Car enables Nature

Alright we have got a car. In the end we did not wait until we found a reasonable priced car on sale from an owner. We went to a dealer, talked him 25% down from the original price and bought a 8 year old minivan. A Toyota Sienna that can seat 7. Thus we can pick up 2 from the airport with the whole family, or go camping with a lot of stuff without being masters of logistic packing. Millage per gallon is reasonable (23mpg on highway are the average for this car we heard - 10l/100km) for the US and that size car - for Germany and even CO2 based this is the worst we have had -  our old one did do 36mpg on the highway ... but did certainly not seat 7. Anyway with the cheap gasoline over here we will end up doing more miles for less dollar than ever before (alright, to be honest who can tell how much an enhanced CO2 output will cost me in future, thus it is not a completed calculation ... anyway!). We are not planning to use it much in the city, but it is nearly mandatory to have a car to get out into state parks, national forests and such with 3 kids.

And this is exactly what we did on the first and second day of our ownership. Immediately after buying it, we went down to Mathews Beach Park and had a swim in Lake Washington. Jonte was trying to swim and all had a lot of fun in the water. It was still above 80 degrees at 6pm - just a lovely late summer beach day. The 2nd day, on Sunday we had a slow start with German rolls again, before heading off to Wallace Falls State Park. Why there? Actually pure chance! We did not know where to go, looked at a map and found many many green spots indicating parks and forests. But where to go? We decided to look for nice geocaches and head off to find them. Well we soon found out that there are much more geocaches than parks - anyway we picked 2 caches in a distance of about 30 miles and took off. These two caches just happened to be located in Wallace Falls State Park.

It was a fair hike for the kids, but they managed very well. The trail rated "medium" was 2.1 miles to the picnic area and lower falls. We did the same hike back to the start (overall ~6.75km). Not a problem you think ... but it went up and down quite a bit, it went up 1000 feet (300m - with going up and down in between I cannot estimate how many steps the kids went up). It was on the limit for the kids, but it was worth it. We saw moss covered trees, a little mouse-like-creature that nearly looked like a squirrel as you can see. We surely saw the waterfalls and had fun in the rapids on our way back. Narne enjoyed it all the way, maybe due to the fact that he was the only one that did not have to walk one step. Just a couple of photos so you get an impression of it.

Next day was Monday, back to work for me. The kids had their first day of pre-school that day. It will be 4 days a week for 3:15 hours, from 12:30 until 3:45. This week is still a slow start in preschool, shorter periods and parents more frequently joining the kids. I took a long 3 hours lunch break to accompany the rest of the family there. Theda and Jonte were a bit nervous, but tried to be part of the group despite the fact that they don't speak English, yet. They observed the other kids a lot and tried to behave and do as they did. Whenever they got asked something that ended with an "OK?" they nodded. I am very sure they will pick up the language in no time and start to correct my pronunciation within a year from now. We will see! - remind me that I said that in case I forget! The pre-school is a cooperative - meaning that we will have to work there one day a week as all the other parents do. There is one permanent person and alternating 2-3 parents. Our day will be Friday - I will work in advance and be home early to either take care of Narne while Katrin helps out at preschool, or I go and play with the bunch of kids! Due to this parental engagement in this preschool it is well affordable for us - in opposite to others.

The coming up weekend there will be our first orienteering event right in the middle of the city next to the zoo. The start of the orienteering season with a newcomer event as it seems. We want to attend and see if we get involved into more events in fall. Before that we plan to have an IKEA shopping visit on Friday after preschool. As you can see or rather read, more to write about soon!