Most Memorable Vacation

Describe your most memorable vacation.

My husband (fiancé at the time) and I took 9 days off work, we decided we would travel to Washington state where his baby brother lives.

We started our journey in Kansas in my little Chevy Trax. We wanted to do some sightseeing on our way. On the first day we went through Nebraska, stopping to see Carhenge. From there we went to Wyoming.

We made a slight detour to South Dakota for Mongolian food in Rapid City. Before you say anything, yeah it added quite a bit of time on to our trip but not everyone can say they made a detour for Mongolian in a state that wasn’t even planned to go to.

We finally made it to Bozeman, Montana that first night. It was so late but we were back up at 6 am to start driving again. We drove through Montana and seen so many beautiful places. I had always wanted to go to the Garden of a 1000 Buddhas. My husband made that dream come true. And many more since.

The Garden of a 1000 Buddhas was so beautiful and peaceful, I didn’t want to leave. I could’ve spent all day there. But we had a destination and back on the road we got.

We stopped in a small town in Washington after passing through northern Idaho to get supper. It is kind of hard to find places that served our dietary choices. At the time we were full fledged vegetarians. Now not so much.

Late that night we finally made it to his brothers home. We were exhausted.

While in Washington those first few days were jammed pack with adventures. His brother and wife took us around Highway 101. We went to Neah Bay and got welcomed via text message from Canada lol. We were still in the states.

From Neah Bay they drove us to Fork, Washington. As you can guess I was so excited. I’m a nerd and had to see Forks. I love the Twilight books. We stopped and had fried ice cream at a Mexican restaurant there. We made it to Ruby beach. We walked along the beach and wrote our initials on a stone to put on a large rock. We had to be 100% tourists after all.

Ivan and I were having the time of our lives. Visiting with family and not having a care in the world. We had a huge surprise for all our family and friends back home though.

On Thursday, Ivan and his brother went into Seattle. His brother was diagnosed with terminal Bile Duct cancer and was doing weekly treatments. The treatments are an all day event. I can’t imagine what he goes through, honestly I don’t want to know. So Ivan went with his brother, great one on one time but not in a great location.

While Ivan and his brother were in Seattle. Brett’s wife, Kelly and I had a girls day with 2 of his nieces. What do we do best? Shopping of course! Shopping and lunch followed up by a stop at a liquor store.

We made it back to their home and let the party begin. Let’s just say I was a little tipsy when the guys made it home. it was a fun night.

Friday… the big day of our whole trip! We took a drive to see a volcano. What everyone at home didn’t know and would be shocked later that day, Ivan and I had eloped! His brother married us on the side of Mount St Helens!!

The only people who knew were his brother, sister in law l, and nieces! We actually kept the secret even from my children! After the ceremony, which was exactly what we wanted, we called my kids, my sister and his parents. They were definitely shocked but supportive. At this moment we had met in May, I moved to Kansas from Oklahoma in June, engaged in August and eloped in September. Some thought we had moved too fast but when you know, you just know.

I knew I hadn’t made a mistake. I had my first love, Adam and now I have the love of the rest of my life in Ivan.

That’s where our biggest adventure took place then we started our homestead. Our Washington vacation was the best vacation we took and will ever take.