Back to the real world.

Our vacations are rarely relaxing, but are always the change of scenery I need away from chores, phones and the computer. Someday I'd love to take a vacation that includes yours truly sitting in a cushioned deck chair looking at the view with a frothy drink and a frothy book. Even our Baja trip last year was a mad dash around from place to place in steaming heat, including flat tires and bumpy dirt roads. But I'm not complaining. Really.

In the meantime I'm content to head off with my little family to see the sights and have time for moments like this...

...at a café in Seattle where Sweetpea asked me to tell her the same story at least three times, about when her friend F (who we visited) burst into her room with the wagon when she was 18 months old.

And here are a few other random photos:

The autumn colours I've been craving outside Mr. P's spooky old house in Portland where we had great games of hide and seek from the top floor to the basement.


Sharing a joke with Mr. P at breakfast.

Three people blocking the view.


Recreating our visit to Mount St. Helens in Port Townsend.


At the Air Museum in Tillamook (where both English hubby and I thought our Dads would have had a blast).



*crackle* Signing off. *crackle*