Weekend Coffee Share....Come Sit with Me!

It's another week of Weekend Coffee Share. I always love everyone's posts. Are you like me and try to visit everyone? It doesn't always happen but I try. I have loved getting to know different bloggers and I figure if they take the time to write a post, I'll find the time to visit, even if it's a week later. I truly enjoy what you all share and I often learn so much. 

Check out all the other posts on Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. I'm off to go visit some now. #weekendcoffeeshare.

If we were having coffee we'd probably talk about:

We got back from our trip on Sunday night so I'll intermingle that with my usual posting. I do plan to do a post on our trip because there are quite a few things I'd like to share and links, etc.

ALSO, because I didn't post the week we were gone, I didn't see that Natalie was going to be off the blog the following two Mondays and I had my post done...so this is from the end of April. I'll use it and catch up next week on everything else. 

The weather: The weather while we were gone was amazing. It only rained the last day and it wasn't even that bad. When we got home we had another 2 full days of beautiful weather. Wednesday it started cooling down and rain is supposed to be coming in for the next week or so. 

What we're thinking about: The last few days I've been feeling a bit "meh" emotionally and mentally. Not sure why, so I'm working on being kind and gracious to myself, while at the same time, thinking through why I might be feeling this way. As a woman, it could be anything from hormonal, to just a "mood funk", etc. 

What we're thankful for: I'm so thankful for my grandkids. They just make my day and bring so much joy to my life. I love(d) being a mom but I do really love being a grandma!!

Around the house: Before we left I got one spot weeded and 3 azalea plants in the ground. My plan Wednesday was to do some more weeding but I never got around to it. A friend is doing some crown molding in two of our rooms. When we touch them up with paint, I'll share photos. 

For the love of food: In preparation for our trip I bought some items to snack on throughout our time being gone..mostly things that would be easy to pack in the car while we were out and about. We actually found we weren't overly hungry much. Of course I had to find places for coffee. Many times it wasn't right away and thankfully the airbnb's had Keurig coffee makers to tie me over. My go to coffee drinks were lavender white mochas. One of the coffee shops had really good breakfast burritos, which we got a few times. We ate out twice. Once at an Italian Restaurant that was amazing. I had pasta carbonara with fried soft shelled crab. The other one was more of a diner. I had fish and chips. It was good, but nothing special. 

After arriving home, we actually ordered pizza and had my inlaws up. I did burgers one day on homemade hamburger buns using this recipe, we had bbq chicken thighs and salad one night, chicken breasts on salad another night, and chicken soup. 

What we're reading or wanting to read: I thought I'd do more reading while we were gone, but I really didn't. I had brought the infamous book that I haven't been able to get into...nope, didn't even pick it up (I returned it to the library Thursday...maybe I'll check it out again, but I'm not sure). I am currently reading a new book for an e-group, called Untangle Your Emotions by Jennie Allen. I finished a cozy mystery called Beachfront Bakery. It was short and a fun read. I started Happy Hour Murder and we'll see how that is. I'm trying to work my way through books on my kindle as well as my bookshelf. I did finish Jo's book One for Sorrow and really enjoyed it. It's fun reading books that take place in other countries, I learn new words. Haha!  

What we're listening to or watching: On our trip I did sit and watch a few movies with my hubby. We watched The Good Nurse which is based on a true story. Another one based on a true story was True Spirit. Both were very good. I have also listened to several podcasts, and actually as I'm typing this post, I'm listening to Jo Tracey doing an interview on a FB live with Sandie Docker. It was fun to hear her voice since I follow her. Great job Jo. It was very quiet so a bit hard to hear, but I enjoyed it.

Favorite quote: I didn't do a #WQ the last few weeks, but as we walked through the rain forest, there were several plaques or whatever you call them, along the way, with poems on them, which I loved and thought I'd share. 

Favorite photo(s): I'll share a few photos from each spot we visited but I took so many! If you want to see more, go here and look for my albums. I have one labeled Rainier national Park/Olympic Peninsula or something like that. I never really got around to posting on IG because we didn't have great service, and then I just didn't feel like it. I'll share them all below...but I did remember I wanted to share that miss Pepper got her ears pierced and did wonderful. Also Indy caught his first fish. My dad always wanted to take him fishing, he would've loved this.  

Random or not so random things: I plan to do a post (I hope) on our trip with places we stayed, etc. More detailed. I'll just do a quick recap. I definitely recommend these locations to anyone visiting Washington. 

The highlights were visiting the Mt. Rainier National Park and surrounding area. Then traveling about 3 hours to the Olympic peninsula. We stayed in Sequim which is actually very popular in the summer for it's many lavender farms and lavender festival. We spent 2 1/2 days in that area visiting the Olympic National Forest. On Sunday we took the longer way home along Hwy 101 so we could catch a few other sights. 

Mt. Rainier from Longmire Lodge. Gorgeous view. 

Mt. Rainier from Paradise, which was as far as we could go. 

Christine falls on the way up to Longmire. Once you enter the N.P. you drive a ways to get to the mountain. 

Just one of the stops along the way up. 

View of the Olympic Mountains from Hurricane Ridge. It was so cold and windy at the top. 

Lake Crescent was stunning and is the second deepest lake in Washington. 

Sol duc Falls was another stop and well worth the easy hike in. 

Ruby Beach has been on my list of places to visit and it didn't disappoint. 

I'll share more about this tree in my main post next week (hopefully), but it is referred to as The Tree of Life on Kalaloch beach. It has survived years by hanging between two pieces of land with it's roots hanging down. It has fallen over the years and I'm not sure how much longer it will last, but if you look at pictures from further back, it's so cool looking. 

I was going to go into a bit more detail but I'm really feeling kind of meh emotionally and mentally the last few days so my motivation isn't real high and tomorrow (Sunday) is busy so I better just end this quick. Hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday of next week I'll get my post up. Enjoy some photos. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin