Seattle Trip

The Hays were kind enough to host us for a week long trip to see their new house in Seattle and do a little road trip around the state. We decided to go up during their spring break in the first week of April. Little did we know that we would end up going to Seattle again in August for James's wedding.  

Of course, step one was the planning spreadsheet, which was named "Wherein we convince the Bloods to move to Seattle." The Hays did 99% of the planning work, including telling us what we had to pack and what camping gear they could borrow for us. We flew up, so we were pretty limited with luggage space. Our coats and rain boots took up a sizable chunk of suitcase space. 

Airport buddies

It was great to see the Hays. Colby launched into a video game conversation as soon as we walked into the house, picking up things right where we left off. Alice came with Robb to pick us up from the airport, and Elliot and Alice spent the car ride back pretending they were astronauts exploring planet Marshmallow. And planet Alice. And planet Monkey. And planet Eyeball. They were quite creative.

The next morning, we were off! The girls (plus Emmett) took the van while the guys took the Hays's Civic. It was nice that we didn't have to rent a car.

On our way to the Quinalt Rain Forest Trail

Note the gas light and the remaining range of 0 miles. We realized that we forgot to fill up the van before leaving when we were already past the last town. We made it to a gas station 10 miles further than the "remaining range" predicted we had gas for. That is one way to add some excitement to the trip! (note for my parents- we weren't too worried because we had the second car that could have gone on and bought a gas can if we really did run dry.)

I knew it was wet and green in the northwest, but I didn't realize it was actually classified as a rain forest. We miraculously managed to not get rained on, but the ground was pretty soggy wherever we went.  

Our little forest creature

This fungus picture is dedicated to my fungi loving sibling, Clint

That night, we stayed in a mobile home Airbnb in Lower Hoh. We picked it because it was close to Ruby beach. It allowed us to see the sunset on the beach and have a place to shower before church the next day. We camped the following two nights. The mobile home was funny- it had nice wallpaper, but there were random holes that had been patched with pieces of cardboard from diaper boxes. I was greatly amused by the repair work. It was perfect for our needs.

Drawing pictures while the grown ups were unpacking and cooking dinner

My new favorite poem was displayed in the bathroom

We put on our coats and rain boots and headed down to the beach for sunset! The rain boots were a genius idea. All the barefoot fools were looking at us with eyes filled with jealousy and numb feet. It was gorgeous, and none of the kids let cold hands stop them from playing in the sand and tossing pebbles in the ocean. 

Annie trying to join Alice and Elliot in their cave. For some reason, they decided they had to pick up sand from the cave and carry it back to their sand castle near the (very small) waves.

Speak softly and carry a big stick

The crew minus our favorite photographer

These two were holding hands all over the place. They said it helped them not fall down. 

The next day we went to church in a small ward in Forks, Washington. The first speaker stood up and said "Good morning, brothers and sisters." Then the whole congregation said "good morning" right back! The same thing happened with the next speaker too! Then over the pulpit, one of the speakers was like "This scripture is for you Mary" and this lady that must be Mary goes "Alright!" It was delightfully folksy. We were swarmed by people who hoped that we were going to move in and double their primary, but alas we had to be on our way.  

Lunch in Forks consisted of sandwiches and birthday cupcakes at a park for Claire

Not the best picture, but it should be noted that Forks is the setting of the Twilight series. They are DEFINITELY milking that for all it is worth, with Twilight tours being advertised on many shop windows and special vampire additions to menus taped up in restaurants. But we were in it for NATURE not VAMPIRE NOVEL FANDOM.   

Next stop: Hoh Rain Forest! We had some awesome Elk sightings. They were munching on the ever prevalent skunk cabbage (thank you informational signs for identifying this wonderfully named plant)

I'm not sure if this is a pond or a swamp

Entering the Hall of Mosses!

Aaron had to keep his hood up because Annie was trying to tear off his ears. We gave up on the baby carrier pretty quickly.

It was such a surreal place

Holding hands again

When trees fall over here, new trees start growing out of the "nurse logs" as they decompose. After the nurse log rots away, we are left with three or so trees in a very straight row with a bunch of exposed, gnarly roots.

That night we camped at the very mossy Hoh campground. It got pretty cold at night, so we bundled up and got some good rest. 

I woke up early with Annie. When I stepped out of the tent, there was a bull elk about 50 feet way from me!!

As we went to cook breakfast burritos in the morning, we realized that I had left all the eggs in the fridge at the Airbnb. They were in these nifty containers that are actually a part of the Hays' fridge. Fortunately the Airbnb owner agreed to meet us in Forks to give them back to us. We switched the meal plan around and had pancakes instead. Because of the bonus trip to Forks and how long it took to break down camp in the morning, we decided to skip the stop we had planned for Cape Flattery and went right on to Sol Duc.

Sol Duc was at a higher elevation, and we passed several snow banks on the drive up. There were patches of snow on the ground at the campsite. Lakin and I got scared of a night that was even colder than the night before. We sent the guys to go ask about the cabins associated with the campground, but they were ridiculously expensive. It turned out to be only a bit colder than the night before, and with hats and lots of layers we all slept fine. 

The gals hanging out while the guys inquired after the overpriced cabins

They kept finding sticks to use as wands and making up spells that were just normal words with "-io!" added to the end. Example: "Frogio! Mom, now you're a frog!"

Drummer gals

Many moss salads were made

After we decided we were staying, we crossed a log to get to the river area. The water levels were way low, so we could walk out into the area that is normally underwater. 

 Then we went back to camp to make some spaghetti. This was the sure-fire meal that we knew all the kids would make. But DISASTER STRUCK! Our can of propane ran out before the water could get to a full boil. The guys went to the small camp store, but they didn't have any. We were hours away from any towns. So we soaked the noodles in the hot water until they softened up. It was like spaghetti mush. We were hungry enough that even the kids were able to choke enough down, and then we devoured many more s'mores than we normally would have. 

Reading "More Spaghetti, I Say!" while waiting for our Spaghetti Mush

The reward for eating the Spaghetti Mush

Wool socks over the jeans for extra warmth

That night after the kids went to bed, we were sitting around the fire. (Side note- it is VERY DIFFICULT to get a fire going when everything is wet, but we had a decent one that night that helped against the cold.) All of a sudden, Robb snapped on his flashlight and pointed it at the picnic table right behind us. There was a huge raccoon going through the toiletries bag trying to get at the toothpaste! He was not at all scared of us. We threw rocks, but he came right back a few minutes later. He didn't actually leave until Robb charged him with a huge stick, bellowing fierce war cries. We brushed our teeth so that we could lock up the toiletries bags. After that, Lakin said, "Won't he just come back?" to which Robb responded "No, he'll find an easier target." As soon as he finished his sentence, we heard a yelp from the campsite next to ours. Perfect timing!

This is the spot that the raccoon kept sneaking back to until Robb all but attacked him.

The next morning we hiked to Sol Duc Falls. We debated skipping it because Emmett desperately needed a nap. We finally decided that Lakin would stay back with him while the rest of us did the short hike. Emmett took a disappointingly short nap, so Lakin threw him in a backpack and caught up to us. I'm glad she did- these waterfalls were worth seeing!

SO. GREEN.

Sol Duc has three parallel waterfalls that crash down into this narrow canyon. 

Elliot and Alice were both very intent on carrying cumbersome armfuls of branches back to the car

Then we bid farewell to our favorite temperate rain forest and headed over to Seattle! This involved driving our vehicles onto a ferry that floated us across the sound in a surprisingly efficient manner. It is weird to think that this is part of some people's daily commute. 

On the Ferry

Driving and walking through the city was stressful. When we are hiking and camping, we let the kids scamper all over the place. I am 0% afraid of the kids getting mauled by a bear or some other unlikely nature disaster. Walking on the sidewalks in Seattle was terrifying compared to walking through the woods. We had a firm hand holding policy in place, and still had a scary experience of Colby almost tripping into a busy road.

We attempted to go to Pike Place Market, but unfortunately we got there as all the shops were closing up. We wandered around anyway for a while, then settled on a place called "Beecher's" for dinner. It is a fancy cheese shop. You can see them making vats of cheese through this window. They age the cheese for a year before using it in their various sandwiches and Mac n' Cheese dishes. It was rich and wonderful. 

After one more night at the Hay's house, it was time to say goodbye. The day we were flying to Seattle, we got a message saying that our return flight had been cancelled. We talked to customer service at the airport and ended up with a direct flight at a more convenient time! I'm sure it was one that we had looked at before and skipped because it was more expensive, but we got it for free this way. This is the first time that we have had an airline change our flight and have it be better in the end. And Annie took a nap, so it was an excellent return trip. 

Our luck ended when we got to the hotel where we had parked our car. The battery had died while we were gone. We had to hunt down someone to jump it for us, which wasn't too bad. We were able to make it back home, but had to take it into the mechanic to replace the battery later that week. I suppose it is impossible to travel without something going wrong!