Getting Home from Marathon-road marathon I-5

It took us 5 HOURS (normally 2) to get home from Seattle, and we only got home that "quickly" by creative 4 wheel driving on John's part. As I-5 turned in to a parking lot just out of Mt. Vernon (the reason we would only learn the next morning) we sat watching the snow pile up, people get in and out of their cars, munched on our cold Taco Bell from our lunch in Seattle, entertained ourselves with Thomas' movies, singing and books, and continued to pray that somehow the wall of cars would start to move. As darkness fell, we wondered when we would actually get home, as the highway traffic was not moving. Finally, John decided to chance a scary detour off the side of the highway and we carefully made our way by backroads. Grandma called Brad, who called us and let us know that her power was out, so we were very thankful to arrived back home to find the lights on. We were able to enjoy the 7 inches of snow that we had on the ground, introducing Thomas to the joys of that kind of snowfall!