God Bless the USA!

On Saturday we will be celebrating our nation's birthday. While perhaps our country is not doing as well as it has in the past, we should still be thankful for the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the United States of America.

If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I’d worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.

I’d thank my God above
to be livin here today.
‘ Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

From the lakes of Minnesota,
to the hills of Tennessee.
Across the plains of Texas,
From sea to shining sea.

From Detroit down to Houston,
and New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart,
and its time we stand and say.

That I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

And I’m proud to be and American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

Seattle Trip Pictures: Thursday

Speak No Evil, See No Evil, Hear No Evil

The Lovely Sarah!

The Three Amigas. . .All in Purple!

Only Some of the Delicacies at The Queen Mary Tea Room!

Me. . .Dressed in Purple. . .Surrounded by Purple. . .

Seattle Trip Part 4: Thursday

One of the things we wanted to do on our trip was go all out by dressing up in our formal skirts/dresses and going out to eat. We were originally planning on going out to dinner, but ended up going instead to a really cute little tea room. We decided to go on Thursday and, for a couple of us, it was a "lazy morning" day. For the other two of us, it was up-and-at-it early in the morning.

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 08:51

Sarah and I went out to run some errands in the morning. We left the other girls sleeping, and were on our way.

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 09:23

We started off by going to a coffee shop in Issaquah for breakfast. We had an Entertainment Book for our trip with Buy-One-Get-One coupons in it, including a coupon for Cafe Ladro. We each got something to drink and a treat to eat, both of which were very good!

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 09:54

Of course a roadtrip is not complete without getting gas at Costco - especially when it happens to be the cheapest place around. Of course, we had to wait in a ridiculously long line. . .but it went pretty quickly, considering there were at least 20 cars waiting before us!

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 10:10

If there is one thing I miss from California, it's In-N-Out Burger. If there are two things I miss from California, the second is Trader Joe's. Since Spokane/Coeur d'Alene are not lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's - yet (someday???) - that was one place I wanted to go. Sarah and I had fun wandering the aisles and looking at different products. I got peanut butter filled pretzels for my mom (trust me, they are amazing!) and cheese puffs (much better than Cheetos!) for me, plus a few other things. Such a fun store!

We then headed to REI in downtown Seattle because I wanted to get a BPA-free water bottle. The REI in Seattle is quite impressive. We didn't spend much time there this time, but I've been there before, and even though I'm not a big "sporting goods store" girl, I still find REI Seattle impressive. :) Yes, that waterfall is at REI.

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 11:26

We left REI and headed back to Val's aunt's house to get ready for tea! Val and Michelle had already started getting ready/doing hair, etc., so that left Val time to do my hair for me, and it didn't really take us long to all get dressed up!

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 13:40

We headed out so that we would make it to our 2:30pm tea reservation at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Bothell, Washington.

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 14:23

We arrived at the Queen Mary Tea Room and enjoyed a delightful tea time. We each ordered Afternoon Tea which came with all sorts of yummy sandwiches and treats. We each tried a different type of tea and then sampled from each other's pots.

After tea we took some pictures in a local neighborhood.

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 16:30

We left the tea room and headed back. However, however hard we tried, we seemed to hit traffic every time we tried to leave town on this trip. So even though we left tea at 4:30, we still managed to hit terrible traffic coming out of Bothell. As is evidenced from the above picture, Laura + Downtime While Stuck in Traffic = Random "Secret Agent" Pictures. :)

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 18:00

We decided to take a detour and visit the Chittenden Locks and Botanical Garden in Ballard. We got to watch several boats go through the locks, then we spent a good deal of time walking around the gardens. However, eventually our feet started to hurt, we were tired of getting funny looks, I was dangerously close to running out of memory on my camera, and Michelle's camera battery died. We were pretty tired by the time we left.

Thursday, May 28, 2009: 20:04

We finally got back to Val's aunt's house, fixed ourselves a tasty dinner of fruit-filled crepes, bacon and eggs, and quickly crashed. It was a long, but very fun, afternoon!