My mom returned to Los Angeles yesterday. For 16 days, she cooked us delectables (sushi! Soy sauce mochi balls that K loves! Seafood pasta!) and spent large quantities of time with K while I labored away to meet deadlines. I wouldn’t have survived and most likely wouldn’t have met my deadlines without my Mama.
I took these shots while on the ferry to and from Bainbridge Island. On Sunday morning, I decided that I had ignored my family for too long, and thought it might be enjoyable to spend the night on this little island that’s a 20-minute ferry ride away. Silly me. There aren’t very many places to stay on the island, and the first couple of places I checked were fully booked of course. “We’ll have to make it a day trip,” I told K, but she asked me to try just one more place. So I called the Eagle Harbor Inn to appease her, assuming failure.
“Well, we’ve actually been fully booked three months in advance for a long time,” the hotel guy told me,”but it’s your lucky day. I just got a cancellation a few minutes ago and have a room.” Perfect! Within half an hour, we were out the door and ready to roll. M had a lot of work to do and opted to stay in Seattle.
We had a lovely time: swimming at the Aquatic Center, eating Japanese food for dinner and chocolate lava cake for dessert, strolling around. The fruit flies in the hotel room dampened our spirits a little and they were impervious to my kung fu moves meant to get them out. But the room itself was very, very nice and for a last minute trip, we had no reason to complain. K recorded every teeny tiny detail (and every flower) of our micro vacation with my mom’s camera.
Such a fun way to cap off the Ba-chan visit. We miss her desperately already, and we’re making tentative plans for another girls’ extravaganza in the winter when she comes out next. Destination: hot springs in Canada! I’ll probably have to actually get on the ball and reserve a room far in advance this time. To those of you in the know, any recommendations?
The last picture is so gorgeous. Actually, all the pics are great!
Thanks Greta! It was a nice grand finale to an otherwise low-key visit
Sounds wonderful… I can ask my mom about locations… we live by the border and she loves to go across… nexus pass!!
If you’re up there I just found a few fabric stores in Vancouver that were incredible to visit!!
Oooh, do tell, Kristi! I’d love to visit some fabric stores in Vancouver and thank you in advance for any hot springs recommendations :-).
beautiful pics – how great to have your mama in town, i always love reading about ba-chan adventures. it’s obvious K adores her.
Thanks so much, Kristin. They are two peas in a pod and get along wonderfully. There’s a lot of uncontrollable laughter when the two of them are together.
I’ve stayed at the main hotel in Harrison for the Harrison Hot Springs. It was nice! Right on the lake, and lots of nice pools in the hotel to soak in. Also a couple of swimming pools for kids. They did have adult-only pools for just soaking and then separate pools for swimming and kids.
Yes! I’ve heard great things about Harrison Hot Springs and that’s on my list. I also love that there’s a separate swimming area for kids since I’m not as much a huge hot springs fan as my mom. Thank you, Margo!
Mamas are the best! What would we do without them? So glad with all your hard work you took time to live it up. And good work on persevering with your commitment!
Thanks Beccy! I’m carving out mini vacations with the family because otherwise, what’s the point of doing all this book stuff? At least, that’s what I tell myself.
Oh, that last picture! That will become a treasured one, Sanae – mark my words! So happy for you that the girls could have this special trip together:)
My two favorite ladies together in one photo is always a good idea :-). I think we’re definitely going to make an all-girl’s trip an annual (or even bi-annual) tradition! Thank you, Lucinda!
i think the ultimate hotsprings experience is to be had at liard hotsprings, at the very northern edge of british columbia (on the alaska highway). you soak in completely natural pools, bordered by ferns and surrounded by forest. any other hotspring in the rockies is worth a visit, but none can compare to liard
Oh, that sounds amazing Karen! Thanks for the tip :-). Will have to look into that one for sure. Thank you!!