Tacoma

After our adventures in Seattle, we retired to Daniel's cousin's beach house.  (See I told you we're flush with friends and relatives there.)    It was lovely to be relaxed and peaceful. Plus the luxury of being able to put the baby down for a nap occasionally! 

Joaquin and Daddy enjoyed the amenities, managing to make a fire despite the drizzle and wetness.  The point of this fire?  S'mores of course!

We also had fun on the beach, where Joaquin and Daddy took many many many pictures of rocks and barnacles.  I have not included them for the obvious reasons. :)  But it is noteworthy since it shows Joaquin's burgeoning interest in photography.  His choice of subjects still leaves something to be desired however.

There were several small parks and some beautiful state parks nearby.  It was very interesting and semi-amazing to see the massive amounts of plants everywhere!  Especially the trees!  I was actually excited as a little girl by the ferns growing naturally.  They need so much water that they never grow anywhere near where I live. 

They even had trees growing on the stumps of old dead trees.  So we wore lots of layers (very necessary, Seattle is cold in May/June!) and enjoyed the extreme green.  Joaquin even managed to make a friend at a playground and enjoy some good kid time.  We ended our time in Tacoma with a visit to some other old friends and their new little boy.  It was unfortunately marred by Joaquin getting sick (stomach bug) our last evening, but we'll just gracefully draw a veil over that unpleasantness.