Our last day!!!

Brittany here: Our last day was almost perfect-for me at least. It’s morning and I am sitting in a hotel still in Seattle. Last night, my mom and I stayed at the airport with the girls and Mrs. Susan for about and hour and a half until we put them through security-which I thought was pushing it a little since they were supposed to board in half an hour, but I have talked to Lizzy and it seems they made it home safe. I am glad to hear that. So, Lizzy and Coumbah left off on there last posts about how we were in the car in Port Townsend. Well, my dad’s cousin, Dan Groussman, happens to live there with his wife and his 16 mouth old daughter. We meet up with them at a pizza place for lunch. Then they showed us around town, and we ate ice cream as well. Oh, the girls just fell in love with my baby cousin Ruby. She was adorable!!! I wish I could have taken her home. And it was nice to finally-since we had been talking for a while-meet Dan and Melissa. They showed us a gallery were Dan’s leather work is displayed and they showed us my “cute cousins”. That’s how Dan described them. They are Melissa’s nephews and the are around 17 years old, I think. But yesterday was so cool! Once we said our goodbyes to Dan and his family, we drove to Bainbridge and got on a ferry to Seattle. The ferry ride was short and cool-as in interesting, not as in cold. Once we got off the ferry, we went to go get sandwiches for everyone for the flight home. Then we had to say goodbye to Jose-our creeper van, as the girls call it-and then headed up to check the larger bags. Mommy and I had to say goodbye to the girls and Mrs. Susan after a long conversation-which I am not going to explain-and then the two of us went to meet some of our family that had just flown in. So it was a great-almost-end to the perfect trip.








And girls, get this!!! I rode in a yellow creeper van to the hotel! It was awesome!!!

Umm... I don't know what day this is. I think it was today.

Britt here: I apologize for not posting this right when the girls wrote it, but we had an activity planned right when Lizzy stopped typing. I will post tomorrow about what we did today since I am dead tired. Girls, I hope you had a safe flight home, and I hope the talk in the airport didn't down your thoughts of the end of the trip. Over and out-or more like I'm out like a light!


Coumbah here- yesturday we went to the tidal pools and it was awesome and kinda of scary because there were a lot of big rocks but i had a lot of fun we got to look for crabs and Lizzy and Laurel wrapped themselves in kulp and pretended to be Queens of the sea which was funny but they smelled really bad afterwards.We also went and got rocks at another beach it was super fun because we got to look for rocks and take them my favorite rocks were the orange and white/clear rocks. Cooking dinner was a lot of hard work because we had to cook for 30 people.This trip has been really fun and cold but i’m ready to go home and enjoy the rest of the summer. Coumbah :’)






Lizzy Here :)- I haven’t written in forever! Its been a blast! The trip has been great but now its the last day :( But You now what I think I’m ready for home. I miss my bed... :) Yesterday was fluffin awesome :) We went to the tidal pools :) And since it was low tide we got to go to this cave thingy :) Its was fun and the sea anenome’s were so squishy :) We saw starfish and crabs. If you lifted a few rocks you could find like10 crabs! They were everywhere!! :) I loved it. And Laurel and I took bull whip kelp and made dresses :) Laurel was the Queen.. I was the Princess.. Fine by me I’m younger :3 Later in the day we went to this beach and collected a bunch of rocks. If you just look at the beach it looks gray and boring, but if you really look and look closely you can see that there are all different type and colors and, god its just gorgeous :) This whole trip I’ve been surrounded by beauty.. Sigh what am I going to do when I get back to Georgia?!?! Right now we’re in the car, in Port Townsend.
Lizzy Liu

Salt Creek

Hi All. Donna here. We are now in Salt Creek Campground. We arrived yesterday and caught up with our sister troop. They were already here and camped with us last night and again tonight. Last night they cooked a meal for us that included sea bass, salmon, crab legs, elk, and venison. It was sooooooooo good!!! Today we went to the tidal pools which we can see from our campsite. Bet you parents didn’t know that your daughters might have a spa moment with a sea weed wrap but take a look at the picture below of Laurel and Lizzy!!! The girls had a great time visiting with our sister troop as they looked at all the neat creatures we found in the tidal pools. We then headed to a beach about 30 minutes away and we all collected some really pretty rocks. We may have to pay extra to check our bags with Delta given all the rocks we are bringing back!! HaHa!! Tonight the girls are busy cooking a southern meal for our sister troop. They are cooking ham and beans, chicken and dumplings, and peach cobbler. Amazing what you can do over a camp stove and fire pit!! We have a very busy night with cooking, campfire skits and songs, and a scouts own so will be tomorrow before they have a chance post to the blog again. Cheers!!

Granny's Restaurant

Sophia here. On our way to Salt Creek we stopped by Granny’s Cafe for lunch. It was so cool we all some thing different but every thing was great. They had a small petting zoo in it, it had 1 donkey, 3 goats, 1 dog, 2 cats, and 10 birds. Now we are heading to Salt Creek in hour and thirty minuets to two hours.

Hoh River

Hello Internet World! Laurel here! So I’m gonna talk about the river yesterday in more detail because it was super fun. So when we got back from the bug hike we went down to the river behind our campsite. Some of us girls ate our lunch on the log over the cold raging river( just kidding. It was over a small stream that led into the river. ) After lunch we all just hung out around the river. Some of us were peeved at each other (but don’t worry we worked it out after a good nights sleep) Selina made a fish sculpture out of sand and Sophie and I made a mermaid. I think Lizzy and Brittany were pounding rocks into powder. After awhile my headache was getting really bad and i fell asleep in the sand so i don’t really know what happened during that time.....

Hoh Rainforest

Selina here. Wow, lots of things has happened! Better catch up! I don’t know where we left off last so, I’m just going to start with arriving at First Beach, in La Push. When we arrived, we had lunch, and decided to check out the beach... in pouring rain! So we put on our frog togs and walked out on the beach. We found some pretty rocks and some amazing smooth wood. The sand was black, the wind was blowing, the water was under 40 degrees, and the sky was a gloomy kind of look, but we still had a blast! After unwillingly leaving, we passed though Forks and bought some groceries. Ever since the Twilight saga, the place was corrupted with Twilight things. We found 19 things that evolved twilight, including a very “interesting” “Jacobs Java”. Anyways, after going through Forks, we arrived at the Hoh, with the rain unforgivingly pelting us still. We found a good campsite and began to settle down. First we began to tarp everything down. Instead of having the tarp cooperate and settle down like it was supposed to, it didn’t and kept on falling down. We wrestled with it for about a 40 minutes, and finally held it up with a contraption of rope, poles, and rocks, and were assigned to do some jobs. Then five things happened at once. Brittany, Sophie, Lizzy, and I began to set up the giant seven man tent, Coumbah, Ms. Donna, Ms. Susan, Ms. Carla, and Rosie began to set up the small two man tent, we each wrestled with the tents as some more girls went to unpack the van, build Ms. Carla and Debra’s tent, and cook dinner. I won’t explain the details, but we ended up rebuilding the big tent 3 times, had Laurel, and Lizzy join it to help build the small tent, had the van explode in a huge mess of clothes, and finally settled down to dinner at around 10: 30. I’d say it was a very busy night.
Alright, the next day, we had to wake up at around 9:00 and quickly dress, eat, and meet this man named John Preston at 10:30 for a bug lesson and tour around the Hoh rainforest. We saw some banana slugs, spittle bugs, hunted for tiger beetles, and saw two different trees grown together. After thanking Mr. Preston, we headed back to camp and had the rest of the day free to just us. We played by the river, got some of our clothes wet and had a blast. Some girls got a headache so we started dinner, had Hawaiian chicken, green beans, an some boiled rice, and went straight to bed. Everybody felt much better after a good night’s rest!

Hoh Rainforest

Hi All. Donna here. Yesterday we slept in a bit (if you can call 9:00am sleeping in), packed the camping gear in the van, went grocery shopping, then headed for our next destination. Before leaving Port Angeles, Dr. Birch brought a couple of pairs of binoculars by so that we could see the bald eagles that were perched out on the pier. From there we headed to LaPush where we had lunch and walked on the beach (in the rain) where the girls collected some rocks to bring home as souvenirs. From there we drove through Forks and counted all the signs and businesses that contained the word “Twilight”. There must have been 25 or so. We then drove on to the Hoh rain forest and man is it beautiful. It rained all the way and was a downpour when we arrived at the campsite but the girls took it all in stride and set up the campsite with a little improvisation (I’m so very proud of them!!). We strung several feet of rope to the trees and setup a tarp over the picnic table and began the prep of our dinner which was stone soup and garlic bread. The girls then setup the tents, got the pads and sleeping bags setup, then completed the stone soup. It was yummy and provided much needed warmth to our tummies. We cleaned up after dinner, sang a few songs, then changed into our dry clothes before heading to bed. We were extremely thankful to awake to sunshine this morning which was a great start to the day. Everyone said they stayed warm and slept well but were a bit tired (it was again around midnight before we went to bed last night). We had a breakfast of pancakes and sausages then were off to met the Hoh Ranger for a hike and bug hunt. The girls had a blast catching bugs with nets and just enjoying the sounds and scenery by the river. This afternoon has been free time and the girls are enjoying just hanging out in the river bed by our campsite. Some are walking in the edge of the river (which is very cold) with others are sitting in the mounds of trees that are laying on the river bed right beside the water. It’s about 6pm here and we are headed back to our campsite to start dinner. We hope to have enough time tomorrow for one of the girls to post to the blog but don’t be too concerned if they don’t. We have had such a busy schedule that it has been hard to find the time to fit it in. Cheers!!

Saturday - Victoria Visit

Hi everyone - This is Susan again. We've had a really long day and the girls just passed out tonight, so I thought I would post a little bit about the day so you know how things are going along.

This morning when we woke it was raining and foggy, and we had to leave for the ferry to Victoria at 7:45 a.m. We were surprised and moved when Rainy and Greg Birch showed up at the apartment at 7:45 a.m. to take us to the ferry, so we didn't have to navigate our way there. We bundled up in many layers with Frog Togs on top and umbrellas.

The girls had not planned a lot of the activities in Victoria; they had a list of possibilities. Girls are responsible for different parts of the day (Event Directors, or ED's). Our ED's for the day - Brittany and Laurel - got the list of possibilities, grabbed maps and plotted them, called some locations to get information they needed about the activity. Donna and i were so proud they were at the point they could do this; just 8 months ago it was a big deal to pick up the phone and call for information about aspects of the trip, like hotel reservations. The girls did it as a matter of course.

I will add that despite only getting 6 hours of sleep the night before and sleeping on the floor of an apartment, and facing a day of rain and very cool weather, none of the girls moaned or complained about getting up or getting things together; they did it without being told what to do. This says a lot about who these girls are becoming.

Once in Victoria, we toured the downtown area, and eventually the rain slowed and stopped, and for a good bit of the afternoon and evening it was dry and even a little bit sunny. The girls really enjoy being able to take time to do things, to go into what we parents would call tourist traps and trinket shops, and spent a great deal of the day shopping. There is an outdoor entertainment festival going on in Victoria called a Buster's Festival, with 5 outdoor stages and continuous entertainment all day and evening, so we stopped at various times to watch contortionists, jugglers, acrobats, and so on for their hour long shows. We ate an enormous lunch in Chinatown, went to a small aquarium, and visited the Fairmont Empress - but mostly shopped, shopped, shopped. They had a blast, walked miles without complaining, and Donna and i followed behind, enjoying them enjoying themselves.

The weather cleared enough on the 2 hour ferry ride back to Port Angles that we were able to see Mt. Olympus and we spent a great deal of the ferry ride on the bow of the boat looking for whales. No luck there, but we did see a seal, and a beautiful sunset.

Rainy and Greg met us at the ferry, and were kind enough to take us down on the fishing docks to meet fisherman catching live crabs and shrimp there. They surprised us with a campfire in their back yard, and s'mores, and lots of good stories. We dragged in after 11;00 very, very tired. They fell asleep within ten minutes, and Donna and i have stayed up to post the blog before we drop.

We have changed our plans for departure tomorrow so everyone can sleep until 9;00; we have grocery shopping and packing and have no idea how we are getting all of our camping gear in our vehicles. There is a high probability of rain in the Hoh Rainforest where we are heading tomorrow, and the girls will be deciding in the morning if we are going to complete that plan, or try to camp somewhere that is less likely to be wet - it is their decision.

The girls are doing great, and we are sort of keeping up.

We don't know if we will have Internet service for a couple of days, so we may see you on the flip side!

Susan

Meeting the Sister Troop

Hey!! Rosie is here reporting what we did today! :) Ok, so we all woke up i the GS hut and packed up and went to Hurricane Ridge, a look out place. We met Mr. Birtch, Rainy’s husband, and Jenna, Rainy’s daughter. At the ridge we saw a deer, about 3 feet away!! ;P COOL! 1640 walked up this trail and had a snowball fight in the middle of July!
Selina was like,” Oh my gosh!! This is unbelievable!” A little further away we say a black bear down is a valley!! We were all like,” Cool!! Give me the binoculars!! Me next!” Get the idea? After that we left and went to the Sol Duc Hot Springs. It was raining a little, but did that stop us? NO! In the hot springs there were 3 hot pools. 1 was 105-115 F. 2 was 100-104 F. 3 was body temperature! There was also a “cool pool”. It was like a regular pool. Oh did I mention that we met part of the sister troop a the springs? Ok so that is all for the hot springs. After that we went on a hike to Sol Duc waterfall. It was so green and Lizzy stopped to take pictures every 3 steps!! :) For sinner we ate Wendy’s. I guess we are all right and we are having fun! MISS YOU!!! Bye!

~Rosie~ ;) hehehe

Verrrrry Late Thursday night

Susan here -

It's 11:30 p.m. - 2:30 a.m. our time, and we are settling into bed in Port Townsend, thankfully. We are staying at a Victorian house owned by the Girl Scouts in Port Townsend, a really quaint Victorian town on the Olympic Peninsula.

The girls have already posted on last couple of days, so the only thing I will add is that the Hostel dinner was just amazing! The hosts at the hostel were really friendly and helpful. They had an enormous kitchen and dining room area, with lots of guests in there all the time preparing meals, eating, and hanging out. The guests range in age from late teens to retired age, and all were so curious about our group and friendly to them.

The girls decorated tables with tablecloths and handmade placemats and balloons and crepe paper and lots of flowers, and had favors of Savannah taffy and pictures of the group. We were afraid no one would show up for dinner, because at 11:30 a.m. there was only one person brave enough to sign up. The goal was for the girls to meet people traveling from all over the world and learn about their lives and culture, and how and where they were traveling. You would have been so proud of the girls; we ran late coming in from Pike Place Market and ended up only having about 75 minutes to prepare dinner for about 30 - people ended up signing up at the last minute, and more drifted in.

The girls worked together really quickly and well. Sophie was in charge of the meal, and did a great job orchestrating it. Emma welcomed the guests and explained why we were there, and everyone sat down to eat near a Girl Scout. It was like magic - the room was full of smiles and laughter and excited talking, and everyone was having such a good time getting to know each other! Two hours after they sat down to eat, everyone was still there, talking and enjoying the meal and the visit, and the meal didn't break up for 2 1/2 hours. We had giant maps on the wall that people marked with their names and homes, and there was people from all over the world at the hostel. The girls were so energized after the meal, just chattering about all of the conversations they were able to have. it was one of those golden times.

Parents, the girls are getting along really well, and are just a delight! You know me; I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it. We are all still tired and jet lagged, but doing okay.

Carla Abrams, a Girl Scout volunteer from Western Washington, provided bedding and pillows and pads for us tonight, and even left a huge plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies for us. We are moved by all of the kindness we have received!

We are off to Hurricane Ridge tomorrow, and we have heard there is 1 1/2 feet of snow there!

The Space Needle

Emma Here: Hello and Greeting from Seattle. This morning group one, containing Susan, Emma, Rosie, Selina and Lizzy and Coumbah woke up around 6:30. We woke up so early because we wanted to see if anyone from the Spaghetti Dinner was there. We saw Jas a man who came to the dinner and some other people. Then the other group { Donna, Brittany, Laurel and Sophie came down to eat. Susan’s group played foos ball and I won against all of them while they played against me at the same time. It was really fun. Once we were all done with eating we went up to take showers and pack up. We finally finished and started taking down the luggage but they said we should go to the Space Needle and then come back. We then we went off to the train station and went to the Space Needle. On the way there we went to a sculpture garden. Everyone agrees that it is soooo cool. Then on the way back we were stopped by a VERY long train. So we went over it. A VERY GOOD DECISION. Then we went to subway and ate lunch. YUMMY!!!!!!!! Then we went to the Space Needle it took forever to get there because everyone kept taking pictures of all the beautiful flowers. We FINALLY got there and there was NO LINE!!!!! When we got on the elevator it was kinda freaky cause there was open windows and we were on the outside of the building.
We went on the outside of the tower and it looked so cool. When we got back down we looked around the gift store, of course most of us bought something. When we left there was a band and they were selling different kinds of things like hats, purses, and friendship bracelets. Then when we all finished looking at the things we started to the train station. We finally got back to the Hostel and we got all of our bags down the stairs. We then made down to the station and went to the airport, where we rented our car. It took forever because they wouldn’t take the seats down for us. Finally we talked to the manager and he said they would take down the seats. So much for that. Now were in the car and every one has just called there parents!

Well Got To Go!!


Emma

Our First Day

Brittany here: Today was an amazing first day, not including the early arrival. Our plan landed at around 12:45am, and we got to the hotel around 2:30am. We ended up wait for the shuttle for about half an hour because it passed us the first time thinking we weren’t there. So it had to come back and get us. When we woke up, it was 9:00am; we hadn’t gotten a wake up call at 8:45 like we had asked. So it was a rush to get ready and go get breakfast since it was only open until 9:30. Once we had all taken showers after breakfast and we gathered all our stuff, the shuttle took us to the light rail where we rode to Chinatown. The hostel we are staying in is in Chinatown, so it was very cool to go look around in shops. After stowing our luggage in our rooms, we went across the street to the grocery store so we could gather supplies for tonight’s dinner. We brought all our ingredients back to the hostel before going to lunch at the food court. We all had huge, Asian lunches. They were all delicious! Once we had all finished lunch, we caught the bus to the Pike Place Market. It was amazing to walk down the market place and see everything for sale. There were so many fish and produce! We also had to go to the Original Starbucks. It was cool to just walk in and think that you are standing in the first Starbucks. After our adventure through the market, we handed back to the hostel to get dinner started. We planned on doing a spaghetti dinner for us and about fifteen people. We ended up cooking for a little over an hour and a half. More people showed up than we had expected, so we barely had enough food. It was nice getting to meet different people from around the world. We meet people from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and China. The clean up took forever, but it was so worth it. It’s not every day that you get to talk to someone from around the world. Now, we are separated out in our different rooms and ready for a good night’s sleep.

Traveling to Seattle

Hey, it’s Laurel! We’re all sitting in the Atlanta Airport waiting for our plane to board. Everything has been going very smoothly and since its my first time on a plane since i was 5 or 6, it’s a very interesting experience. Security was a little scary but we made it through. Emma forgot to take out a water bottle that was full from her bag so the beeper went off and they had to check inside her bag. Everything worked out okay ,and now we are just waiting, waiting, waiting.....

Hey, is’t Sophia!!! So we all got threw the gate safely. We are all waiting to bored they just said we have ten minutes. So ya we on our way!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey! It is Rosie!! As Laurel said, we are at the Atlanta Airport!!! I am very excited, but I will miss home!! Bye! Oh I have to say a few more things.We are safely on the plane and we are all excited! Ok so I let Laurel have the window seat and Lizzy is on the other side. Laurel says,” If I fall asleep, let the people know that I want Sprite, cookies, and Pretsels.” Ok so as you can tell, I don’t know how to spell pretsels. :( *sigh* They are playing on the plane this mystery movie. Kinda weird. We are having the spaghetti dinner later. I MISS YOU DAD!!! And hahaha very funny. I went “star gazing” today. DAD!!! Sorry he was teasing me about me fainting. It is 9:10 in Seattle and 12:10 in Atlanta. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO SEATTLE!!! The sister troop has fresh salmon for us one night!! Dad says it is about 25 pounds!! WOW!! Oh did I mention elk and venison too? :) YUM! :) MOOD~ super pumped :P oh and also excited :D !!!!!!! I will catch you up soon!!! Bye!!! Wish us............. fun and a great time! :)
BYE!!!!! ~Rosie~ B-) :) :P :D

Hello this is Emma, we are in the air. We had a great take off and everyone is VERY EXITED. We are going to be very jetlaged, but I know we’re going to have a great time anyways. I am SOOOO exited but miss home already. We had to wait a very long time at the airport because there was to many people and not enough seats. Thankfully, we all got on!!! I am kinda tierd but i know we will be exahted way before we land. Well I got to go.... P.S. Dad how are you doing at home??????? I will call you as much as I can!!!!!
I LOVE YOU!!! Emma

As Emma as written before, we are aboard the Delta plane and is on our way to Seattle! It’s so exciting! I still can not get it into my head that we’re going! That we’re actualy going! But here we are! A little turbulence here or there, but over all, the fights been pretty smooth! Of course the take-off wasn’t cool... IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! My favorite part is and always will be the take-off! I’m starting to blab a little bit, so, my main point is SEATTLE HERE WE COME! Bon Voyage! Selina

Its lizzy :) In the air right now and everything’s pretty normal... Its so exciting though~ :3 I can’t believe we’re actually in the air going to Seattle! All the work up until now is all finally paying off :) Over Kansas right now, ALREADY :) Time is flying past. I miss home already too :( I wonder how the cats are.. And how my parents are.. WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO WITHOUT ME?!?!?! ;) I miss home :( But I can deal :) Laurel and Selina were so cute when we were taking off~ Screaming and giggling every time they saw a plane take off or land :) I’m sitting with Rosie and Laurel. Having a blast except SOMEONE keeps knocking on her chair in front of me ;) Love ya Emma :) I was instructed to only write a few sentences....Haha whoops :) Well then I guess I’m signing out :) Love ya! Lizzy :)

Susan here - It has been fun already, surprisingly. The girls are wearing matching t shirts, which they made, and garnered a lot of attention. There was a 20 year old Mennonite woman at our gate who stopped to talk with the girls about what it is like to be Mennonite - no electronics, no music, she made her own clothes. A soldier stopped and talked with the girls about his time in Iraq, and a Brownie Girl Scout and her mom came over to visit. The girls are very open to talk. It’s late, and we are watching Jayne Eyre. We arrive at 3:30 am Atlanta time, and go to a hotel close to the airport to crash for a few hours. - Susan

It’s Coumbah,so far i have been having an awesome time! Right now we ar on the plan and it’s obviously raining tonight because you can see the lighting in the clouds which is so cool :) .When we got in the airport it was fun walking and talking to everyone through the airport.We already have meet a lot of people who are really interesting and are interested in our trip which is really COOL! In the plane we aren’t allowed to take our seat belts off :( but its still fun. I can’t wait until we get to Seattle in just a few hours :] -Coumbah ^_^

Donna here - it has been a blast watching the girls and listening to the conversations that occurred at the airport. We have drawn a bit of attention since we are dressed alike and it’s interesting to see who stops to talk. It’s also been fun to watch the girls on the plane. They were so excited when we took off that they all had their hands in the air like we were on a roller coaster!! We’ve been in the air for a few hours now, had our drinks and snacks, and everyone has settled down nicely. Looking forward to seeing Seattle but I know I’m going to be ready to crash as soon as we get there as it will be around 3:30am eastern time. - Donna

Brittany here- On the plane right now! It was so cool to see how excited all the girls were. Since I fly often, I wasn’t that excited, but of course it hadn’t registered in my mind that we are going to Seattle. Of course, it is the middle of the night Atlanta time, and I am exhausted. Maybe by the time we land in Seattle I will really believe that we are going cross-country.

Seattle or Bust!!!

Hey, girls!!! We are leaving in less than an hour! Can you believe the time is finally here?

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to Scouts Touring Seattle. This blog will have daily posts written the girls of Troop 1640 while we travel the Olympic Peninsula. Our journey will began on Tuesday night, July 12, as we catch a plane to Seattle. Please check in every day to hear about our amazing adventures. Thank you to everyone that helped us make it this far.

-Brittany




Top: Mrs. Susan, Brittany, Coumbah, Sophie, Mrs. Donna
Bottom: Laurel, Rosie, Emma, Selina, Lizzy