Deception Pass Camping Trip

This weekend was the official start of our summer. The kids had their last day of school on Friday and soon after they were done, we headed north to Whidbey Island ... Deception Pass, to be specific.

The drive was easy, aside from some unexpected traffic through Everett. (We did have an unexpected stop along the way when we realized we forgot to pack pillows (WHOOPS), so stopped at the next Fred Meyer our phone GPS could identify.) Aside from those things, it was an easy drive. :)

We found our camp site very easily and were impressed by the size of the state park and the fact we were so close to the beach. By standing on a rock or our picnic table benches, we could see the water. No complaints about that!!  

Our weekend's home-sweet-home

See? Water!!

Eric setting up our site

While Eric and I set up camp, the kids donned their helmets and rode their scooters around the loop our site was on. They quickly made friends with a family two spots down from us and basically disappeared until I retrieved them some time later. As soon as we had the tent and kitchen area set up, it was time to officially relax and get into camping mode. It was a little chilly/windy (we expected this, so weren't surprised), so we got a fire going fairly early in the day. 

WHOOPS!! My UW sweatshirt (and camp chair)
got a little love from some flying embers 

One of our few brushes with wildlife

The kids and I explored the nearby beach while Eric stuck close to the fire; we figured being responsible for a forest fire would be frowned upon, so left him as the sentry. The view from the beach was stunning; the sun glistened and made the water sparkle like it was crusted with diamonds. Annika and Conor happily scaled much of the driftwood scattered on the beach and practiced their rock skipping skills. We searched high and low for the perfect skipping stones. Because we weren't in water-friendly clothes or shoes, I was on high alert when it came to keeping the kids out of the Sound. For the most part, I was successful, so I considered it a win.

Exploring the beach

Panoramic view of the beach

Climbing driftwood

Driftwood  fun

Looking north

Our girl on her driftwood throne

Conor balancing

Annika skipping a rock

Our rock skippers

Our other brush with the local wildlife

After our jaunt to the beach, it was time to get roasting. The kids decided to head back on the path we took to the beach and I opted for the road route. (Six one way, half a dozen the other.) Annika decided to explore past where our campsite was and didn't arrive at our site with Conor. After a minor heart attack and a few minutes of walking the path while calling her name, we located Annika (who was walking toward us) and reminded the kids about making safe (and sound) choices. Ugh!!

Once my heart returned to a normal pace, it was time for dinner, which consisted of roasted hot dogs, baked beans, and fried red potatoes. The kids loved roasting their hot dogs and I greatly enjoyed the lack of post-dinner clean up! We really should cook more using sticks and an open fire! Naturally, dessert was the camping favorite s'mores. YUM! 

Annika roasting her marshmallow

S'more boy

Eric and Conor cozied up to the fire

Yup, this is how I camp
(aka fireside happy hour)

S'more girl

Our future food critic giving her official review

Double fisting his s'mores

Who needs napkins???

Warm toes while munching on a s'more ... what could be better?

Conor gives camping a big ol' thumbs up

We surprised the kids with a rainbow additive to make the fire extra special and fun. The family that the kids befriended earlier in the day saw our fire and wound up hanging out with us for a couple of hours while the kids played and the adults chatted. It was a fun impromptu evening. The family's little boy is 2 and thought our van's automatic door was the best thing ever; every time it opened/closed, he would cackle with laughter. That, of course, highly entertained the adults ... sending us into peals of laughter.

Our pretty fire!

Eventually, it was time to hit the sack (quite literally!) and snuggle up for the night. The wind kicked up during the night and made it a bit tricky to get decent sleep, but it wasn't horrible. Fortunately, we stayed nice and warm. I'll take loud wind over being cold any day.

On Saturday morning as we were figuring out our plan for the day, Conor climbed into my lap and said he wasn't feeling well... his tummy and head hurt. I snuggled with him for a bit and when it became clear this wasn't a passing oddity, Eric and I made the decision to abandon the rest of the camping trip and head home a day early. Fortunately, we were able to get a hold of Eric's parents before they made it too far from home. (They were going to come up and spend part of the day at the camp site with us.) Annika was really bummed that we were leaving early, but still understood why. (I placated her by saying we could put the small tent in her room that night so she could "camp" one more night.) Conor slept a bit on the way home and then took a 4 hour nap once we got home. He woke up with a fever and continued aches (confirmed that we made the right choice of coming home early). Fortunately, by the next day, he rebounded and was mostly back to his normal, energetic self. The fever did spike again Sunday night, but didn't last too long.

Not exactly the camping trip we'd planned, but still fun and one we'll remember. Maybe we can go back next summer and have a do-over trip to Deception Pass. 

Sick boy sleeping in the car

Fevers suck!

Final 2015 Family Camping Trip: Ft. Flagler

Simply put, we had a fantastic weekend!

Because stopping there would be a pretty darned boring blog post, I'll go into a bit more detail about our lovely trip to Ft. Flagler State Park. :)

This was our first two-night camping trip with the kiddos and it was a marvelous start to longer family camping trips. This trip required a ferry ride and, those who are familiar with the WA State Ferry system, Friday afternoons/evenings are the worst day/time to try to get on a ferry. Now, ask me when we needed to be on a ferry. YUP! Friday afternoon. We got the kids as soon as they got out of school and high-tailed it up to the Edmonds ferry dock. We didn't make it on our "pie in the sky" ferry, but did make the next one, which was the one we knew was our more realistic option. We planned ahead and had a change of clothes for the kids and had sandwiches from Subway for dinner. Easy!

After a 1/2-hour ferry ride, we were back on the road, winding our way up over the Hood Canal Bridge and eventually arriving at Ft. Flagler State Park. We got there a little after 6 PM, so there was still plenty of light to set up camp and get settled in for the weekend. Eric, genius that he is, packed our little cheapy badminton racket/birdie set, which kept the kids happily entertained while he and I got our camp ready. The only downfall was our site seemed to be surrounded by stinging nettles, which made retrieving the stray birdie a bit of a painful experience at times.

Once the sun went down, we crowded around our campfire (YES! The summer's burn ban was lifted and we got a real, honest-to-God wood fire! Eric and I were positively giddy when we read that the ban was lifted!) and roasted s'mores and looked at the stars. After the kids settled down in their sleeping bags for the night, Eric and I were entertained by a couple of shrews that bravely checked out our site and chewed on the little scraps of wood by our fire pit. Those little things are FAST and sort of hop more than walk. (Yes, our expectations for entertainment really do go down out in the wild.) 

Our Saturday morning was filled with climbing logs, exploring the camp grounds (and scoping out which lots looked like ones we'd want to reserve in the future), more badminton, and doing leaf rubbings. The previous night wasn't 100% restful thanks to some noisy coyotes in the area, so a slow start to the day was quite ideal.

Conor: King of the Log

Mama's camping buddies

Flying Annika

Conor working on his leaf rubbings

Annika and Eric: A mighty cute leaf-rubbing team

Ta Da!

 Once our morning coffee kicked in, we packed up and headed toward Pt. Townsend. On our way out of the park, however, we decided to stop at the bunkers to peek around a bit and see what was to be seen. Eric and I are both history buffs, so stuff like this is right up our alley! The kids had a great time climbing in and out of the open (low) windows and looking in the various rooms. Someone (very wisely) at some point marked what the various rooms were used for, so we knew which rooms were used to store the powder kegs, which were the latrines, etc.

Racing toward the bunkers

Annika, just hanging around

Conor getting a new perspective on things

Sometimes I really do climb the walls

Forget Spiderman, I've got Ericman

 After exploring the bunkers, we piled back in the car and headed to Pt. Townsend. Our original thought was to grab a casual lunch and poke around town a bit. Little did we know that there was a farmers market, art show, and some other even in town all on the same day, making parking practically impossible to find. We did find a spot near the farmers market, so we poked around there a bit and played in an adjacent park for awhile. We abandoned our hunt for a near-by family-friendly restaurant and headed out of town a bit before locating a Mexican restaurant that looked good and had plenty of parking. It all worked out for the best because our waiter mentioned that the Hood Canal Bridge would be closed again for repairs the next day (aka when we were heading home), which helped us decide on a "get up, eat breakfast, and go" approach to Sunday.

Conor and Eric at having a car race at the Pt. Townsend park

Annika enjoying the sun in Pt. Townsend

Saturday's weather was truly ideal! After we returned from Pt. Townsend, we changed into our shorts and headed down to the beach to play and fly our kite. The kids had a great time splashing around the water, finding shells and unique rocks on the beach, and digging in the sand. The beach has a bit of a jetty, so there was plenty of real estate to explore and not feel like we were in a sea of people. (I'm sure the fact that Labor Day was already past helped quite a bit with that, too.)

Annika flying the kite at Ft. Flagler's beach

The beach

The Driftwood King and Queen

Building sandcastles

Eric turning Annika into a sand mremaid

Mt. Baker in the deistance

My two favorite guys

Conor playing beach ball soccer

For our second night, we (once again) had a lovely fire and sat under the stars taking in the beauty of the night sky. We also played a "pass the story" game as we sat around the fire. We created a story about a mouse name Malcolm who was a baker (he lived in the same tree that the Keebler elves live in, in fact!) and he went to the county fair to compete in the cookie and pie-making contests ... he won a blue ribbon for his marshmallow, chocolate chip, and cheese cookies and for his cheese meringue pie! He had 17 brothers and sisters, who helped him work in his bakery, and had to deal with the fallout of a racoon bandit who stole his baking ingredients. Talk about a story that was full of drama!!!

We roasted hot dogs for dinner and s'mores for dessert. Yum! And, yes after the kids went to bed, Eric and I tuned in the "Shrew-a-vision" for our entertainment.

The next morning, we remained very focused so we could get across the bridge before its scheduled closure and are so glad we did. About 5 minutes after we left, the rain started to sprinkled down. Talk about timing!!!

On our way out of the park, we did make one quick unexpected stop ... we saw a mama and baby deer nibbling on the grass by the side of the road. Gratefully, the camera was at my feet and no one was behind our car, so I slipped out of the car and snapped a few photos before we continued on our merry way... tired, dirty, smelling of camp fire, and grateful for a fun weekend together.