The third day was our shortest drive, and thank goodness for that! We were all done being cooped up in the car and we were ready to stretch our legs and run free. We decided to take it easy in the morning and not rush ourselves hoping to miss most of the morning rush. Than plan paid off, when we left we were close to the only ones on the road. Thank goodness again, a trailer in traffic=not fun. D also had the great idea to try and avoid Seattle the best we can. So we hopped on the road following the direction of the navigation lady on Google maps who I have always called “D’s girlfriend”. Unfortunately she let us down this time. Her and I fought for a good 30 mins trying to get her to take us the alternate route we chose instead of the fastest route (which took us through Seattle). Finally I gave up and used my handy dandy map skills. We found the route we were going to take and fortunately hadn’t missed any exits yet.

We stopped for lunch in a small town right before our exit and as we pulled up to get gas discussing where to eat D suggested Tacos del Mar. I was a little suprised at the suggestion having never been there and by how confident he was I would like it. We got gas and headed in to get lunch. He was right it was very good. While we were eating I mentioned how suprised I was at his choice. At this time he told me that his family had stopped there on a trip before and he remembered it being good. The funny part was he remembered his family stopping at this exact location before not just at one of the chains. Sometimes his memory amazes me.

After lunch D treated me to Starbucks and we hit the road. Once we turned off and started to follow my plan the maps redirected and stepped in. I was a little concerned because from what I could see on the maps was we were going through the mountains and we were going for a long time. As someone who regularly gets car sick and worries about everything especially with a deadline, a car full of our family pulling a trailer full of our stuff, and unkind mountain ranges with unknown weather I was starting to second guess our decision. Shortly after we entered the mountain range and I realized we would probably make it out okay I relaxed and enjoyed the views. I have a thing for mountains especially snow covered mountains and we drove through about 2 hours of just mountains. I was in awe.

We stopped at a ski resort and let everyone out of the car for a little bit and walked around a little ourselves. I couldn’t believe how much I appreciated D’s decision to avoid Seattle. We both agreed it was one of our best decisions this trip. As we started to get out of the mountains and into towns we realized just how smart the decision was. Even though we avoided most of Seattle we came onto the I-5 right on the outskirts of it. We hit a little traffic which made me nervous because the last time we were in major traffic was in Salt Lake City and to say that didn’t go so well is an understatement. We made it out of the most of the traffic in aboit 4 exits and we were back on our way.

In no time at all we were in our destination, Bellingham, WA where we were going to catch our ferry the next day. It was a strange feeling of relief and panic for me. Relief that we made it, safe and all still in good sprits, and panic that this was really happening. We got to our hotel got settled, ate dinner and called it a night.