Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun

Out for five days and four nights, camping, caching, and playing as we go. Since there will be a Photobook I'm just going to highlight and show the best of the best. 

Day 1:

#52 Belfair

#53 Potlatch

#54 Triton Cove

#55 Dosewallips

#56 Anderson Lake

We love the ferry rides, and unfortunately don't need to go on any more to complete our state park mission. It's already getting warm out, can't wait to get to the coast to cool down. 

Day 2:

#57 Fort Flagler

#58 Fort Townsend

#59 Fort Worden

#60 Miller Pennisula

#61 Sequim Bay

We, or should I say I, hiked over five miles today, mainly with the stroller. We saw two new lighthouses, Marrowstone Light and Point Wilson Lighthouse, and had fun exploring forts and beaches, and catching little 2 inch crabs at sunset.  

Day 3:

#62 Bogachiel

#63 Pacific Beach

#64 Ocean City

#65 Twin Harbors

Woke up in Sequim, hit up the Farmer's Market, then ventured into Forks and on down the coast for some real beach time. This was our longest day driving, glad we lucked out with the last campsite on a Saturday night, and a beautiful sunset.

Day 4:

#66 Westhaven

#67 Grayland Beach

#68 Lake Sylvia

Of course there are other things to do besides caching, like hiking the tallest lighhouse in Washington State, which has 135 steps up it. It states that you must be 6 and/or 40" tall to climb up because you must do the whole thing unassisted. They made an execption with Pyper and she cruised up the thing, no problem.

We also saw "real pirates" during a pirate festival in town. She says that's what she wants to be for Halloween this year. We enjoyed more beach time, which was nice a cool, about 20 degrees cooler than home, splendid.

Day 5: 

#69 Schafer

#70 Tolmie

She always requested to picnic in the back of the truck. The truck has its advantages for sure, but it was definitely easier driving in the car. We ended up doing 600 miles on this trip, which is small compared to the 1400 miles we travelled on our last big trip.

Waterway Caching

Ticking off more State Parks within the depths of Puget Sound, Pyper and I hit the road again leaving the camping stuff behind. I kick myself later when she asks if we can go camping when she spots a cool location. 

#47 Kopachuck State Park

Hitting the first trail and park early. We find a huge banana slug, a cool cache, and this might have been where we picked up a hitchhiking tick. 

#48 Penrose Point State Park

Penrose Point might be one of my favorite spots in the world now. There is a spit that unveils only at low tide and the geoduck are plenty of fun for little ones. 

#49 Joemma Beach State Park

Nothing like being safe near the water. We found the cache then checked out the boating situation dockside. 

#50 Jarrell Cove State Park

Someone has her hand in the cookie jar. 

#51 Twanoh State Park

Last stop of the day at Twanoh before heading home. 

Island Hopping

All we knew was our general destinations, three State Parks, on three different islands. We packed to camp without knowing where that would be, and our route in would be by ferry. 

After breakfast, we took a drive up to Anacortes to catch the ferry over to Lopez Island. What a gorgeous day to be out on the water, enjoying the saltiness of air and the views all around. Lopez Island is the first stop the ferry makes when doing the inter-island loop. We headed out to Spencer Spit State Park and enjoyed our breezy walk out the spit to an old cabin. 

Out exploring the PNW neighborhood

After stretching out our legs we hopped the ferry over to Orcas Island. We were pleasantly surprised be the topographical relief of the place and made the tip top of the island our destination. We were greeted with a view to write home about and an amazing piece of CCC history. 

Team Keller does it again

The campgrounds looked pretty booked up, but Andy managed to spit a little site next to the campground host that was more than we could hope for without a reservation. We enjoyed solitude, old growth, a private creek, left over fire wood, the closeness to "real" bathrooms, and friendly wildlife of mule deer and bats. It's a site to keep in mind for future jaunts in that direction. 

Check out the backyard of our campsite

We "slept-in" for camping standards and enjoyed a lazy pack-up and breakfast before heading into town for some coffee and bakery treats. 

Our next hop was over to San Juan Island, specifically Lime Kiln Point. This State Park is known for it's whale watching, Lighthouse, and views. We enjoyed all the above with the added bonus of a State Park stamp. 

Heading home is always an adventure in itself

Mission accomplished a day early. 

Spencer Spit State Park #44

Moran State Park #45

Lime Kiln State Park #46

Climb'n and Slack'n

This was the first place I ever climbed when I was 15 years old. Twenty years later, this is the first rope up for Pyper too. She never got more than a couple feet off the ground, but she had a great time trying new techniques and moves and mastering the way down. It was fun to watch her figure some stuff out today. "Belay on!" Surprisingly, I did okay traversing my baby bump around too. It's been a long time since I've climbed, it was fun to play around a bit. 

Homemade Cherry Jam

So we got motivated. I made a stellar small batch of cherry preserves the night before. It was so good, we decided to make a bigger batch. We got 7 half pints, and two the night before. Not bad for our first yard to pantry attempt. 

4 cups of pitted backyard cherries

1 lemon plus its zest

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown

That's all that's in our preserves! Love, love, love our house and its bounty. We only foraged the lower half of our tree, there's double the amount up top. 

The process is the fun part, I think she pitted three cherries total :)

Island to Border

We headed to Widbey Island for some sunny caching, working our way the long way up towards Bellingham. 

Pre-Nap:

Ferry ride from Mukilteo to Clinton

South Widbey State Park #35

Fort Casey #36

Fort Ebey #37

Joseph Widbey State Park #38

We love every inch of our coastlines

Admiralty Head Light House at Fort Casey State Park. 

  

Post Nap:

Deception Pass (Rosario Beach) #39

Shrimp Shack Stop for dinner

Bay View State Park #40

Larabee State Park #41

We wrapped up and headed into Bellingham, crashing at a friend's house who was out of town.

Day two:

Peace Arch State Park #42

Birch Bay State Park #43

Bellingham Farmers Market

I think she feels the same way as her Dad when it comes to our neighbor up North. 

We hit Cache #1,000 today!!! 

Harvesting Out Back

Everything in the garden is doing its thing. Yesterday we picked lettuce, radishes, spinach, and strawberries. Then we noticed sugar snap peas ready to eat. While enjoying the plunder, we noticed our cherries were ripening. Not only that it was a Rainier cherry tree! Delicious treat, especially since we have some branches low enough for Pyper to pick. Oh, I guess the raspberries are doing their thing too. It's so fun discovering the joys that are already in your yard, but also experiencing the work you put into it. The fruit is a bonus, the veggies are all us! Not feeling as intimidated by gardening now, feeling lucky to have such a buffet out the door. 

We get a full bowl of strawberries every day!

Girls Road Trip

So the idea was to hit up a couple of State Parks in two days with an overnight while Andy went for a trail ride for the same amount of time. But all plans change. Andy went to San Diego to buy a new bike and then went riding when he got back. On day two of our road trip, Pyper and I decided to keep going East instead of looping back around towards home. After six days and five nights we did make it home. 

It was overcast when we left, turning into a light drizzle as we headed North, then East onto State Route 20. I got so use to our nice days I didn't even bother packing rain gear so I stopped at the drug store for emergency ponchos, which we actually didn't use. We did however have to have a pink polk-a-dot kid umbrella, I'm getting weak at her cuteness. 

We made it to Rasar State Park for a beautiful forest walk and an easy cache find in a very light drizzle. The lush canopy provided us most of the cover from the rain. We delighted in the ripe salmon berries and a park to ourselves. 

Our next stop wasn't too for down the road. I use to give interpretive programs at both these parks and haven't been back since, 2003 I believe.  Rockport state park is an amazing park filled with old growth left pristine by the logging companies for some unknown reason. We had a sing-songy hike the whole way while counting slugs. 

Next on the list was organic ice cream at my favorite roadside farm stand. They didn't disappoint with raspberry chocolate chip ice cream and a strawberry short cake. 

Onward over the most glorious mountain pass of Washington to our final destination while Pyper slept off her sugar. I made a wrong turn, but we made it to the lake with time to play and explore.  

Day 1:

Rasar State Park #13

Rockport State Park #14

Pearagyn State Park #15

Day #2

Cinnamon Twisp Bakery

Conconcully State Park #16

Curlew State Park #17

Crystal Falls #18

Camp at Sullivan Lake

Day 3:

Crawford Sate Park/Garner Caves #19

Mt. Spokane State Park #20

Nine Mile Falls Recreation Area #21

Day 4:

Bowl and Pitcher State Park #22

Breakfast at Frank's Diner in a Train

Amber Lake #23

Steptoe Butte #24

Field Springs Falls State Park #25

Camp Wooten #26

Hang out with Daddy in Walla Walla

Day 5:

Walla Walla Farmer's Market

Lewis and Clark Trail #27

Palouse Falls #28

Day 6:

Potholes State Park #29

Gingko Petrified Forest #30

Wanapum State Park #31

Homestead #32

Iron Horse Cle Elum #33

Easton Lake #34

Obviously after the first day everything is summed up, but of course there will be a Photobook of this adventure when we finish it. We hope it will be successful. At least it's fun and I guess that all that really counts.