Going Losting-- Mini exploration of the Olympic Rain Forest

During Garrett's week off we wanted to camp since our children felt extremely robbed of their camping season last year due to moving, and remind us of their camping deprivation constantly. We originally had planned on heading east of the mountains and camping somewhere near Bank's Lake, but the closer we got to the time to go, the more we decided that we wanted to go someplace new, and explore something we hadn't seen before, even if it meant cutting our camping trip short because of rain.  

A few facts about this trip:

1. I discovered I'm not nearly as mobile as I thought I was. I am getting lazy about moving, apparently. The lack of mobility is cutting down on my multi-tasking skills.

2. Therefore, I took hardly any pictures. 

3. This is bugging the crap out of obsessive, focused, driven me very,VERY, very much. Like, A LOT. I will regret that until something else comes along for me to regret and fills up my brain's current regret RAM space. But, probably in some tiny portion of my head I will always regret the photos I did not take on this camping trip. Because, as previously mentioned, I am a bit obsessive. Also, there were some really cool shots that I was just too lazy to go get the camera for.

4. So, this camping post will be slightly less picture-y and slightly more word-y, because it was full of great fun and memories, and I didn't take enough pictures!! Dang it. 

5. It is very hard to sit on the ground and put boots on your feet when you have a baby belly.

I don't think that was actually a proper orderly list, but whatever. 

So, Thursday morning dawned lovely and gorgeous here, and we had my sister Clare with us, YAY! and we headed out and down around to the Peninsula to see what we could see. 

 We started out planning on just finding a camping area to set up and then explore from there, because a lot of checking had indicated to us that there weren't really any trails/off-road camping to be had. When we got to the campsite we had planned on camping at however, it looked a little too RV-ish for our liking, it was right next to the freeway, and the utter HORROR voiced from our little Brianna in the backseat at the thought of camping next to a road with cars and people on it convinced us that maybe we could just head down the road a ways and see what we could see before setting up camp. So, we did. 

 We followed Hood Canal quite a ways... it was absolutely beautiful. We just wandered along looking for camping sites, Forest Service Roads to explore, whatever we could see. And, we finally turned in towards a rural campsite sign at the Duckabush River. It turned into a Forest Service Road that headed up a valley, and dumped us into the Olympic National Park eventually.

 We went on for quite some time... it was spectacular. If either Garrett or I have been in this forest before we don't remember it--we both would have been kids. And, we certainly wouldn't have gone in this deeply with our parents, so it was very new territory for both of us. Since we wanted to find a campsite before dark we didn't stop to get out and take pictures. It was crazy steep on either side of the trail, and there wasn't really the usual plethora of rustic campsites that Forest Service Roads usually have--the rustic authorized campsite closer to the beginning of the road was gated. We drove up to the snowline before turning around, and we finally turned down a little road and found a few flat-ish areas with fire rings, so we picked the biggest driest one, and set up camp there.

 This forest is WET. Like, wetter than anything I've ever seen. Wetter than the Lolo Trail in the Bitterroot Mountains, FOR SURE! Which is crazy,  because I thought that was pretty wet and non-flammable. I think that might be why it's called a rainforest? Haha! After we set up camp Garrett and I took a little mini-hike to see if we could find firewood. I tried picking up a small, (but not that small!) fallen tree, and it literally fell apart in my hands. Wet, wet, wet. Next time we camp here we will FOR SURE bring our own firewood. We finally found the driest wood we could, and headed back to camp. Thankfully Garrett had packed the Coleman two-burner stove instead of just our little backpacking burner, so he split-up the wood and we tried drying it on the Coleman stove to get it to a point where it would burn. I did not take a picture because my camera was 15 feet away in the Rover and that would have required moving and multi-tasking since this was going on while I was making dinner. Kicking self. This wood-drying business was successful only with some flammable additives to the fire. You could hear the water boiling and steaming out of the wood while it burned. Crazy.  

 Rovey in his natural environment. :-)

 My view when my oldest child is sitting on my lap. She's so big. It makes my heart ache. I just love sitting around a campfire with my kids. I love hanging out with them at home too, but there's just something about a campfire. They fully relax, and just live in the bliss of the moment--you can tell that they're perfectly at home and content there, and I'm so thankful for that family time with them--nothing but campfire, babies, chairs, and their bottled root beer/our bottled beer. It is contented bliss--moments that a parent writes on their heart and treasures forever.

So, we went all night without it raining. It was a cold night, although we were all able to stay pretty warm. Brie ended up climbing in Clare's bag in their tent, but that's somewhat normal for her. I was uncomfortable, but not entirely because of being pregnant. I was uncomfortable first of all because my nose was so stuffed for some reason I couldn't breathe.  Of course it would clear up completely every time I sat up. That is just obnoxious, I tell you. Why do noses do that?! Then, a little later the pregnancy woes hit--and I had forgotten my heartburn medicine... Oops. So, I had heartburn with acid clear up in my mouth, regardless of the fact that our tent was on a slope and my head was at the top, HA! Doesn't it seem like that should have helped? and then the leg cramps hit. I don't know if you've ever been in a mummy bag in 30-some-odd degree weather with leg cramps, but it is just plain irritating. Oddly enough Garrett got leg cramps too that night--we were a pathetic pair. I like to think he got sympathy leg cramps. He's pretty sure they were just plain old leg cramps. :-) 


Finally I fell asleep, and slept pretty good. But, it was hit and miss there for a while. It's lovely to fall asleep to the sound of a forest.


The next morning we got up pretty late and did breakfast. As we were sitting around, pretending to have a fire with our coffee and hot chocolate, it started to rain.


And it rained harder. 


And harder.


And much, much, harder.


So, we agreed to wait it out for just a bit, and if it didn't clear up we'd head home. We all took our coffee and hot chocolate to our respective tents, and settled in. I wished, yet again that I'd had my camera with me. I'm thankful that memories live in our heads too though. I loved this time because I've never been in a tent when it's raining before so it was fun. 


...The sound of my kids and Clare in the other tent, giggling and laughing like crazy loons, mixed with the sound of heavy rain...


...My husband meticulously cleaning up every drop of water on his side of the tent with his handy microfiber backpacking towel and then hanging the towel right over the top of my pillow... I don't know why but this just cracks me up every time I think about it... it doesn't drip or anything since it's microfiber, so it was fine, just a really funny move that made me laugh...


...Being so impressed with our tent... remembering that when we bought it we read reviews on it from someone who'd lived on the west coast of Ireland for 3 months in these tents and stayed completely dry. Talking about how wet we would have been if we'd been camping in our cheap tent that we had before we bought our better tents. SO thankful for all our good gear...


...Watching the water puddle at the top of our tent. Pushing up on the puddle, and being amazed at the sound of the waterfall that crashed to the ground. Doing that over, and over, and over again...


...Having it rain so incredibly hard that all we could hear was the sound of the rain on our tent, not even the kids yelling in the tent right next to us...


Watching the rain fall on the top of our tent... on the star-viewing window especially, which I just love. Wishing I had my camera. Looking at my boots and rain jacket and thinking that I didn't want to put them on just to go get the camera, knowing I'm going to regret it, and still being lazy... 


...Saying my feet were just the slightest bit cold, and my husband tucking my SmartWool stockinged feet between his SmartWool stockinged feet... we really really love our SmartWools... And, I really love that man...


Yelling between tents over the sound of the rain indicates that Brie has to go to the bathroom. This is, of course, my job. Wrangling my boots and rain jacket on. Getting the shovel. Squeezing between a wet muddy Rover, and the wettest tree branches you ever did see, picking our way through the rivulets of water that are pouring through our campsite on the ground...


...Hiking a ways, and digging a hole in the weirdest dirt ever, more like moss and rock, and holding Brie over it so she can do her business. Normally this is not a big deal, but I am still super sensitive to the smell of bathroom activities, and so I begin gagging and nearly threw up while trying to hold my 50 pound kid out in front of me over the hole with zero balance and limited control over my currently-feeling-like-jello-hips to begin with. Gagging, hanging on, gagging, she feels terrible, but what can you do?! Me assuring her it's okay sweetie, just finish up. And, wouldn't you know it, after all that it is the SMALLEST, TINIEST little turd you ever did see. This, for some stupid reason makes me unreasonably mad. I mean, if you're going to put me through all that, you better at least have a respectable sized turd at the end of it. We finish up, bury the goods, and my poor Brie with the rain dripping of her hood and her tiny little face buried in there, and her big dark eyes looking at me feels terrible for it all, I apologize for getting mad over something so incredibly ridiculous, as if she could do anything about it!?! and begin to see the humor in it all, and it makes me laugh, possibly slightly hysterically... thankfully she's very forgiving...


...and as we're walking back the rain is easing up...


...You have to really pay attention though--the rain from the sky is easing up, but all the trees around us are still dripping and raining, so it sounds like it's still raining, even though it's not. The forest is just lovely in all it's mossy wetness...


...we check the sky and decide this weather isn't going anywhere. Surprise! It's a rain forest in April! We look around, decide that our campsite isn't going to be salvageable for the enjoyment of another night, and use the break in the weather to work together all of us, and pack up all our crazy wet stuff as quickly as possible...


...And, we head down the mountain. The trees look like a giant's pick-up-sticks--perhaps several ice storms have ravaged through? Moss is SO thick. Over the trees and branches everywhere. I'd say 4 inches thick in some places. There are glorious waterfalls pouring down the steep hillsides everywhere, and I want to get out and take some landscape pictures of all this gloriousness, but it's raining again, and I love our camera...


And, as we emerge from the valley road out onto Highway 101 the blue skies and sun are shining there, and it is just beautiful. We look back up the Duckabush River Valley from whence we came, and the clouds are low and dark. It's raining up there, without question, and snowing even higher than where we were.


So we slowly meander home. 


I'd say we went into this camping trip with the right attitude... have fun, don't hesitate to go home if it gets uncomfortable, and just enjoy exploring something new. That being said, I could definitely tell that we are used to camping in very dry Eastern WA, as opposed to the west side. Our gear was weather appropriate, thankfully, it was just a matter of what we're used to. It's easy to forget how deep the wet permeates over here--when it's done raining on the other side your stuff dries out really fast. Even a really heavy rain storm will usually be drying up in a matter of minutes. I've forgotten how over here if it rains the ground can be wet for up to a couple days after it stops raining... and that is especially exaggerated in the location and conditions we camped in this trip. So, we tuck it in our "camping information" mental file, and enjoy the memory of it, both the good and bad. :-) 


I CANNOT WAIT to go back and explore that area more. In August, or something. It is beautiful, and I'm SO glad we found a Forest Service Road with a few not-official-campsites off of it, instead of staying in the campsite by the highway. 


And, so ends my wordy, not very picture-ey reconstruction of our first camping trip of 2012. 

A Ferry Ride to Bainbridge

After my last blog post we had a major computer system overhaul and rebuild here... hence my lack of blogging. It's not entirely to blame, to be clear, but I firmly believe in never taking responsibility for something I can pass off on someone else, so that's what I'm going with. :-)

Pregnancy Update: It's a girl!! I realized this morning that I never announced that on my blog--mostly because I think most of my readers saw the FB post, or got a text message fairly quickly after we found out. If you hadn't heard that info yet, and were anxiously awaiting the news on the edge of your seat all this time, my apologies. :-) 

...And... apparently I took my witty and slightly sarcastic pills this morning, so please humor me for this post. :-)

She appears to be healthy and well, and she measures exactly right size-wise, so we are VERY thankful for that.

I've got blog posts coming out my ears here, so I am going to attempt to be more regular about that in the next few weeks. So far that's not working out to well for me, but I'll continue to give it a shot. :-) I visited the doctor on Monday, and got heartburn medicine. I've NEVER in my life been so thankful for a bottle of pills, I tell you what. SO SO SO wonderful. That hasn't eliminated all my sleeping issues, but I haven't had even one instance of heartburn since Monday, so YAY!

One thing we really want to take the opportunity to explore while we live here is the ferry system, and the islands, and the Olympic Peninsula. We've found, however that there doesn't seem to be a lot of info about specific ferry destinations... like for example, if we take *this* ferry, do we need to take a vehicle? Or can we walk on and off?  What is there to do at *this* destination? The difference in cost for taking a vehicle (or not) is pretty significant, so while we definitely don't object to taking our vehicle on ferry rides and are planning on it as needed, we also don't want to be wasteful and take it without a plan.  Brooke had told me that Bainbridge was a good walk-on/walk-off ferry ride, so when Garrett's parents visited us a few weeks back we decided to head over to Bainbridge, and have our first ferry ride as "locals". :-) 

We found it very fitting that our first ferry ride living over here was on the "Wenatchee". :-)

Leaving the Pier. Once very excited girl. It was their first ferry ride.

Pretty much the awesomest thing ever to see a tugboat in action.

This one asked 345 billion questions about how everything works. (I'm going to be SO smart by the time I'm done Googling everything she asks about.)

I grew up taking ferry rides in the Puget Sound with my family on the weekend. So this was a little bit of a trip down memory lane for me.

Keira pointed out after we landed that this was the girl's first time ever being on an island. I've wracked my brain over that one, and I'm pretty sure she's right. We tend to head for the woods, not the water when we vacation. So, we took a picture to commemorate. 

I'm sure someone knows what kind of trees these are. I don't, but they were beautiful. 

In my best British Safari Guide accent, which is actually the most terrible, not recognizable accent ever. "The wild Garrett cautiously pokes his head out from between the trees, ever wary of predators! A handsome and regal beast, his instincts are honed for his environment! He will stop at nothing to protect his herd! He is watchful and careful, but also confident in his ability to protect his young! There, there now! Watch him! An excellent specimen, to be sure! (Cue my wild, handsome and regal husband rolling his eyes at me and walking away. Yes, this is how I entertain myself.)

Such pretty bark!

An abandoned anchor! Also like, the coolest thing EVER. Cue my children supposing all sorts of mishaps to ships that could have occurred to land this anchor here. :-)

 And, the next three photos were taken by Keira while we were waiting for the return ferry:

Excellent composition, my baby.

What daddy looks like from their point of view.

 And, photography by Brianna while were were waiting for the return Ferry:

This one turned out so cute. The lighting in this waiting area was HORRIBLE. So a bit of editing here and there was required to make us all look normal-ish. :-)

Keira, and her new sister. :-) I should have edited my double chin out of this one, haha. If Garrett looks slightly scary from their point of view, I just look ridiculous. That could explain a few things, haha!

While Keira has a knack for composition, Brianna has a knack for getting great poses out of people. I love their photos. :-)

 We unwittingly picked the perfect time for our return trip to Seattle. The whole world was a brilliant blue, and then an unearthly city-light orange on our return trip. It was also crazy-windy and the ferry was rocking a bit, so hard to get good pictures, but this gives you an idea of how gorgeous it was. 

It was really fun to get out and explore! I'd say walking on/walking off the ferry in a tourist-y capacity is very do-able for a Bainbridge Island quick trip... it's a quick walk to get up to the town and there are lots of little shops and restaurants, as well as a nice little trail down through the park. Thank you for telling us about it Brooke!


Also, other Puget Sound area locals, please do share! What's your favorite ferry ride? Do you need a vehicle for it? What is there to do on the other end? Do you have resources that are good for finding out info like this?  Thank you!

The Aquarium with Friends

Last Friday we headed to the Seattle Aquarium with our friends over at He Shall Direct our Path. We had so much fun! And, there is NO possible way that I could add to Brooke's highly accurate description of how the day went, so I'm not even going to try. I'll just add a few of my pictures to the mix, and call it good.  You should read her post if you want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 

 Most of my pictures are of the kids from behind, because that is what happens when you are looking at exhibits.

 I'm not entirely sure this is much better.

 This one, however, with the illusion that they are safely behind a chain link fence, suits me just fine. It's actually the seals that were behind the fence.

 The baby girl otter, a recently-born resident of the Aquarium, looked all snugly and cute, napping away on her rock.

 The burping contest that didn't happen. :-)

 The goofy crew. I had to laugh when I got home and looked through all my pictures, and the kids all have different bags of vegetables or sandwiches in their hands all the way through the Aquarium. Apparently we ate our way through it.

 The best part of this trip was having someone to just chat with, and sort of follow the kids everywhere around the Aquarium, without rushing them through anything. They spent a TON of time at exhibits that I never would have guessed would have intrigued them.

 Watching coral reefs get trimmed. This was pretty cool.

 The tide pools are always a huge draw to the kids. I'm pretty sure they spent the most time here, and they actually got to feed the sea urchins kelp, besides touching them, and the anemone, and the sea cucumbers, and everything. That is such a cool exhibit. The aquarium staff was really generous with their time with all our kids, and they all got a lot of additional attention and learned a lot of really cool stuff as a result. Surprisingly enough, none of them fell in.

 Beautiful Sea Stars.

I was an idiot, and parked the Rover in a spot that I could only use for four hours. And, I ran back to give the hungry machine more money, only to discover that it wouldn't take it because my maximum allowable time was up. So, we had to leave a little earlier than we would have liked. But, it ended up being a good thing as after we left Seattle we went out to Garrett's work and traded cars with him and spent the rest of the afternoon in Les Schwab getting a lovely little screw in the tire removed, and the tire fixed.

Thanks for the fun day!! We'll have to do it (or something like it) again soon.

Northwest Trek

A few weeks back the girls and I had the treat of going to Northwest Trek with a friend. I had been to NW Trek a few times in my life, but my girls had never been. It was SO fun to go with them, and see a whole bunch of our North American Native Animals in such a beautiful place. If you've never been, I highly recommend. Thanks so much Mrs. Jan for a lovely day!

It was a cool day, which ended up great because we were able to see so many animals, since they're more active on cool days. I'm tucking that bit of information away into my brain for future reference. 

The Autumn colors were absolutely amazing.

 This squirrel was delighted with the Halloween decorations, and had SO MUCH spider web tucked in his mouth, it was quite entertaining.

 A delightful bit from Mr. John Muir.

 My sweet Keira.

 My favorite wild animal.

 My sweet Brie.

 Moose! My second favorite wild animal.

 It's absolutely beautiful there!

 My girls are just as intrigued and impressed with cougars as their momma is. Every time I see these animals on display I think how very scary it would be to have one stalking you through the woods. They're so amazing/frightening. You know you've instilled a great deal of respect for them in your kids when they immediately start saying things like, "Wherever there's deer there will be cougars!" and "If you see a cougar, NEVER ever run!" Haha.

 True Story: One time when Garrett and I were visiting NW Trek with some friends we heard this horrible, terrifying screaming throughout the park. Like, melt-your-bones screaming. We were concerned, but none of the workers around us seemed worried, so we went on our way, and ended up at the cougar area. Yeah, that horrible noise was two cougars in the act of attempting to make new baby cougars. Who knew they did that? Not me, that's for sure. Horrible, horrible noise.

 And, I for sure, am getting a coffee mug made with this picture on it. Because this is about how I feel in the morning. I feel your pain, Mr. Porcupine. I feel your pain.

Of all the zoos and parks I've been to, this one is pretty much at the top of my list. Most of my readers are in the Pacific NW, I think, and have probably been there. If not, you should visit, for sure!