We spent a lovely three nights and four days in the eastern part of the state, Lake Chelan specifically, making this our second annual Father’s Day trip to Chelan with our friends Anne, Phillip, Rosalie and Reid. And this would be our second successful trip there with our friends. With Reese’s school closed both Friday and Monday it makes perfect sense to kickstart our summer with this trip.
Both families agreed with the general itinerary and after seeing the weather forecast, a full 15 degrees warmer on Friday than Sunday, we changed our plans rather last minute to set out to Chelan early on Friday to spend the full day at Slidewaters Water Park. We went last year and it was epic. By epic, I mean our exit. I’ve never seen Reese more protestful in leaving a place because she was having that good of a time. This year was different in that regard, thank goodness, but it was still a long full day of riding slides nonstop. This park is great. There are slides for everyone but most importantly their slides don’t have height restrictions so long as you can swim, ride with an adult, or wear a life vest. I’m guessing they don’t get that many 4 year olds at 40″ tall that want to ride all of the rides (I say this by both experience and observation) but Reese wants to do them all. And now she wants to do them by herself!
We didn’t really ease into the slides. Reese went in full steam, heading up with her dad to the big double tube slide almost right away. She did all of the slides countless times and both Bryan and I got turns going with her and had an equally good time. By the end of the day we were racing down the slides.
Brooke had a great time too. She did ride with me down a few of the smaller, but still fast, slides in the front of the park, but she stuck mostly to the cute little toddlers area that had a dinosaur and frog slide that she really enjoyed doing by herself. All four of us would frequent the large hot tub at the front of the park often, just to keep our body temps up. Brooke also took an hour nap, on Bryan, on the lazy river. How he pulled that off I don’t know but it worked well in not making any of us put pause on the fun we were having. The vouchers I bought during their stocking stuffer sale at Christmas also got us a free lunch to keep us going and we all shared two scoops of ice cream at the end of the day. We were there at open at 10 am and ended up leaving about 5 pm (they close at 6 pm). By this point Reese was starting to get cold and Brooke had her fist epic meltdown ever.
Our friends had already left before us to check into our Airbnb so we set off for the short 5 minute drive to the house we were renting right in downtown Chelan. It was a great house with three bedrooms and a fenced in backyard. The kitchen was great and everything was clean and comfortable. We took showers and took a kids wagon ride through Safeway for snacks before picking up pizzas from Local Myth pizza down the street which was excellent!
On Saturday we set off first on foot and bike down the river path, across the two bridges and back. Reese on her bike and Rosalie on hers with training wheels and all adults trying to keep up with them. By the time we got back it was really nice out so we packed sandwiches and snacks for the beach and filled our two wagons with both kids and toys and set off for the nearby beach park. Bryan was itching to use his Father’s Day/Birthday gift of his new paddle board so we set up our chairs and he pumped up the board. Bryan and Reese had first turn on the paddle board before shortly being joined by Rosalie, then Phillip had a turn, then me and the girls and finally Anne. It’s a great toy and a great board and we will be getting a lot of use out of it. Aside from the paddle board we kept busy with sand toys, lunch, drinks, and the adjacent playground which was monkey bar heaven for Reese. We didn’t head back to the house until 4 pm.
Saturday night we were heading to Lake Chelan Winery for their BBQ in the Vineyards and annual Falling Cow Festival. The place was extremely busy and we seriously got the very last parking spot in the overflow parking lot! Lots of families and a lot of kids. The band was still setting up when we got there and their was a donkey and pony that Reese surprisingly loved petting. One of us waited in the long line to order our BBQ meal and we bought a few bottles of wine. Brooke, albeit super tired, loved the dancing to the live music while Reese, who was also very tired from earlier, spent the night coloring on the beach blanket. Our dinner took two hours to get so by the time we got it we were done with the music, done with the helicopter drop of toy cows, and done with the animals. We ate our dinner and then headed back home. We predicted one kid of the four to fall asleep on the way home but nope. Bedtime was still a breeze once back…for all of us.
And Sunday was Father’s Day and our day was wide open in terms of plans. We started the day with a group breakfast and then broke out the splash pad and water toys in the backyard. We waited out a short but strong rain shower that was unlike any we get in Seattle. Reese and Rosalie then set out on another bike ride to the river/lake to try their hand at fishing and Bryan to paddle board and when Brooke woke up from her nap I joined them there. I got a spin on the paddle board and then opted to take Brooke and follow Reese on her bike to go back to the playground to allow Bryan to have a lengthy paddle session, which he did and did enjoy. Reese played at the playground for a while longer before Bryan was back and we packed up and headed back to the house by foot.
Our plans for dinner were something on the grill but undecided but with a little flexing of all of our muscles we pulled out a really delicious dinner…but one that was moved from BBQ to oven because the grill was barely hot. We made a bunch of grilled vegetables with sausage, bruschetta, sweet corn and watermelon. A true summer meal if I do say so myself. We finished the night with some ice cream and movies before calling it a night.
Monday was departure day and check out wasn’t until 11 am but Bryan had to take a work call from 11:30-1:30 and if I was going to be watching the girls I wanted to do so in Leavenworth. The other car decided that was a good idea as well so after packing up the cars we all set out on the hour drive to Leavenworth. Brooke took a nap which was needed and awoke fresh first at the Enchantment Park for the girls to play before we walked along the river walk path to the Waterfront Park. After a long time stretching our legs we headed into town to get some lunch. Bryan was still on his call so I took the girls with the group to get some food from Stein where we ate on their sunny patio. Reese actually shared the fish and chips with me which shocked me and has been requesting more fish ever since! After lunch we said our goodbyes to the other family and then walked to the Taffy Shop to purchase $25 worth of candy! We then reunited with Bryan, got him some lunch back at Stein, and then headed back to Seattle in the car.
We took I-90 over Highway 2 and regretted this decision. What should have been a 2 hr and 15 minute drive ended up being an hour longer thanks to some roadwork being down only about 30 miles outside of Seattle. Our first 90 minutes of driving was a breeze but then we hit North Bend and ended up taking an alternate route to save us even another hour travel time. Gosh! But we made it back right around 6 pm, got some dinner, the girls were thrilled to have their toys back to play with and their own beds. I was pooped from the driving but what a great weekend it was.
Now we have just a week and a half before we set out for our next trip (more or less same packing list) to go to the cottage for the 4th!
Chelsea
