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.

Sol Duc Resort

It was a long drive to our camp site.  We followed Ben & Erin.  We made several "potty" stops as well as a stop for lunch, grocery shopping and getting gas. It was a long drive up the Olympic Penisula past Port Townsend and the Port Angeles. The Sol Duc Resort is right next to the the Olympic National Forest.  I bought a senior pass - good for life.  We saved $15. We got to our 2 campsites. They were next to each other. They were very nice sites, off from the road and down near the stream. Ben, Erin, Sean (5) & Robbie (2) were in one site with Mark, Missy, Luke (3) and Rachel (1).  Jeanne, Jay and I were on the other. I borrowed 2 dutch ovens and a pack N play for Rachel.

It is a good thing we got all the tarps up because it rained pretty steadily that night.  At least it waited until we had everything all set up.  We stayed dry.  

handy climbing structure

Missy watching Erin taking a break in the hammock with Rachel, mid dinner prep.

Erin made spaghetti with a delicious sauce and Jay made a peach cobbler in the dutch oven.  

Jeanne, Rachel, Robbie, Missy, Luke, Jay, Erin, Ben and Mark.  Not sure where Sean is.

Monday morning

Breakfasst at the hotel was simple.  Then Jeanne and I went on a walk. We were very close to the Tacoma Glass Museum.  It was closed but we walked over the Chihuly Bridge and saw a few othr fun things.

Ben dropped off Robbie (2 year old)  so that they could get organized with their packing.  Soon we will check out and head up to the Olympic Peninsula.  I am thinking that this might be my last post. 

Tacoma - Sunday, Sept 4

Saturday we got the car all packed up, except for the cooler items.  

Sunday morning after breakfast we finished packing.  We left the house about 8:45 am.  Our goal was 9 am so we were doing great.  The drive to Onalaska was uneventful.  Jay drove.  We went directly to Kathleen (Jeanne's sus) and Lloyd's church.  We got there in time to visit a little before church.  Lloyd is the pastor there.  It is a small church and the people were very friendly.  We went to coffee hour afterwards. Then we went to their house.

Kathleen's giant sunflowers

Kathleen and Lloyd in front of theeir home

 Then Jeanne and Jay took us all out for lunch in Chahalis.  We went to a Chinese Restaurant.  We ordered too much food and I ate too much of it.  We went back to visit some more.  We left about 5 pm to go on to Tacoma.  We stayed in downtown Tacoma.  After settling in we drove to Anthony's on Point Defiance.  A very pretty drive.  We got there before the sunset.

(George was able to retrieve some of my pictures so here are the ones I was going to include)

We were not hungry so we just had drinks and appetizers at the bar.  We started with Peachy Drops. 

Yummy with fresh peaches.  Then I had a sauvignon blanc with my shrimp cocktail.

It was an open kitchen so we could watch them cook.  I kept trying to catch them flaming something.  Finally it happen.  The waitress told one of the chefs what I was trying to do and so he staged it for me.

Funny thing.  We were coming here to connect with Ben and Erin.  They were at a wedding Sunday night.  What we found out was the wedding was right next door to Anthony's.  So we had a brief connection with them.  

 

Saw Ben in a tux.  What a handsome dude.  We gave him a lift back to the hotel.  

Jeanne and I ended the evening with a Bailey's nightcap.