Kid Free Vacation

My younger brother and his wife just had their first baby at the end of April. Visiting our new baby nephew seemed like the perfect time for Rob and I to take our first kid free vacation in over 5 years, so last Wednesday we hopped on a plane and headed for Seattle. I was really nervous the entire morning before we left and on our entire drive down to Indy. What the heck were we thinking leaving our babies?! Once we got on the plane though all my nerves eased, probably because at that point there wasn't anything I could do about it. Seattle, here we come! It was just after 11pm, 2am our time, when the Uber dropped us off at my brother's door, so we were straight to bed.

Thursday morning I woke up before everyone else, surprise, surprise, and fed my caffeine habit. I almost always get a headache from plane travel, and this trip was no different. Coffee, water, and pain relievers were basically on full time rotation the whole time we were in Seattle. It wasn't long before the rest of the house was up and I got to meet sweet little B. He's so dang cute, he made me forget my head hurt. There was a whole lot of snuggling involved, and then once we were all ready, we headed to Pike Place. Rob had never been before, and I jumped at the chance to have French pastries and lattes and Le Panier. We walked the market, checked out the gum wall, found a cute little garden that overlooks the sound, and then got out of there before it got too crazy busy.

It was cool the whole time we were in Seattle but thankfully not too rainy, so we were able to walk almost everywhere we needed to go. It's amazing how much more difficult it is to walk places when you have four kids in tow as opposed to one newborn in a stroller. On Friday we walked around Lake Union and met my brother for lunch at Cask and Trotter. I had the BBQ sundae which I think sounds disgusting, but was absolutely delicious.

That afternoon we all went to the Ballard Locks and then hit up Golden Gardens. The locks and the fish ladder were neat to see. There is a beautiful botanical garden next to the locks that we walked around as well. I wish I would have taken more pictures there, because there were a lot of beautiful views. It was pretty chilly along the beach at Golden Gardens, but I am never one to turn down a walk along the beach. Rob on the other hand said F it, and skipped walking along the sound.

We were introduced to Exploding Kittens and Code Names, both of which also have adult versions, while on our trip. We played the games after dinner while B snoozed away. I am rather terrible at both games, but they were still immensely fun, even when losing.

Saturday morning we walked to brunch at Rock Creek. The beignets, cinnamon roll, and mimosas were a big hit with the table, and everyone loved their eggs, except me. Overall though, a solid brunch locale. On our walk back, we ran into Donald Trump who is getting ready for this weekend's solstice parade. We missed the solstice celebration by one week, but I am hoping for some great pictures today.

We may have missed out on the solstice celebration, but we did get to see my brother graduate from Foster School of Business at UW with his MBA. I'd say we got the better end of the deal. The University of Washington campus is beautiful, and I wish we could have seen more of it. We had to call it a night pretty soon after graduation because 6am flights equal 3:30 am wake times.

The plus side to 6am flights is that you arrive to your next destination at a decent time. It's cheaper to fly from Seattle to Denver then to Indy than it is to fly from Seattle to Indy, so we opted for a two day stop in Denver to visit my older brother and his husband. I hate that my siblings are spread out all over the country, but they do live in some pretty great places to visit.

The first item on the agenda while in Denver was brunch. We had reservations at Linger which is a restaurant in an old mortuary. By far my favorite meal of the trip. Maybe it was the bottomless mimosas. Maybe it was the delicious breakfast dosa. Maybe it was the open air table and the smell of fresh baked waffle cones. Maybe it was the feeling of too many mimosas followed by Little Man ice cream for dessert. Whatever combination of things made it wonderful, it was a delightful morning.

The afternoon was spent playing more Code Names, day drinking, visiting with a longtime family friend, and then realizing how much we suck at bags. We ate at Root Down that evening, and got to witness a beautiful sunset and perfect weather. It was over 90 degrees both days we were in Denver, but with low humidity it was much more enjoyable than Indiana weather.

Monday morning we headed out bright and early and headed toward Rocky Mountain National Park. I could post 50 different pictures of beautiful mountain views, but I'll spare you and only share a few. It was beautiful no matter what direction you looked. There was still snow high up in the mountains, and we even saw someone who was getting ready to snow board. On our way back to Denver, we stopped in Idaho Springs for lunch and a little exploration.

Once we were back to Denver we visited a local brewery where we tried to redeem ourselves at bags. We fared much better than the previous day, so we blamed our poor showing on the board and bags. Likely story, right? We had dinner at Sloan's Lake Tap and Burger, the chicken fried bacon BLT was amazing, and then watched the sunset across Sloan's Lake over the mountains. Our vacation closed out with a little rooftop patio drinking before getting to bed for another early flight.

 

Our 5:25am flight back to Indy was on time and we were back home to our babies by lunch time. We FaceTimed with Harrison and Brooke every day, but the babies got too worked up, so we had to stop FaceTiming with them after the second or third day. Scarlett was all over me as soon as we got back, and Clark wouldn't let Rob go. Harrison and Brooke were happy to see us, but then they were off to play with their friends after about 2 minutes.

If you couldn't tell, we like to eat our way through vacations, and I would definitely go back to every restaurant we visited. It was great to have a few days away from the kids, but the whole time we were gone, we were thinking about bringing the kids back in a year or two. especially to RMNP. First we have to make sure they won't go run off the side of a mountain or trample the tundra. Vacations without kids are great, but they're just as fun with them.