We just got back yesterday from our last summer hurrah before school started today. The week we took off to hang out on the Olympic Peninsula (mainly in the town of Seabrook) flew by so fast!
Our trip was with the Wong family again, who we went with
to Banff last year. It's nice having friends to hang out with, and it was easy to split up and go different ways if some kids didn't want to go to the beach, or if some of the parents wanted to go do harder biking trails, etc.
The main parts of our trips were either exploring the Olympic National Park or hanging out in the town of Seabrook, where we rented a house for the week. In the National Park, we went up to Hurricane Ridge, which is I think their peak, hiked around a couple of different rainforests (Kalaloch and Quinnalt) and had a picnic lunch at Ruby Beach. We would have explored more but a lot of the areas we wanted to check out like La Push (yes, Jacob's home!) and Cape Flattery (the furthest northwest tip of the state) was closed because of COVID. The last time we were in this area was when Evie was 2 years old, so it was fun to see some of the same spots we remember from before and also find really cool new places that we would definitely go back to.
In Seabrook, we alternated between hanging out at the beach (which is super long and deep and sandy), lounging in our hot tub and biking around the quaint little town. The neighborhood is a planned community that is extremely family friendly so it was easy to bike in the streets and not worry about cars or weird people. Again, we were bummed that some amenities like the pool were closed because of COVID but it didn't stop us from having our fun. It did change some of the dynamics of the vacation though - we had picnic lunches or ate in for all but 2 meals (grabbing pizza one night in Port Angeles where we had one side of the restaurant to ourselves, and getting lunch on the way home yesterday), but it was great being able to share kitchen duties with another family!
I'm so sad that summer is over and we're now back to the grind. I'll have to console myself by looking at our fun pictures.
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First stop was Sluy's bakery in Poulsbo.
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COVID cookies
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Nora is really attached to Kathy
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Poulsbo is a Norwegian town and these are funny Viking drawings of killing COVID.
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Nordic women spearing COVID while a masked gnome carries a toilet paper roll torch!
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Lunch stop at Lake Crescent.
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Dipping their feet in the water
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At the top of Hurricane Ridge, looking out towards Canada
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The kids were obsessed with finding lupine seeds during out hike
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The top was pretty baren compared to Mt Rainier
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It's pretty near impossible to get a photo with all 4 smiling at the camera with eyes open.
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Goofing around on the pier in Port Angeles
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Lookout tower on the Port Angeles pier
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First view of Ruby Beach
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Picnic lunch on the beach
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Kids were so excited to play in the waves
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Not too many people looking this way....
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More people looking this way, but still easy to social distance
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Hot stone massage
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Stone scuptures
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We let each girl bring home a rock from the beach. Of course Nora picks a ginormous one!
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Elephant (or fish?) tree on our Kalaloch Rainforest walk
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Cute moss!
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It was nice, but we agreed we can basically get the same in Issaquah.....
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At Quinnault Rainforest, we drove to Merriman Falls
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You can get really close to the falls
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Moss mustache
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Our only group shot!
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Looking at the HUGE trees in the Quinnault rain forest
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Our house in Seabrook: Surfside Retreat
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Ginormous adirondack
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Kids bunk room
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We had a big table that seated 8 very comfortably but yet the kids insisted on always squishing together!
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Plank competition
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Hot tub time!
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Looks so fun! I'm so jealous that you had a real vacation!
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