The Upsides of Leaving Your Deep Freezer Door Open for 17 Days

We've been traveling for the last 17 days and put 3500 miles on the van.  It was great to see family and friends in Washington and Oregon as well as some interesting sites along the way.  While we were off enjoying the Pacific Northwest, our freezer door was cracked open...cooling away.

The Battle of Little Big Horn was an unexpected treat!  I did not realize it was so close to Colorado in Montana just past the Wyoming border.  Here is the site of Custer's Last Stand.

Fireworks in Monroe, Washington are no joke.  Every third house was shooting off huge bombs.  I'm not even exaggerating, well maybe a little, but it couldn't have been less than every fifth house.  Colorado would've been burned to dust.

The Pike Place Market is always fun.  The kids thought the flowers were beautiful and the fish were stinky.

We hiked to a beautiful lookout at the top of Hurricane Hill in Olympic State Park, but the clouds were stage hogs.

The hike went above the clouds at the top of this picture.   It was neat to go through so many layers of atmosphere and ecosystems.

 

Forts are cool. This was at Fort Flagler.

We went to Mount St. Helen's.  Again...those clouds were needy for attention and blocked the actual crater.  The visitor center there is top notch.

The Umpqua River provided lots of fun.

In-N-Out was something to look forward to after a 13 hour drive.  We all decided it is good, but Big Al's is better.  Fort Collins friends, your craving will be satisfied right here.  Well, maybe not the shakes.

When we got home I went to put the ice packs back into our deep freezer and discovered the goo. Meat and frozen vegetable and frozen fruit goo.  Ew.

While cleaning up the mess, I was cheering myself up with the various upsides of leaving the freezer door cracked for 17 days.

1. The freezer worked hard for 17 days to keep everything cool (including the garage), so not all was lost.  The bread was cool enough to keep.
2. That casserole from 2011 needed go!
3. The next day was trash day, and since we were gone for 17 days, it was ready to receive the contents of one nasty freezer.  Our garbage man hates us today.  
4. The rum for tiramisu doesn't need to stay frozen.  I can still make tiramisu (or a cocktail).
5. When do you get a chance to clean out your deep freezer?
6. My husband loves to shop at Costco with the kids.  We can get new food.
7. Those super awesome freezer packs from when Esther was getting medicine shipped across the country to our house did an excellent job of keeping the cheese sticks firm!  
8. Because our daughter had cancer, I'm terrified of chemical cleaners.  BUT...I'm also now a germaphobe, and rest stops are gross, so I had bought a multi pack of chemical filled cleaning wipes.  Turns out many of the rest stops weren't as gross as I was thinking, I had plenty left to kill the germs in my freezer.  
9. All these reminders of cancer brought to mind that there are worse things than coming home to goo in the garage.  For example, childhood cancer and families that need a place to stay during treatment like Brent's Place.  
10. And I smiled because we have awesome family and friends who have put Team Esther into FIRST place and we are about 25% of the way to our fundraising goal and 20% to our participant goal!! 

If you're still wanting to sign up, join us!  You won't regret it!  Registration is free.  Raise as much as you can, and come have fun!  You can register here: https://www.classy.org/checkout/register?eid=74581&ftid=77311

Can't walk but want to help? Pick a participant and leave a donation on their page.  bit.ly/TeamEsther

Now on the downside...that goo leaked out into the garage, so off to scrub the floor with bleach.  Meat goo is not something you want lingering in your garage!