Mission Accomplished

I've realized a blog post has been long overdue. I partially haven't posted in a long time because I lost all the pictures off my blog with a switch from a Google to Apple Phone. Who knew when you delete your pictures off your Google Phone you're deleting them from Google? Well not this girl! Anyways, over the past few months my sisters have humored me and helped in completing my mission of visiting all the Costcos in Washington. Andie went to the 7 north of Seattle with me during Spring Break and Julie went to Sequim with me this past Friday.
My original goal was before graduating college. I was so close to doing that, I only had one left when I walked across the stage in July. I visited the last Costco exactly two months after graduating, so close enough right :)
When I made this goal three years ago, I was sitting in a free wifi spot somewhere in Vancouver, trying to kill time before whatever my next activity down there was, as I spent much of that summer. As I sat there mapping them out, I realized most of them were not that far from where my family had moved. I set out to visit all the Costcos as somewhat of a joke, but after mapping them all out and seeing that most of them were in the Seattle area, it also gave me something to do in the weeks I would spend in Olympia over the next three years.
I honestly was never that serious about this mission, it was funny goal to counteract all my serious goals like graduating debt free. But, as more and more got checked off, and people would read my blog and ask how many left, it became a fun game. The best part of this whole journey was I only went to one of the 31 alone! My family and housemates were behind almost every trip. This goal became much more about fun trips with them then Costco. (Because, if were being honest after a while they all look the same ;) So thank Mom, Dad, Andie, Julie, and Taylor! You five have been to your fair share of Costco through this Journey. I hope you had as much fun as I did!


(Not all 31, but the ones I could find!)

Kennewick

Gig Harbor

Fife

Not WA, but Missoula! 

Bellingham

Puyallup

Burlington

Clarkston

Everett

Issaquah

Kirkland

Lynnwood Business Center

Lynnwood

Marysville

Ok, not Washington.....but Maui!

Seattle

Sequim

Shoreline

Silverdale

Tukwila

Woodinville

Kirkland & Woodinville Costcos

Dad trusted us with the Jetskiis, mistake?

TWO MORE DOWN! (and one added). I spent this week camping with my family and the Claudsons. Let just say I haven't gone camping in a few years, and this was probably the first year I actually enjoyed it. Its amazing what working full time does to make you enjoy vacations! I had a great week spending time with these two families and hearing all God has done in their lives. As I drove away from Olympia this year I couldn't help, but think about two year ago when I left and my only prayer for my family was they would survive their time in Olympia until God called them wherever they were suppose to go next. I was so overwhelmed thinking about how he hadn't answered my prayer the way I wanted, but had provided abundantly with new jobs and ways to serve, and even inspired our best friends to pursue God's plan for their lives. He's pretty cool like that.

Anyways to the Costcos.

Saturday after we got back we headed north to attend my cousin's wedding. And had the chance to check two more Costcos off. The only unique thing at the Woodinville Costco was they served Chili in their food court. I was sooo excited for the Kirkland Costco, being the first Costco!

Woodinville Costco

Kirkland Costco

BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!

There was literally nothing special about this Costco. No plaque, No unique products. Nothing.

But, both Costcos advertised there is a new Costco opening in Lynnwood on October 1st, hence adding a Costco.

Then we went to my Cousin's wedding. He married a beautiful Kenyan lady. The ceremony was  traditional, but the reception was very Kenyan. It was all very exciting, especially watching my mom, grandma, and aunts dance.

Wedding

8 more to go!

Issaquah Costco & Other West Side Treasures

It has literally been a year since I have marked off a Costco. I am getting down to the wire if I want to cross them all off before I graduate, but I'm up for the challenge. So two weeks ago, I found myself driving to my parents house for the second weekend in a row. I wasn't in a giant hurry to get home since I had just seen them, so I decided to lollygag my way across the state. First, I stopped at the antiques & fruit stand I been told I should stop at all my life. The antique stuff was kind of cool, but the fruit stand part was kind of lame compared to Greenbluff here in Spokane. So then, as I got back in the car I decided to see how much of a detour it would be to try to hit one of my Costco. Turns out the Issaquah one was only a twenty minute detour, so of course I went for it.

Biggest disappointment of this Costco, was there was no sign! So you'll have to trust me this was really Costco! Most unique thing about this Costco was the outside food court. I had previously only seen this in warm places like California and Hawaii. I thought this was quite gutsy for a Washington Costco. Also, of note one o'clock on a Saturday afternoon is quite possibly the worst time to go to Costco, so I didn't spend long here.








Now you may be wondering why I was at my parents two weekends in a row. Well, after getting Memorial Day off, I went home the next weekend to celebrate my sister graduating. I got to spend a whole week in Olympia this time. We also had lots of family and friends come visit. It was so good to see so many of them after so long. We had some family fly in, which required a trip to Portland. Which meant a long awaited trip to Ikea. I was so very happy to be perusing those isles again. The business major in me had my fill of wonderful warehouse store treasures.

PS. While my selfies were purposeful for matters of this blog, here are some random selfies I found on my phone while writing this blog. These two are a hoot!

Maui Costco!

Now I know that the purpose of this blog is to visit all the Costcos in Washington, but I had to make an exception. I present to you the Maui Costco!

Maui Costco

I was fortunate enough to be invited along on my roommate's family vacation. Since I was pretty stoked just to be in Hawaii I only had two requests. 1. To get a Hawaii Starbucks mug. 2. To visit the Costco. I had no idea both would be accomplished my first hour there!

We didn't actually buy much, because who needs Costco portions for a week. But, we did try some fun Hawaii items like coconut milk drop trail mix!










 So with that behind us, we have 8 days of amazing adventure before us! We read, we ate, we sat in the sun, we shopped, we hiked,
and most of all we just relaxed! It was a great week of soaking up vitamin D and not having a care in the world.

 Thanks again Kirkpatrick Family!

Clarkston Costco

Apparently today is National Best Friends Day. Well that is fitting because I bought this cute little sign for my house yesterday that says, "Friends are the Family you choose." Let me tell ya about some of my chosen family, these two yayhoos. These two decided today on our one communal day off that we should make an epic road trip to Clarkston to check off my last Costco east of the mountains. They pretty much rock.

Clarkston

First off, Clarkston......what a town! This is a 2+ hour drive from Spokane on a pretty unpopulated highway. For all those who went to Lakeview, some pretty similar sights to our driving around Oregon last summer. So we're right outside of Colfax and we see a trooper on the side of the road carrying a rifle....at first I'm a little appalled and then I realize he is putting an animal out of his misery. Toto we aren't in Kansas anymore!

What's a trip to Costco without trying out the merchandise?

So then we finally arrived in Clarkston, to which I'm very surprised even has a Costco because the population is a little over 7000. Obviously, it is a big hub for all the surroundings areas so there were all these families stocking up big time! When we walked in the first conversation we overheard went like this......

Person 1: What do you buy a person having a baby who already has a kid?



Person 2: A gun.....and some bullets.

.......needless to say we got real far away from them.....FAST!

We had a nice lunch at Costco and did some more lovely people watching.

Then we decided to stop by Pullman on the way home and check out WSU, because none of us had ever been there. I'm sure if you all would have seen our shocked faces at the size of that place you would laughed real hard. Lets just say its a little bigger than Whitworth ;) We also had a good laugh that Greek Row look pretty much straight out of the movies with people in swimwear playing beer pong. But, then again when we got home our neighbors didn't look much different......so there's that.

In all, I'm pretty darn blessed with these two as part of my Whitworth family, can't wait for the whole gang to be back together in the fall. 

Silverdale Costco

I know, I know, another blog post!

Silverdale Costco

By far the biggest blessing in my parents moving this last summer is that I have no friends in Olympia. This may sound a little odd, however; this Christmas break we have gotten to spend so much more time together doing adventurous things as a family! Today, we decided to take the scenic route to Silverdale to check off this Costco. I have to say I don't think I had ever been to this section of the state. It was quite fun!

We really only got samples at Costco, because we saw Olive Garden on the way in, and that looked much better! But, this Costco was quite large and we tried the best Korean pears! Probably, going to have to get some when I get back to school. On the drive home we got to hear stories of Dad being a young troop as we drove through his old stompin grounds.

This brings the tally of 5 Costcos I checked off this break! Until next time west side!

Fife, Tukwila, Seattle & Puyallup

Fife Costco

I am now over half way done with my mission. Last week as a family we road tripped up I-5 hitting Costcos, and stopping to shop along the way. The first one we stopped at was the Fife Costco. This one was fun because it was a business center. There were many things we had never seen at Costco before, like the print shop and refurbished electronics.

Tukwila Costco

We then went to the Tukwila Costco. There was nothing too exciting about this Costco, except that it looked like it probably originally had only been half the size it was now, because there was a random wall in the middle of the store. We ate lunch here.

Seattle Costco-Notice Julie's Face!

After, a nice shopping trip at South Center we went to the Seattle Costco. This store was funny to me because it was not to far from Safeco Field. You don't picture Costco in the middle of big city! The coolest part of this Costco was in the parking lot was a Car Wash!

Puyallup Costco

Then on the way home we decided to go a little bit out of the way to hit the Puyallup Costco. By this time we were getting a little Costcoed out so we only got Frozen Yogurt in the food court. However, Andrea brought in a cup from the Tukwila Costco, when we had lunch, in her purse and filled it up.  I thought it was weird, but she seemed not too.

Austin!

Also, in this post we have to give a special shout out to Andrea's boyfriend, Austin. He was inspired by our trip, and sent us a picture of himself in front of the Tumwater Costco. Which leads me to remind everyone, if you find yourself at a new Costco, see something at Costco, our just want to make it on my blog send me pic! You never know if you'll end up here!





17 down, 11 in Western Washington and 1 in Eastern Washington to go!