Since it's Gideon's birthday we had asked him previously if he would want to go see Black Widow since it came out today and he was excited. We had a lot of time before the meeting at this point though so we decided to get a "proper" meal before hand. When left up to Gideon, this means that we will be eating at Five Guys if there is one around and there was one that was almost directly on the path to the movie theater. We all stopped, got ourselves a burger and since we were celebrating, chocolate malt milkshakes. They do a pretty darn good job on that milkshake there. We head off to the theater in the downtown area and park in the co-located garage. The only problem is that our tickets are for the AMC and the theater we are at is the Regal. Crap. Quick look at the map and the AMC is just in the next block so we walk it. We walk in and this is essentially a shopping mall and we cannot see the AMC. Alright, look for a directory right? We can't find one. Come to find out we had just passed by one but we never looked back. We asked a nice security guard if he knew where it was and he informed us that it was on the 6th floor. No wonder we couldn't see it from down here like the common plebes.
We pick up our food and drink and head to the theater to our assigned seats. There is practically no one here which I suppose is not a surprise. We all very much enjoy the movie and continue to speculate on what it might mean for future movies and shows in this part of the cycle. We head out from here to a Target to let Gideon pick out some gifts. The Target has a parking garage under it which Abigail gets a big kick out of for some unknown reason. We get into the Target and look around for some other items that we needed while we were there. I am looking for nail polish remover wipes with Abigail when I hear Court calling for Gideon with panic if her voice. I hand all of the stuff in my hands over to Abby and go on the look for Gideon as well. She and I head opposite directions in the store calling for him. Suddenly he comes around the corner like nothing was going on and I walk him back to where Court was. He had gone off to look at the toys since he knew that that was one of the reasons that we were there but either hadn't told us or we managed to miss it somehow. With that panic over we look for a pair of shorts for me since my ever expanding waist-line broke a button on one of my pants and can't really find anything but are starting to notice something is strange about this Target. Court asks one of the works and they say that this is a focused format store so they don't carry the full product line. Again, crap. We manage to find some toys that Gideon is interested in anyway and a pair of shorts that I could use and check out.
Our new thing for today is taking a ferry to the Olympic Peninsula. We drive from the theater to the terminal for the ferry and as we get near there's a sign informing us that the current wait for the ferry is 3 hours. 3 HOURS! We do some quick looking on Google Maps and it's 3 hours to drive around instead of waiting for the ferry and the time that it would take the ferry to make the trip. We decide to bail on this idea and drive around. Part of the way through we decide to change our first for the day and get some dinner from Jack in the Box since it was next door to a gas station and on the route we were going. Most of the family is okay with it but if I'm brutally honest, I'm not a fan. I would eat there again if it had to but it's not something that I would choose to do.
Along the drive we get some nice views of the different harbors. At one point you could see an old aircraft carrier and maybe it was a destroyer with it? Always cool to see. As we get further and further from the city, the foxglove and pea comes back which I very much enjoy. Generally you can tell that the pace of life is starting to slow down a bit out here as we drive through different reservation lands and preserves. We arrive at our hotel, get checked in and setup the bedroom for the night.
Now, for years I have been trying to bring Court out to somewhere where she can see the Milky Way in the sky and it just so happens that Olypmic National Park's Hurricane Ridge is a well known spot for star gazing and it also just so happens that Gideon's Birthday is a new moon which is one of the best times for seeing the Milky Way. We head out again for the drive up to Hurricane Ridge which is another hour from the hotel. On our drive up the mountain we get to see a lot of deer that are grazing on the side of the road and some nice views of the peaks around Olympic. We reach the top as some of the stars are starting to come out and the sun is below the horizon but not gone so far that the stars are clearly visible. We head out to a set of benches in a meadow on the ridge and wait out the increasing darkness. In the mean time there's a lot of looking at the stars that we can see to see if we can find different constellations. From our bench we can watch the peach color on the horizon getting smaller and smaller, yielding to the dark blue and black of twilight. While sitting here it has become dark enough that it's hard to clearly identify objects that are a good distance away. At one point I am asked if the person crouching over their camera on a tripod and then standing was a bear. After some time of this it begins to get colder than I think most of us were dressed for so we went back to the van to warm up some and wait out the clock some more. On the walk back to the van you could see the faint line where the Milky Way will show up so we know it's coming soon. While in here we see something that looks like it was on four legs walk across the ridge line. Who the heck knows what it was for sure? Eventually we step out again and there is that faint white belt across the sky of the edge of the Milky Way. Court and Abby both have a moment which I recall having a similar moment when I first saw that as well. After taking it in for some time, we head out. The going joke for some time of the drive back is about how this is the first time since she was two that we have seen Abby openly cry.
The drive back down the mountain continued with the deer on the edge of the road. At one point, since there was no longer anyone really around, Court completely stopped to have a quick chat with one of the deer that looks up right at her before eating some more. Most of the way down the hill we come across a disabled car and asked if we could help but they said that they had someone on the way already. I feel bad for them as I'm sure that their plans has been similar to our and they would likely miss out on it due to their mechanical issue. We make it all the way back to the hotel and find that a fog has settled down on the lower elevations so it was a good thing that we had been up on the ridge. Off to bed for an early start tomorrow due to the distance and volume of things we had planned.