Day 2.
Day 3.
Kids jumped off the dock, played at the playground and wore themselves out. In the afternoon, John and I hiked Upper Big Creek Loop, which was close to five miles, and exhausting. Then we went to the Prestons cabin for hamburgers and to play in their big open yard.
Day 4.
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
We had lunch together, then went down to the lake for some mega floatie, kayaking fun. The Saturday vibe at the lake was very different but we still had fun. Dalton and John kayaked all the way across the lake!
Day 8
Sun Jul 04 2021 18:59 Washington:
Day 1.
Drove to Redding, CA. It was 109°. We were able to make a half hour pool reservation.
Drove to Lake Cushman, Washington, with a stop at Walmart for provisions. So glad to meet the Prestons, just minutes after we arrived. They are staying at a cabin down the road. We walked down to the lake and watched the summer solstice sun set at 9pm.
We slept until 8am and then headed down to Cushman Lake with the kayaks. We all took a turn, including Wally. On Dalton’s second turn, he went out into the main lake all by himself, he was so confident, and I was so proud. This is one of the reasons we take our kids to do stuff like this - so they’ll feel confident doing stuff!
First, we drove to North Beach in Port Townsend to look for sea glass. I loved this part. All the kids had fun digging on the rocks and collected lots of glass. Then, we went to the Hurricane Ridge area of Olympic National Park in Port Angeles for a picnic and a short hike. The hike gave us a fantastic view of Olympic NP and even to Canada. We stopped in Hoodsport for ice cream on our way back. I had a delicious lemon cheesecake raspberry swirl.
I spent most of this day sick at home with Arthur’s cold, and Jodi and the little kids. We did take them into town for ice cream, and down to the lake with floaties for an hour. Meanwhile, John and Franco took Maggie, Dalton, and Franco in a fishing excursion. They all got to catch salmon to bring home to eat, and had a great time on the boat with amazing views.
Today we drove 4 hours to Hoh rainforest, where we took turns watching Wally/doing the Hall of Mosses hike. It was so green! Then we went to Ruby beach, which was covered in rocks and driftwood. Arthur and Sienna hopped in in their clothes and had a blast splashing with cousins. We also stacked a lot of rock piles.
One of the coolest parts of our Washington trip was visiting High Steel Bridge. It was a 45 minute drive from our cabin, including a few miles of dirt road. The bridge is 365 feet above the gorge, beautiful view of the river and a waterfall, Franco took some fun pictures with his drone.
Drove a million hours to Utah. Sigh. Ok, it was just 14.
We are going to the Lehi pool with family in the morning, before driving home. Sun Jul 04 2021 19:01 Going Home:
I told Arthur to charge his tablet for the long drive tomorrow and he asked how long it was. When I told him ten hours he said “ugh! Can’t we go to a different one?” A different what? Home? A new California?