Following the sun's warmth on a chilly autumn morning

We did it~
Five camping trips in one summer~
They were well worth the work of packing and unpacking, but I'm feeling like it's time to hibernate. It feels like time to be done. I'm ready for this to be the last one of the season and I want to take advantage of these sunny autumn days. We didn't go far, under an hour away to Lake Easton. (Although it took 3 hours because we thought we were going somewhere else which was closed for the season.) When we finally arrived, we happily pulled into an empty campground with a site (and playground) overlooking the lake. We had a bit of sunlight left, until we enjoyed a warm dinner by the campfire. As the sun came up, so did the cool mist from the lake. It was chilly! The tent was barely warm enough and Alita and I went down to the lake to welcome the rising sun on our skin. I so love this practice, only found while camping: following the sun's warmth on a chilly autumn morning.

Upon return to the site, Papa had warm oatmeal ready. Then, we explored our surroundings.


It was just fabulous what was lying out in the open on the evergreen needles.

We spent one more night in the tent, and then early in the morning Mama declared triumphantly, "I'm so *%#@! cold. Let's pack up the tent quick and go out to breakfast. We're done camping!" So the time came to say goodbye to our season of camping and my daughters first memories of sleeping outside to the sound of wind in the trees.
Bye-bye ... until next spring.

Tidepooling

Sea stars, sea anenomes, sea cucumbers, oh my!

I'd like to share with you some tidepool glory from our summer visit to the beaches near Kalaloch on the Olympic Peninsula. I was in a state of awe the entire time we explored this rocky coast.


I had
never seen such vast colonies of sea anenomes... and that was what was visible above the water line. Their magnificent bright blue-green color really surprised me. I recently learned that some anenomes this size (larger than both of my hands together) are more than 60 yrs. old. Live on Grandmom anenomes! Then there's the starfish . . . their hues of bright orange and deep pink and the way they snuggle together.


I stood watching the turbulent waves rushing in, trying not to step on anything.




















This is what I hoped we would find when I put my 3 year old in the car for a five hour drive out to the Olympic Peninsula ... a natural phenomena that would blow my mind, and it did.

Camping with kittens across a swing bridge

Morning crossing

That's the same look I had on my face
being awoken at 8 a.m. by a pile driver.
One traditional type of pile driver uses a heavy weight
when released from its highest point it
smashes on to the pile in order to drive it into the ground
(The construction on the nearby levy to increase salmon habitat -!!!- will be done soon.)

off to breakfast by the river
and what do we find

but her first chance to hold a kitten


"Can you get me a little white kitten?" she asks.Back to the site for some important dental hygiene rituals.

Mama likes feeling the movements of our family as we are
suspended
and
supported
over that clear clear river water.
and finally in that water
a little r&r is in order
for everyone.Papa makes sure we'll have plenty of fuel for our fireside chat.

THUD.

We talk until it feels really really really late
...you know, like 10:30 pm
Hauling it all back to the car.

This place was definitely a great spot to camp with little ones. The walk-in aspect makes for less noise and people, but it's also more of a work out.
I loved:

• that it was only 40 minutes from home
  
• the river was clear cool and gorgeous
• swing bridge
• hundreds of bats catching mosquitoes for us at night over the river
• not to mention kittens.

Camping Trip Numero Dos

When we told Alita we were going camping again she said, "We already did that!" with a bit of disgust in her tone of voice. I assured her there would be no mosquitoes and it would be a different place. Deception Pass was a fabulous trip for our little one (and us) for the following reasons:

• Only 1.5 hrs. from home.
• A swimming lake, beaches and forest right next to one another

• Three kinds of ripe berries in the campground area for the pickins'.
• Middle of the week campground availability, when the weekends are fully booked.
• Shelters for that PNW rain
  
• Amazing tide pools (future post about that soon!)
• A statue honoring women that put food on the table for their families. Not really, but I love this statue and that's pretty much how I feel every night when I get dinner on the table.

First Camping Trip of the Summer

We just returned from two nights at a friend's property in Randle, WA. Highlights:

• Cruising on a few miles of dirt roads with the wind in her hair at 15 mph.
• Rising to the morning grunts of an elk herd in the nearby meadow... hrrrr UUMF! Pretty cute (in an enormous animal kind of way.)
• Relaxing over luxuriously long meals with panoramic views
• Witnessing a pigmey owlet on a branch crying for food as its mother swooped in to feed it. Naturally, I yell, "What kind of animal is THAT?" and scare it away (naturalist Jennifer at her best.)
• Getting up the nerve to jump into the chilly river and Taho's advice being, "Just charge in until you fall!" It worked perfectly.
• Seeing such exuberance in my hooting and hollering husband's face as he ran out of the river in his birthday suit.
• Experiencing pure laughter and joy by the riverside with our daughter.
• Fulfilling her obsession with horses by reaching over a fence to pet and be nose-nuzzled by the softest sweetest prettiest horse ever.
• After a gradual three month process, using this trip away from our routine as our last nursing day. Sweet and sad, but I was ready.
  
• Deciding to come home a day early; therefore, having time to have a spontaneous picnic brunch on our drive home through Mt. Rainier Nat. Park .
  

Lowlights:

• Realizing we accidentely left a bag of food behind hidden in the kitchen helper
• Upon arrival our geriatric dog jumped down a cliff to get a drink and started floating away in the swift moving river. I'm screaming and Papa considers jumping in to save her. She swam back to shore, but I worried about that cliff and my little beings for the a while.
  
• Mosquitoes that eat grown-ups and not naked children. Papa and I were clothed from head to toe and Little Ita was insistent on being naked. They swarmed all around her perfectly available skin, but rarely landed.
• Having an allergy attack so intense, from the horse, mosquitoes and meadow grasses that I had to take refuge in the tent for hours.

However, we are ready for more! We just need to find our camping groove...

What I learned about camping with kids:

• Read this really helpful blog post and the comments
  

• From the above post I learned about the three essentials - Food, Fuel, Warmth -
• I would add First Aid Kit. If you have those things, you'll have a great time, don't worry about the rest.
  
• Don't make our mistake. Before you drive away, ask yourself and your partner if you have packed and check that you actually have packed the 4 essentials - which includes: water, food from the refrigerator/cooler, other random food bags, tent, sleeping bags/pads, fuel/ stove, extra warmth clothes, hats, rain gear, socks, shoes, campfire wood, matches.

• Click on this site for an extensive master camping list of all other luxuries (including a great First Aid Kit List.)
• Camp near water. Rivers, lakes, creeks and beaches are our favorite places to camp because there is so much for all of us to do. Be sure the access is a safe distant away and not high risk.
  

What are your suggestions? I'd love to hear more.