Loser

Maybe I shouldn't have stepped on that spider crawling across my foot this morning, or screamed at the kids to get in the car (for the 14th time.) Either way, I accumulated some major karma, or upset the forces that be somehow (or however that works.)

The boys and I were headed to Seattle via the Bremerton Ferry for a big field trip to the city to eat some gourmet ice cream and meet up with friend for the afternoon. It all started out perfectly. the boys and I parked the car in Bremerton, walked on the Ferry, enjoyed a picnic lunch as we traveled across the sound to the main ferry terminal in Seattle. The weather was perfect. Sunny and cool. A great day for exploring the city. We exited the ferry, bought a return ticket for later in the afternoon and walked up Madison St. to the number 10 bus.

Hopped on the bus and traveled up to Pine St.and 1st for some of the best ice cream we've tasted. (Okay, we still hold allegiances to Sparky's in Columbia, but this was amazing stuff.) Molly Moon's ice cream is homemade with local milk and cream, local huckleberries, blackberries, herbs, honey, whatever is in season and local, they use it and blend it into delicious flavors. I tried the blackberry sage, huckleberry, honey lavender and cardamom. All these were delicious, but I had to settle on the salted caramel in a waffle cone made while we stood there ordering. Heavenly! Creamy, salty, sweet all at once. The boys both dined on the scout mint in waffle cones which Henry described as "awesomely goo-oo-ood!" Anne met us for ice cream and went with a local favorite including freshly picked huckleberries. We highly recommend going out of your way to check this place out when you're in Seattle.

We took those cones on a walk and run over to Cal Anderson Park across the street and enjoyed the fountains, playgrounds and knolls to roll down. What a day! We decided to catch the bus back down to the famous Pike's Place Market for more exploring. As we stepped off the bus, I was searching for my camera, catching up with the kids and running my mouth only to find ( a block later) that my wallet was missing! Yes, my wallet, key to my survival - gone!! This was a fun snag in the plan. If you ever end up in a crisis like this, being in a city 2000+ miles away from your hometown, bank, resources, etc, make sure you have Anne Powell with you. Without her I would've really been a disaster. And as many of you know, I am no master of crisis management. That's Bryce's department. It should be said here, that I am a loser. Not a loser loser, but in fact, a loser, as in, I lose things. Alot. However, thanks to Ann, it really didn't seem too awful. We caught and searched every bus we could. Stationed ourselves at the bus stop for about an hour and dialed and re-dialed the help line for the transit system to no avail. The boys were angels at this point, but Wynne was about to pass out on the sidewalk when I decided to give up and take the ferry back to Bremerton. Sure was glad I bought my ferry ticket ahead of time and put it in my wallet for safekeeping! Anne gave me a small loan, we ran about 15 blocks to the ferry dock, bought another ticket (thank goodness the boys are still free) and Anne held Henry's hand and helped us onto the ferry all the way. What a friend! The trip back was lovely as the sun was setting, but set off a bit with the boys asking me every 2 seconds why I lost my wallet and if we were going to find it. Don't I wish. Luckily, the boys still described the day as really, really fun. We still love Seattle, all the same. Anne, we owe you! Come visit us sometime, lose your wallet and we'll do our best to help you as you helped us. Thank you!!

Today, we are lonely here in this big 'ol Parrish house without all those sweet boys, but we are picking up the pieces from yesterday's adventure and resting up for the Chum Festival (Chum is a type of salmon) this weekend. Until next catastrophe....