Thursday at the Tide Pools

It was colder last night.  I guess because it was not cloudy. I am not sleeping very well.  I think I need a thicker pad.  I wish I had brought my little space heater for the mornings, but I don't think that we had room for one more thing.  Our plan this morning was to leave at 9 am.  It was 9:20.  Not bad.  The goal today was to go to Rialto Beach which was supposed to have tide pools.  Every time we drove somewhere I was charging every electronic gadget I had.  Tried to keep my phone on airplane mode since there was no connection anywhere.  It still lost its charge.  As we went through Forks I had a brief moment of connectivity. I sent one text and one email and that was it. 16 emails came in. Actually, the email I sent did not go until we came through Forks on our way home.

driftwood monster

Ben, Robbie and Erin

we had to cross the stream on a log.

The beach was pretty but  it was very rocky and pebbly.  It was hard to walk on.  We were all bundled up.  Walked about a mile and a half to some tide pools.  Fun. Kids climbed on the rocks for a long time.  

river otter with lunch.  

Missy and Rachel

snack time

Rachel

Robbie

Luke

Mark had fun doing the timer photos.  He had to be fast climbing the rock to get into position.  We kept making him do it again and again.

this is zoomed in

Started back and found a nice picnic table for lunch, it even had a fort.  The sun came out and it was nice and warm.  Perfect day. 

Drove into Forks for groceries like milk bread and ice.  Then of course we had to include more wine and Baileys.   

Ben and Erin's turn to cook.  They made a delicious dinner of chili and cornbread.  S'mores for dessert so we had a campfire .  That was nice.  I always like campfires. We have been eating very well.  I have not had to do any cooking.  So I mostly did dishes.  Seemed like a fair trade to me.  Actually I was the lucky one.

Mark roasting marshmallows.

They played Dominion again after the kids were in bed.  I went to bed.

Wednesday at Hurricane Ridge

Mark and Missy fixed breakfast casserole of eggs, bread, sausage.  They used the dutch oven. 

the spa in the morning with no one in it.

sol duc mountain is visible

The shower opens at 8:00 am we had thought that it was 7:30 am but that was only the gift shop and office.  The goal was to leave the camp site at 10 am to go to the beach.  It was 10:15 am when we got on the road.  Pretty good.  

Crescent Lake 

We drove to Hurricane Ridge. Great view but unfortunately it was cloudy.  So the visibility was not good.  We could not see Mt Olympus but we did see where it was supposed to be.  Everything we drove to was about a 2 hour drive so we had to factor that in.  First thing was lunch.  We brought lunch fixings so we took everything and found a table inside.  It was too cold and windy to be outside.  

Hurricane Ridge Lodge

Mt Olympus is back behind the clouds

Waiting until 2 pm to go on a guided meadow walk.  That was not really worth it, plus it was raining at the time.  Sean is very good at singing "Bye Bye, Miss American Pie". He sang it over and over and over.

Sean

Jay, Ben with Robbie

Luke

Ben, Robbie and Sean

Erin with Luke and Robbie.  Waiting for everyone to get ready to leave.

Then we drove home so that we could start dinner.  Ben and Mark and families drove to Port Angeles to do laundry and grocery shopping.   They got back around 7 pm.  Dinner was almost ready.  Jay cooked spaghetti pizza and apple pie.  It was very good.

spaghetti pizza loaded with pepperoni

apple pie with hot spiced cider with fireball whisky.

sunset

reflections

Missy with Rachel

After dinner and getting kids to bed Mark, Jay, Ben and Erin played another game or two of Dominion,  

Jay's Birthday - Tuesday

I got up and started the hot water for my coffee.  Then as people woke up we had some breakfast. Jay made banana nut muffin in the dutch oven.  Yummy.  Jeanne and I walked over to the Sol Duc Resort to find out what time they open - 7:30am.  It was about a 10 minute walk.  

brilliant fungus

Sol Duc mountain in the background.  Too foggy to see

deer were everywhere

After breakfast I went over and found out that the showers were free.  So I showered.  Ahh.  It is a communal shower and it is with a sensor.  You have to stand in front of the sensor for the shower water to come on.  But at least it was warm. 

Luke and Robbie

Ben with Rachel.  Everyone had a chance to hold Rachel.

Sol Duc Mountain slowly appearing.

Then we went on a hike to the sol duc waterfall.  Much more of an extensive hike than we had planned.  We stopped part way for snack time for the kids.  Some people went back to camp.  Nathan you would have been impressed that I made it. Jeanne, Ben with Robbie and Mark with Rachel (each in backpack carriers) and I went on to the falls.  It was a very nice falls.  Ended out walking 6 miles.  When we were almost at the falls we saw that there was a place that we could have driven to and walked only the last 0.6 miles.  Oh Well.  It was a pretty walk and the falls was worth it.

starting out

Ben with Robbie AND Sean

snack stop

Robbie taking a nap

Rachel is not so impressed with the falls.

I was very hungry by the time we got back.  Inhaled a sandwich.  It was almost 2 pm when we ate.

Erin, Missy and I went to spa They had 4 pools, each at a different temperature.  

Dinner was Missy and Mark cooked dinner.  We had gnocchi with sausage and veggies.  Another good meal.  It was Jays' birthday.   Ben and Jeanne made a chocolate mud cake that was delicious.  It was Sharon & Glenn's recipe for the dutch oven. 

Jay with Robbie

Jay got a game of Dominion.  They played that each night after that.  Not my type of game but they sure had fun.  Record number of steps 29,790!  I was exhausted.