Northern Getaway: The Fourth Part

So this is really just a continuation of the same day, but a different location...

We came here to get down closer to the ocean.  Our trip was a little short on water time, but we enjoyed what we got!

Our trail took us down this cliff.  It looks scary, but it had lots of switchbacks to make it feel like a not-very-steep hike, for the most part.  The guy in the foreground of this picture was painting.

The kids loved digging on the beach.  We could have spent a lot more time here, and they would have been totally happy, but we got a late start, so we didn't stay for a very long time.

The sand on the beach was actually tiny pebbles, which made cleanup really easy!  Each little pebble was different than the rest...lots of interesting shapes and colors.

Here's another look back up the trail to the top.

Jonathan's tower...or pile.

At the top, looking back down the cliff

And, another lovely sunset from our porch.

Northern Getaway: The Third Part

We spent one day in and around this town we had never visited before.  It has some Victorian homes that are beautiful and interesting.  This one, below, has been called the greatest example of Victorian architecture, among other things.  Its tiny details are amazing to see.  But, we couldn't get any closer than this because it's a private club for men, and has been since the 1950s. I wasn't thrilled that only certain people are allowed to look at it.  But, we still admired it from this side of the fence.

The agapanthas seemed more purple here.  Maybe because of the moist, ocean air.  Down here in the almost-desert, they're a little pale!

A game of run-around-the-pole.  When Benjamin couldn't find a pole, Jonathan volunteered to be the pole.  Really.

Here's the plaque describing the house below.  The owner of the house at the top of this post built the house in the picture below as a wedding gift for his son.  Quite a wedding gift!

And these might possibly be the best slides ever, at the most beautiful park ever.

Here we are taking a walk down the trail to the duck pond...still in the park.

Here's our friend, the banana slug.  Jonathan's shoe is there to show how big he was.  We didn't kiss him.

We enjoyed the ducks, and a turtle, and a swan...and then walked back up the hill.

 What a beautiful park in the middle of town!

Northern Getaway: The Second Part

Here's the second walk/hike that we took on our first day of sightseeing.

Something about this bridge was really intriguing to me.  It was solid - no holes in the railings or bottom.  I'm sure some engineer had a fun time figuring out how to make one big curve out of lots of pieces of wood.

Did you know that Elk live on the coast?  I didn't.  And, apparently, they're there all the time, because there are signs directing drivers where to go to see them easily, and telling them not to approach on foot.

I took this picture from the bottom of the canyon, looking up at the top ledge.  The pictures from this walk don't do it justice, but it was beautiful.

The walk through the canyon followed a creek, so we did a lot of our walking over little, portable, wooden bridges.  I didn't get good pictures of those, but Jeff got some on his phone, and I'll do a post of his phone pictures soon.

Family photo attempt...

and another one.

We were in a tsunami hazard zone for most of this vacation.  The owners we rented from told us that the highest recorded tsunami in the area was 10 feet high, and our house was much higher off of the beach than that, so we were not too worried.

I brought some new coloring stuff for the kids, and it was amazing how excited they got about coloring when they had nothing else to do.

The boys shared a real bunk bed, with the bottom mattress up off of the floor, which they loved.  Benjamin had a little trouble sleeping a couple of times, but overall he did great.  And you know I can't resist a picture of a sleeping kid.

More pictures to come...

Northern Getaway: The First Part

Here are some pictures of our recent getaway to the northern end of our state.  We had never been there before, and we really enjoyed our time in this remote and secluded area.

Here's a cafe where we ate on the way.  It had sticky tables but yummy sandwiches.

The younger kids took short snoozes on the way, but not usually at the same time.

We had to stop at Costco, and Cookie Monster needed to be buckled.

This is the first place we went for a hike.  The weather was chilly and foggy - a welcome reprieve from our normal summer weather.  The weather was perfect on this trip.  We were happy to wear jeans and long sleeves in August.  And it was easy to pack because all our long sleeves and jeans were clean...untouched since the last time it had been chilly at home.

You can see how foggy it was in a lot of our pictures from this day.

In one of the smaller trees.

We saw a few of these on our walk.

We happened upon this creature in the burned-out tree that you see below.  We couldn't decide what it was...one creature eating another, maybe?  We finally decided it was an insect molting.  And it was pretty gross.

I took a lot of pictures of the kids walking with Jeff.  There's something very sweet about watching them.

Learning about this grove of trees

I love ferns...they are so beautiful.

A family photo attempt in the fog

A cool spider web.  I wasn't sad to miss out on seeing the spider.

My boys

One fun development on this trip was Jonathan's growing ability to amuse his siblings.  This particular walk had several numbered markers along the way, numbered 1-12, I think.  Each number corresponded to a point of interest on the map, which Jeff, of course, was reading.  Jonathan had the brilliant idea to lead the younger kids in searching for each number, sneaking up on it, and scaring it.  To adults, it might not sound very fun, but the kids had a great time searching for each number and taking turns roaring at it when they found it.  And they never got tired or whiny on this walk.  It was great!

 And I have to include this and brag on my girl a bit.  She isn't a reader yet, but she's trying really hard. Figuring out which vowels are long and which are short is giving her a lot of trouble.  (English is so complicated!)  But, she sounded out the "parking lot" sign all by herself, and I was so proud of her.  And she was proud of herself.

More pictures to come...