Busy April!

April was so busy, I’m actually a little exhausted just thinking about getting this caught up! But it was a really great month and I don’t want to forget about it! Mom and Callie flew in on March 31st, and Molly came in on April 1st. We drove to Leavenworth and spent two nights at the super cute Bavarian Lodge. We had two full days of walking, shopping, and eating! It was a little cold, but not rainy, which was all we could hope for in early April. Leavenworth was luckily not too busy, so we didn’t have to fight any crowds. Covid had dwindled enough out here that we didn’t even wear masks most of the time. It felt very normal and very nice!

We came back to our part of town on Sunday and took the kids to Pizza Bank for dinner. On Monday we went to Mopop in Seattle, it had some cool exhibits. We went to Pike Place Market and ate at Lowell’s and walked around. Monday night Callie, Molly, and I went to this wizard bar in Ballard called The Splintered Wand. It was very cute, but the drink options were very limited and the service was very slow.

On Tuesday we drove north to see the tulips. It was kind of rainy, very cold, and windy. We saw a few tulip fields, but decided not to pay to go into any of the farms. We had lunch at a very busy restaurant and hit the outlet mall on the way home. On Wednesday we went on the seaplane tour that I took dad on while he was here. We lucked out and it was super sunny. Callie had to fly home Wednesday afternoon, we were so glad she was able to come for part of the time!

On Thursday we went shopping and hung out. On Friday we went to the casino. Molly and I blew through $60 each, but mom came out with $50 extra dollars. On Saturday Joe took the kids to their swim lessons, and Molly, mom, and I went to a garden store and had lunch in Bothell at a cute cafe. I took Molly to the airport early on Sunday. We decorated Easter egg sugar cookies with mom before I had to take her to the airport in the afternoon. I’m so glad they got to come visit, we did a lot and had so much fun!

We had a lazy spring break. Joe wasn’t taking off any time before our Europe trip, so the kids and I just hung out. We took the kids to the theatre to see Sonic 2 for our Friday night movie, they loved it. We had a nice Easter, just the 4 of us. The kids found their Easter baskets in the morning, and were happy to see one for Freya. I made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast and then Joe hid eggs in the front yard for the kids to find. We had a very fancy (not) lunch at Garlic Crush. I made a big ham for Easter, with all our favorite sides. It was all very tasty. Our bunny cake turned out great this year, and I managed to not melt it in the oven.

Cindy flew in on the 21st without any big problems. Joe and I were supposed to fly out to London for our first stop of our big Europe trip on the 22nd at 7 pm. Joe had booked us first class, non-stop tickets through British Air to London. Cindy and I had just finished getting our nails done on Friday afternoon and were heading home when I got an email from British Air saying that “regrettably” our flight had been delayed by 26 hours. I immediately wanted to cry. We rushed home and started scrambling for a new plan. If we lost 26 hours, we would basically lose all of our London leg. We managed to swing new seats, still first class, but on Jet Blue to NYC, and after a 5 hour layover we’d be on first class through American Air to London. Not ideal with a long layover, but it was a better deal than losing all of London! We packed up, said good bye to the kids, and headed to the airport.

The Jet Blue flight was very swanky. Joe and I were like little kids, everything was so exciting to us in first class! We had cute little amenities bags, our own big tvs, and the seats turned into beds! We got drinks as soon as we took off and had very good desserts. Once we’d eaten we got ready to go to sleep. It was so comfy, we had a blanket and a pillow! After we woke up we were given little morning snack bags before landing. We had a long layover at JFK, but we got to hang out in the very fancy first class lounge. There was food and drinks and big seats. Our American Air flight was also very nice. We had lunch once we were in the air, everything was great! We both took a little nap and they offered a light dinner before landing. We made it to London at 10:30 pm. After getting our bags and going through passport control we went out to find a taxi. We were worn out, and it took an hour to get to our hotel because of traffic. London was so busy, even at midnight! We stayed at the Brownswood hotel which was above a pub, it was very cute. We got to our room and were out like lights!

We only had one day in London, so after a quick breakfast at our hotel, we took off. We uber’d to Trafalgar Square and started walking! We walked through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace, and then on to Big Ben. We walked across the bridge, passed the London Eye, went on to Blackfriar’s bridge from my Shadowhunter books, saw the Millenium bridge that was shown in Harry Potter, and ended up by the Globe. It was 11 am and a tour was starting, so we joined it. It was very cool to see the recreation and to learn about it.

We had lunch at a touristy pub along the water, and caught an Uber over to Notting Hill to check out the market at Portobello Road. It reminded me of the Fremont Sunday Market. After wandering around for a while, we were worn out. We went back to our hotel to hang out a while. We had dinner reservations at Park Row, which was a Gotham city inspired restaurant. It was very hip and cool, with a live jazz band.

On Monday we got up and had another quick breakfast at our hotel. We headed to the London City airport, which is much smaller and calmer than Heathrow. Our flight was delayed an hour, but we survived! We landed in Amsterdam around 1, the airport was massive! We headed to our hotel, Boat and Co, which was just north of downtown. It was right along the water with great views. We walked down the road and caught a bus to the main train station, and then rode the subway right into Amsterdam proper. We walked around the canals and saw some really cool houses. We found dinner at this bbq place that has been around for decades and is a local favorite. We had to wait a while for a table, but the food was very good and it was fun watching the people. We walked to the red light district to see if it was really all that, and we saw some fun things but it wasn’t too explicit.

On Tuesday we walked through town to a cute place called The Breakfast Club. I had pancakes and a really great latte. We loved watching all the people zoom by on their bikes from the window of the cafe. We got a ride to the Rijksmuseum, apparently I went there when we went to Amsterdam, but I had no memory of it. It was a beautiful building, and we saw so much! We walked around and found a cafe for lunch were I had a very interesting version of an American cheeseburger. Joe had a meeting at a company that works with Bungie at 1, so we took a car over to the office. Luckily, it was located right in the heart of Amsterdam. Joe went in for his meeting, and I walked back through the canals and went in and out of shops. I went to a cafe that is famous for their apple pie. It was the best apple pie I’ve ever had! I found some cute clothes and a few things to bring back for people. I headed back towards the office and sat outside reading a book until Joe was done at 4. We went back to our hotel and hung out until dinner time. We had reservations at an Argentinian steak place near the red light district, it was more casual than we expected but very good.

Wednesday was a national holiday called Kings Day, the whole city was decked out in orange. It’s basically a big party day, so we decided it was best to avoid the main downtown area so that we wouldn’t be late to the airport. We had breakfast in our hotel, and later walked around town to find lunch. All the local restaurants were closed for the holiday, but luckily there was a Papa Johns open. It was a very good pizza! Haha. We left our hotel at 1 to get to the airport. Our flight didn’t leave until 4, but we wanted to have plenty of time. Turns out we were right to get there so early. It was chaos at the airport. There was only one security check point, and it was so backed up. It took us an hour and a half to get through. We were lucky we had the time, some people were so stressed out that they were going to miss their flights, and a few did! Joe and I were just glad that we didn’t have the kids, they would have been miserable! We flew to Stuttgart, had a quick layover, and were in Berlin around 8 pm.

The sun was still out when we landed, and the airport was oddly empty. We got a taxi and headed to our hotel. It was the most centrally located hotel we stayed in, it was on a very hip street with shops and restaurants. It was a super cute room with a great little balcony looking over the street. On Thursday we got up and walked to breakfast at a place called Father Carpenter, I’d seen it recommended on Instagram. I had really good french toast, but Joe had an avocado toast that he didn’t like. We walked through a street market towards the museum island. It was huge, beautiful, old buildings that were all types of museums. We could have spent days going in each of them, but we didn’t have that time!

We walked over to the Fehrnsehturm and rode the elevator to the top. It was like the Space Needle! But it was great to see just how big Berlin is, there was so much in every direction. We walked back towards our hotel and found lunch really close to where we stayed. Joe had read about this place online, it was a combination Indian/Mexican place. We had some really amazing garlic cheese naan and a lot of dips. We went back to our hotel to rest a while. We went out a bit later and got some pastries from across the street. We had dinner reservations at an Italian place. The entrees were really good, but the ambience was just okay. There wasn’t anything great on the dessert menu, so we went back towards our hotel and got Ben and Jerry’s (there was one conveniently located under our hotel).

Friday morning we had to get Covid tests taken for our flight home. We walked to the clinic and had the tests done in no time. It was actually the first time I’d had a Covid test taken, and it was brutal! They put a swab basically all the way to your brain through your nose, and then do your mouth. We left the clinic and went to find some breakfast. We had some croissants and then walked to a memorial for the Berlin wall. It was really heartbreaking, to see how the city was divided and people were separated. We got a ride to the Brandendburg gate, which had a bunch of touristy shops nearby, including a Dunkin Donuts. I got a coffee and we walked through the gate towards the Tiergarten. We walked all the way to the Victory Column. Joe wanted to get to the top of it, and I immediately knew there’d be no elevator. It was 3 euros each, and 285 steps to the top. It about killed me! We’d walked so much every day, my legs were on fire!

After the column we got a ride to lunch in the city. I read about a local favorite place and had the best jagerschnitzel! It came with the right kind of fries and it really hit the spot. The restaurant was literally under a train station, and the wifi was out so the credit card machine wasn’t working. Luckily I had some euros left, or we would have been in trouble. We grabbed a Kit Kat McFlurry from McDonalds and then headed back to our hotel. We bought tickets online to see a movie that night. We walked from our hotel to a Korean Fried Chicken place. We walked past a bunch of crowded restaurants on the way, and we hoped that we weren’t passing good options by. We got to the chicken place and there were a bunch of people waiting outside, so we felt good about it! It didn’t take long to get a spot inside. I ordered a Heineken, and the guy asked me a question (but it was very loud inside) and I just assumed he asked if I wanted it in a bottle. Joe got a cold Coke, but the guy handed me a Heineken that had 0.0 on the label. Turns out, he thought I wanted a zero alchohol Heineken. My mistake! Haha.

After dinner we walked over to the Kino. It was not fancy, but it was playing The Northman in English (with German subtitles). We were excited to get some popcorn, and I wanted a real beer. But we got to the concession stand and there was a sign that said no visa, only cash. We were so bummed! We’d used literally the very last of our euros on lunch. So we saw the movie without any snacks, which is not ideal. The movie itself was kind of bonkers. But we found a convenience store on the walk home and got drinks, and got to see a whole lot of drunk Berliners walking around. We finally got our Covid results at 11:30 pm, I was starting to really worry that our results wouldn’t be sent, or that they’d be positive. Luckily they were negative! We were all set to make the long trip home in the morning.

We left our hotel and headed to the airport. We dropped our bags and got through security easily. We got a little breakfast and waited for our flight to Zurich. It was a quick easy flight to Switzerland. We were first class from Zurich to San Francisco, so they treated us like royalty and put us on a cool shuttle van to get to the first class lounge to hang out during our layover. I had champagne and Joe had a Coke with ice (he was really missing cold drinks while in Europe). We boarded the 12 hour flight and were very happy with our fancy seats! Swiss Air doesn’t mess around. We were given more champagne (I was slightly day drunk and it was barely 1 pm). After take off we had lunch, with a legit white tablecloth and everything! We had bread, then salads, then our entrees, and dessert. My lemon pudding cake was so good, I was completely full and still managed to devour it!

After lunch we turned our seats to beds. We got fluffy pillows and a real duvet blanket. Joe went to sleep, but I started watching White Lotus on my tv. I was only going to watch an episode or so, but I wasn’t actually sleepy so I just kept watching it. I ended up watching the whole season! It was only like 7 or 8 episodes, but I still had hours to go when it was over! A 12 hour flight is no joke. I can’t imagine doing it in an economy seat! I napped for an hour or so, and then woke up and had a snack. We landed in San Francisco around 6 pm local time. We were 9 hours ahead when we left Zurich, so it was a little confusing! We grabbed some Burger King and waited for our Seattle flight. It was only a short 2 hour flight home, but we were pretty exhausted by the time we landed. We got our bags and Rick picked us up. It was nice to not have to take another Uber. We got home and crashed, it was almost midnight!

It was so great to see the kids in the morning. They were excited to see us, but also really excited to see what we brought them back from our trip. Rick and Cindy were flying out that morning to head to Phoenix, they were going with some old friends to Puerta Vallarta the next day. Joe took them to the airport and I unpacked and started the laundry. It was so nice to be home, and to know that everything went smoothly! I had some real anxiety before leaving on the trip, it was the longest we were going to be away from the kids, and so far distance wise. I was worried about the kids getting hurt and us not being there for them, or something delaying Joe and I from getting home. I was so happy that we got to go on this amazing trip, and that everyone stayed healthy. Especially after two years of life being weirdly paused/altered with restrictions and masks and all that craziness, it felt so good to go on such a great trip. The kids are almost old enough to go on a Europe trip with us, we just want to wait until they are old enough to remember it!

This ended up being quite a lot to get down! Luckily I had all my pictures to help keep my memory straight! Since getting home, the jet lag really had Joe and I out of sorts. We were falling asleep at 8 pm each night, and it was a struggle some days to make it until then. By the next Saturday we were able to make it to 11 pm, and we think we are finally back in our time zone. We had a really nice Mother’s Day. We went out to lunch at my fav Mexican place, and then out to dinner at a place I love for their burger. It was a very calm, easy day! I’m spoiled every day though, I’m very lucky to have such a great family!