Labor day at Willapa Bay

Saturday morning we loaded up and rolled out for a weekend of camping. 

This picture sums it up; Brian loved having the dog there, Eli not so much.  We dropped her off at a kennel about halfway to the campground for her own “vacation”.  (That’s what we tell the kids.)

It was our first time camping at a KOA (it was the only place in the state where I could find an available campsite) and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  We were in an RV site, which wasn’t the greatest, but it was right by the playground, so it worked out perfectly. 

The playground was nothing fancy, but it had a play boat, hanging tires to crawl though, swings, and best of all, rocks (which is what the boys are playing with in this picture).  It was nice to say, “OK, you can go play at the playground while we put up the tent/make dinner/wash up/etc.”

After setting up and riding the bikes around a bit, we went down to see the beach.  It was a short hike from the campground, and we caught it at high tide.  The boys played in the water, which was not that cold, and then “basked in the sun” to warm up. 

Yes, it was pretty seaweedy at the high tide line, but the beach above was nice and sandy with little bits of shells in it.  When the tide started going out, a whole new expanse of beach opened up. 

We spent a long time down at the beach, just exploring and playing in the increasingly shallow water.  When we came back we started a campfire, and prepared hot dogs and corn on the cob for dinner.  Yum!  The kids were delighted.  Brian ate 3 hot dogs and even Eli ate one, which is pretty good for him.   

And if you ever wondered why it’s so hard to get a picture of the kids smiling and looking at the camera, maybe it’s genetic. 

Then it was time for smores!  And bed!

The next morning we rented rakes to go clam digging.  We had never tried this before, but the guy explained that you just pick a spot at random and drag the rake till it feels like you hit a rock.  That’s where a clam is, and you just reach down and dig it up. 

Eli wanted to do the raking, which was pretty easy, but not quite easy enough for a 2-year-old to manage successfully.  He looked cute trying, though!

Here Calvin and Brian are digging up a clam. 

We went out pretty far looking for clams.  It was a beautiful day!  Out farther there were larger clams called cockles, and we found a few of those, but mostly we got Manila littleneck clams.  They are an invasive species in the bay, but apparently they don’t cause any problems.  Here’s the haul!

In the afternoon we went out to Cape Disappointment State Park, which is where Lewis and Clark ended their historic journey.  It was beautiful!

I forgot the camera though, so all I have is an iPod picture.  This was a little inlet from the Pacific.  The kids really wanted to go down there, but it was a pretty steep path down so we didn’t try it.  The view up by the lighthouse was beautiful; you could see across the Columbia River to Oregon, and out over the ocean. 

We went back to the site for dinner and had the clams.  I was a little skeptical but in the end I thought they were great!  Brian did too, and Eli ate one.  I thought they might not be so well-received, so I didn’t cook them all, which was a mistake.  We didn’t have enough to eat, and the ones we kept in water overnight died.  Oops. 

We had smores again, because that is really the reason we go camping. 

To be continued…

Discovery Park

Last week, on Monday we went to Discovery Park.  It’s the largest park in Seattle, with miles of trails, an environmental education center, a native american center, and most importantly, a beach.  It’s a 2 mile hike to the beach, but I read online that people unable to make the hike (including little kids) qualify for a parking pass to drive down and park at the beach.  Oh, boy!  We are going to the beach!  Everyone’s excited!  And then the visitor center is closed and we can’t get a pass.  So… we’ll try the hike!  We found a cool playground:

We would still be there, if Eli had his way.  He loved that swing!  Then we set out on the hike, and ended up on a bluff overlooking the sound, where we had a little snack. 

Then I broke the sad news to the kids: it was still almost a mile to the beach and there was no way we (i.e. Eli) were going to make it there and back.  They were not happy about it.  But it was a nice day for a hike anyway. 

We found a giant sand pit, which was cool.  It was nowhere near the beach.  It was actually much nicer than the beach. 

Eli is delirious at this point, but to his credit, he made the 1+ mile hike back on his own two little feet. 

Tuesday we came back, and much better prepared.  We drove right down to the beach, hauled out our beach toys, and played jeep, digger, and other construction-y things. 

After a while, a day camp came and it was getting crowded, so we packed our toys and headed off down the beach.  The boys, of course, had sticks. 

Eli found a crab claw:

And a bald eagle flew RIGHT OVER US!  I didn’t get a picture, though (believe it or not, I don’t have my camera out all the time).  The boys were flabbergasted that such a thing would be out in the wild, as opposed to in the zoo.  Yes, they really do live here!  We made our way around the lighthouse and looked into the tidepools briefly until our croc-clad feet were freezing. 

We also saw a tugboat pulling a house, which was pretty cool. 

And then we headed home. 

(Treasures in hand.)

Fremont Sunday Ice Cream Cruise

With a name like that, how could we NOT do this, ASAP?  We drove down to South Lake Union Park, the place where the boat docks.  We went straight to buy tickets, then waited for the sailing time and looked around the park.  They have a cool basin for sailing model sailboats:

And we watched seaplanes taxi in to their little dock “airport”:

Then the time was drawing near, so we ran over to the M/V Fremont Avenue:

Wait for meeeee!

On the boat, we admired the painted chairs:

One of the first things we saw were the houseboats on East Lake Union:

I held up Eli to see over the railing:

This guy made a privacy fence with trees in floating containers:

The next highlight was a look at Dale Chihuly’s studio and home:

And the next highlight was an ice cream float!

The special is chocolate ice cream in root beer, which I thought sounded kind of gross, but Eli wanted it so we got it, and honestly it was pretty good.  How could it not be?  It was like drinking a tootsie roll. 

We saw a duck tour!

Saw seaplanes taking off…

…the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat, on West Lake Union…

…and a nice view of downtown.

Eli fell apart by the end, but you wouldn’t guess from the pictures!

Around town

Now that Calvin is back to work, most days are just me and the kids, kickin’ around town.  Literally, sometimes:

Brian is doing great with his new scooter and we use it a lot to go on walks around the neighborhood.  This past week we also took advantage of the warm weather to go to the beach again:

We were there at extreme low tide, I guess.  Brian was so far away!  But I wasn’t too worried about drowning because that water is SO COLD the kids didn’t want to get in, after a trial toe dip.  They just like playing with the wet sand!  There is also a crazy cool playground here:

We (sort of) jokingly say these are sponsored by the orthopaedic surgeons of america…to drum up business. 

Friday we wanted to go to the library, for the joy of some air conditioning on a VERY hot day.  Well, guess what:

Fridays our local library doesn’t open.  So lame!  The hours here are the worst, and the libraries are so tiny.  Well, I decided we’d just go downtown to the central library.  So we rode the city bus, which never gets old for the kids, and beats the heck out of trying to drive downtown and find a parking spot!

My city boys!

When we got downtown I too them to see the hammering man at the art museum first, because they’ve seen it in a book we have, so I figured they would like to see it in real life. 

They did!

Then we climbed the steep hill to the library and rode the escalators up, and went running back down!

What a view at the 10th floor!

  We took the elevators back up, and then back down.  By that time we were pretty tired, so we read a few books and headed home.  They are already asking to go downtown again!

Twin Falls

Last weekend we headed out of town for a hike that was listed on a page of easy hikes with children.  Well.  I guess easy is relative.  We had to drive 3 miles on a one-lane, two-direction dirt road to get there, then we hiked a mile and change to a waterfall.  Here’s Calvin and Brian, who were always far ahead:

My littlest hiker looking at a waterfall:

Calvin and the boys where we stopped for a snack by the waterfall:

Me and the boys:

Two and a half miles sounds so easy, but let’s just say it was a long way back, especially for the one with the smallest legs!  (And the one who had to carry him!)