seattle

we went on a road trip to seattle this weekend to attend a going away party for Dave's cousin, Tim, who is on his way to Iraq. The trip up was completely nice and wonderful and uneventful. We stopped at Winco (my favorite grocery store) and visited the bulk section to stock up on the essentials for any road trip (candy). and we found a huge sub sandwich for 4 bucks that dave thought was the best deal ever. it was basically a loaf of french bread with a pound or two of ham on it (no condiments - dave's favorite). and the kids slept, we stopped at a rest stop and they played. Our directions were a bit off, but because the city is laid out in a (semi) logical way with numbers for street names, we were able to find Aunt Kathy's house on our own. When we got there everyone was completely thrilled to see us and ellen took off with her cousins (who she's never seen before) and i didn't see her again for a couple hours. She had a wonderful time and there was no shortage of relatives who wanted to play with her. we stayed the night in seattle and visited Gramma CeCe the next morning and introduced Isaiah. We had fun there too and Ellen again had a wonderful time playing with cards and poker chips (we want to get her started early. she's gonna need to know how to play texas hold'em so she can participate in our tournaments.) and we started heading home around 1. stopped for a quick bite to eat and when we started the car back up we got a check engine light. not good for a four (at least) hour road trip home. so dave checked a few fluids, added some water and it went away, so we took off. we drove for about 45 minutes and the engine was sorta sputtering and sounding odd and the light came back on, so we pulled off to some little town and started looking for a Shuck's auto store because they'll let you use their computer thing to find out what's wrong with your car for free. we drove away from the freeway through who knows where for several miles before we found it (we'd gotten directions) but the computer wouldn't work. it was getting late and we were starting to get worried that all the car fix it places were going to shut (since it was sunday afternoon) so we raced over to a nearby midas to see if they'd take a look. they said it would take at least an hour and they were closing in 45 minutes. so we raced over to firestone - same story. at this point we figured we'd try for a couple more minutes before we found a hotel and made an appointment for the next morning. we tried one last place and their expert advice was make sure your gas cap is on. so we did and it was and thought well i guess lets find a hotel. (there's no way i wanted to completely break down in the middle of 1-5 nowhere near anywhere and either sleep in the van (not fun since ellen can't sleep for long in her car seat) or else get seperated while dave goes off for help. i'm too much of a scairdy cat - has anyoe else seen that movie where the couple breaks down somewhere, and a trucker stops to help and the wife goes with him to get a tow truck or something and then the trucker is psycho and all hell breaks loose?? i never actually finished watching it cause it was too freaky, but that was what i wanted to avoid) anyway. we saw a hotel, but decided to just keep looking for an open place for a couple minutes before we went back and checked in. about a half mile further on, we found another Shuck's and their computer worked! we hooked it up, found the problem and the guy inside said he knew how to fix that, had some tools we could borrow and he'd talk dave through it - even help if he got stuck! (they apparantly don't have the same no-working-on-cars-in-the-parking-lot that california does). so dave started working and ellen, isaiah and i got into the back of the van and watched some sesame street movies on the laptop, and later took a walk to the shopping mall across the street. about an hour and half later the van was fixed! no check engine light! woo hoo! dave tipped the guy rather handsomely since we were so thankful and grateful to have saved a ton of cash (the hotel, plus the missed work, plus you can't get out of a mechanic's for less than at least a couple hundred dollars). dave's awesome - i was rather impressed. the rest of the ride home wasn't exactly fun - the kids screamed and cried and were unhappy but at least we were moving forward. i have to say that i've always tended to feel that the dvd players in the seats for the kids to watch during the drive were a bit of extravegent overkill for spoiled children, but i will freely admit that ellen watched more than one movie on the laptop on the way home. man that was nice.