We first went to Olympic National Park in 2010, before having kids, and fell in love.  We returned in 2012 with my mom, Laura’s parents, and her sister, with Nala, who was just over a year old at the time. We returned again in 2014 with Nala and Linley, and had a goal to return in 2016, but flights and weather kept us away.  We’d been craving another trip, so decided that we had to make it happen in 2018.  A week or so out, the weather looked marginal, but still looked worth going.  We wanted to take the new nonstop on Delta, but it left too early on Friday night for Laura to make it from work to the airport in time, and arrived well past the girl’s bedtime in our time zone, and that always made it difficult to get to the rental car and into the hotel. So, we opted to fly out mid-morning on Saturday the 20^th, connecting through Detroit, and getting us into Seattle around mid-evening our time, so very doable for the girls.

There were plenty of seats on the Delta Connection flight to Detroit, so we got a row of four across to ourselves, along with a window seat one row up, with no one in the aisle.  I sat solo with Laura and Linley behind me, with Nala and Lilah across the aisle.  The flight was uneventful, and we had just enough time in Detroit before boarding to get the girls Happy Meals at McDonald’s.  Laura and I debated food, but didn’t see anything that would be fast enough near our gate before boarding, so opted to grab food onboard.

It was a fairly full Boeing 767 to Seattle.  It was the girl’s first time on a wide-body plane, and I told them that this was the same type of plane that flies from Indy to Paris that I took in the spring. We had three middle seats in the first row behind the bulkhead behind Economy Comfort, plus two seats in the middle row behind that.  So with three kids, it was nice to have aisle access on both sides.  I sat with the two older girls, with Laura and Lilah one row back.  The flight was again uneventful, with the girls mostly playing games and watching movies on the in-flight entertainment system.  Unfortunately I was on the tail end of a bad sinus infection and had been on an antibiotic for a couple days, so had really bad earaches on the descent, and my hearing was reduced from it for a couple days.

Once getting off the plane, we didn’t have to wait at all for our bags, and easily took the shuttle to the rental car facility, and while we had a wait for a little bit, got great service with obtaining our mini-van from Enterprise.  Everyone was a bit tired, and we debated wanting to go to a restaurant with the mood a couple girls were in, so opted to grab Qdoba as it’d be quick and easy (yes, I know, not my first choice to eat at a chain when out of town, but sometimes it just makes sense).  Before that we made a quick stop at a Safeway grocery store for medicine for us and for peanut butter, jelly, and bread for the girls to have for dinner.  While Laura grabbed herself and I food at Qdoba, I booked a reasonably price room via Hotwire at the Courtyard by Marriott Sea-Tac Area a few minutes away in Tukwila.  After some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the younger girls, tortilla soup and chips and guac for me, and a burrito for Laura and Nala, we were all ready for a good night’s sleep.