Half-Way Mark Weekend

I thought the time would never come when I was going to finally see Clay up in Washington! Well the weekend was so surreal! It went by slow but when I got home it seemed like it never happened. When I first came off the plane and saw Clay, it felt like butterflies all over again right before we got married - I was shaking non-stop! We stayed across the harbor on another island from Tacoma called Gig Harbor at a Bed and Breakfast called the Maritime Inn (I highly recommend the place) for a couple nights. This was our room below - a little small, but perfect (not like a regular hotel room ya know)!

We just relaxed the rest of Friday night which was so nice to finally be back with Clay. Saturday morning (Valentine's Day) we took a walk around the town along the boardwalk and saw all the boats and looked out across part of Puget Sound which was absolutely beautiful!

Later on that morning we took a drive around the town and basically through the forest with all the towering trees (hello, it's Washington! ha ha) and grabbed some lunch. So Clay told me that whatever else we did we just had to be done before 2:00. So that time came and we took a walk down the road and we walked up to this place called Jax Salon. We got in there, Clay checked in and this lady brought us champagne glasses with Sparkling Cider. Clay surprised me with an afternoon at the SPA!!!

We both started out with pedicures, had a dish with strawberries and chocolates, and got the best foot scrub and massage! After that, we got to take a hot steam shower. The shower head was like 12'' in diameter and there was steam coming out of a hole in the wall! It was just amazing :) Below is just an example that I found on the internet - Clay and I want to get ourselves one for this next Christmas!

We then got to get into those awesome white robes and white, soft slippers and head off to the massage room. Clay wasn't so sure about this part but I assured him he wouldn't look back after getting one and he'd look forward to getting another one! It was an hour massage with hot rocks and hot towels - SPECTACULAR! So that pretty much ended our spa time but it was definitely well spent and was the best Valentine's present! Kudos Clay :) Later that night we went to an Italian Restaurant which was pretty good and enjoyed the night out. Sunday we checked out of our place and headed off to Clay's church. Boy, was it ever good to be at church with Clay - it's been hard to go to church each time without Clay and then see all these couples. I met Clay's housemates when we got back from church and just chilled the rest of the Sunday afternoon.

Monday, Clay first took me to the military base that he works on, Fort Lewis, and we drove around seeing where he worked, etc. It was neat to know earlier that my mom first moved there on the base when she first came to America from Germany and her sister was born in the old hospital there that you see above. Below is the building that Clay works in!

Later that morning we headed off to Seattle and walked around probably like 10 miles - at least it sure seemed like that!

We parked right by Pikes Place and walked around there and then down on the boardwalk along all the piers. We went to all the big department stores and decided to check the Space Needle out. Well, it ended up being more pricey than what we had thought it was, so we figured that we'd skip out on it since it's kind of like the ride at Sea World that takes you up to the top to overlook the park.

Anyway, well we really had nothing else to do since we hadn't made plans so we headed off to the airport. It was the hardest to leave Clay behind me and go through security, but obviously it had to happen so off we split and now 7 more weeks until we see each other again! It still stinks not seeing him like it was when he first left, but we're both doing great in our internships and can't wait to be done and be back together! It's so crazy to think about the year ahead of us because we're graduating in July and who knows where we'll be by the end of the year! Here's to the year ahead . . . !