adam as we all know how much he loves waiting:-S. In hindsight we probably should have immediately aborted mission on the ferry and driven around Deception Pass when we saw how long the line was, but I wanted to give Julia the ferry experience so we waited it out. Just made for a different day than we thought! By the time we finally got to Coupeville to have lunch it was about 3:30pm, we got on the list for the Frontstreet Grille but the wait was an hour. We decided to just wait it out and have it be an early dinner instead of a late lunch. Sometimes you just have to roll with things!
After our delicious dinner at Frontstreet Grille, we made our way back towards the ferry with a stop at Double Bluff beach. Always a lovely stop! The ferry wait going home wasn't nearly as bad, we waited less than an hour before we were loaded onto a ferry so well worth not driving around. Even with the hitches along the way it was a beautiful day and a great last day for Julia's trip! I drove Julia to the airport early the next morning and helped her get herself checked in at the airport. She got herself through security and made it to her gate without any problem. We had such a nice visit and I hope she can come again some time! Sunday was a busy day, as I went to tryouts at 2 and didn't come home until 9pm. Whew! It was an interesting experience, I feel like I learned a lot! It was a tiring day, needless to say!
Andy was still here until today, so on Monday the Vanees and Yelena and Phillip came over for some takeout and to visit with Andy. Yesterday we had tryouts day 2. This time Coach Schae was there and it was really nice to see how she ran tryouts and learn from some of the things she did. She is a big believer in coaches playing and elevating the level of play - pretty different from Heidi that's for sure. It was nice to see that my instincts last year weren't wrong, and that just because Heidi doesn't think coaches should play doesn't mean she was right about that. I am looking forward to having a bit more freedom this year to follow my instincts and see where they lead me!
Andy left this morning so after today it will be business as usual. We really enjoyed having Andy around as well, hopefully next time he can bring Kristy with him! Lynsey had her tryout with Prism tonight and as expected, she made the team:-). I'm happy to see her so excited for the year and think it will be great for her to have her last year be with people she likes and a coach she likes (Schae is the high school coach but she is allowed to coach Lynsey this club season because she won't be back in high school next season). I hope it's a great year for both of us at Prism!
