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Olympic Peninsula

I am still alive, just been too busy to blog. One reason was our vacation, we left the day after Thanksgiving and were gone a full week.

Day One: Checked out the beach at the place we were staying, the kids collected every single piece of a shell they found, a grocery bag full!

Then a visit to Fort Worden (1890s-1953) in Port Townsend

The artillery museum gave us an overview of the fort, which had some HUGE guns, but never was attacked (would have been a different story had the war in the Pacific gone differently). Over 4000 people lived there.

The Kinzie bunker was a kids' paradise, all made of concrete and lots of places to fall. They liked the narrow, dark corridors and stairways and ladders all over. I had to confine them to the first level for tag, though.

Day Two:

Church in Hadlock, then went to see Port Angeles and the Olympic National Forest visitors center. We drove to a trail to hike some, and I locked the keys in the car. Oops. Hubby saved the day, although he was grumpy about it for some reason, so I made myself scarce until he was done breaking in.

Day Three:

The animal game farm was the kids' absolute favorite thing on the whole vacation. We bought bread at the gate, then as we drove through fed the animals that walked around--

llamas . . .

yaks . . .

grizzly bears! Well, the bears were actually behind a fence about 2 and 1/2 feet high, plus an electric wire, so you had to toss the bread, but that's not a very high fence for a bear. Luckily these were retirees from movies like Grizzly Adams.

They were so roly poly.

This big boy liked the bread thrown where he could catch it in his mouth, he really didn't like to exert himself and looked put out if it so much as fell at his feet.

I didn't get a picture of the elk, I was too busy pushing their heads OUT of the car. There were zebras, buffalo, and fallow deer wandering about, too. The caged animals weren't as exciting, except the roaring lion.

Day Four:

Dad arrived. He went with us to the Olympic Rainforest, the Hoh Visitor Center and nature trails.

We drove back up through Forks to eat (Forks of Twilight fame--might explain the guys in trench coats photographing the Welcome to Forks sign), and then drove to La Push to see the ocean.

We all raced waves (and all lost--the tide was coming in)

Day Five:

Victoria, B.C., Canada

Took the ferry over, that cost more than we expected, bummer. The B.C. Museum was fun, then we went to The Bug Zoo. They have some BIG bugs.

That's a millipede on his forehead.

And on her face. I held it--in my hand.

Day Six:

We took Dad to see Port Townsend, the bunker, the homemade ice cream shop, then drove through the boat yard where they were repairing all types of boats.

The wooden hulls surprised us.

I thought the vehicle they used to transport the big old boats was cool.

Day Seven: the long drive home, which was even longer because my navigator (hubby, who can't drive long distances or he falls asleep) got interested in a movie and sent me the long way home.

Part way home my 5yo asked, "Are we still in Window Washing?" We laughed, "Yes, we're still in Washington."