Our family has a tradition of going on vacation the first week of May. Mostly because it always coincided with the end of busy season. And in a month that includes my birthday, our anniversary, and mothers day, adding a vacation is just icing on the cake! This year we decided to do two mini vacations one week apart: an overnighter to the Olympic Penninsula and Dungeness Bay, and an overnighter to Leavenworth (not the jail place). Our first little trip was really beautiful. Richard had always wanted to see the Dungeness spit (and no, that is not watching crabs spit at you-- it is a long, narrow sandbar that stretches 5 miles out into the Dungeness Bay).
We went for a little hike and Anna tried to catch butterflies in her small bucket. She was not successful but had lots of fun in the attempt.
In this picture, you can seen the long narrow spit with a lighthouse in the middle.
As long as there is sand and water, Anna is happy.
Benjaboy didn't have quite as good a time as Anna. He doesn't love being in a backpack. A part of that is probably his head control, which is still stabilizing. We took an almost identical trip 3 years ago with Anna and she would often fall asleep in the backpack. Benjamin, not so much. And he is so fair. We fought the sun on his behalf the whole time.
I see this picture of Anna and I am amazed she is only 3 years old. she seems so old. But I love to see the wonder and delight on her face whenever we are close to the ocean.
Here is the spit again. Richard would someday like to walk the entire 5 miles (which would end up being 10 miles round trip), but this was not the trip to attempt that. We have found that when hiking with kids, 1-2 miles is all we can handle.
After our little hike and expedition, we went out to dinner and the Old Mill Restaurant. We had not taken the kids out to eat at a restaurant in at least a year. Anna was amazing, as was Benjamin. We were encouraged that we could attempt similar outings in the future without sacrificing nice dinners.
It helped that Benjamin was asleep the whole time, I will admit :)
The next morning we went to Crescent Lake to re-experience one of the favorite hikes we have ever been on. This lake is more than 600 feet deep, and on still days you can see far, far down. It is eerie and beautiful.
It is also beautiful because some of the Olympic Mountain range rise up right near the waters edge, which certainly makes for a stunning backdrop!
No comments:
Post a Comment