Labor Day

Brian's been wanted to see the Olympic National Park since we moved up here, so he made plans for us to go Labor Day weekend. It was kind of a last minute decision, but he got reservations at Crescent Bay. He talked to the lady and from what she told him it was going to be a beautiful campground right on the beach. I picked Brian up from work on Friday and we were on the ferry by 6pm. Not bad for a holiday weekend, we were expecting at least two hours. We pull up to the "campground" at about 8:30 and what a disappointment. It's an RV park on a strip of grass where a few tents could be placed in between the RV's with NO privacy. Plus the fire pits had high walls around them to prevent the fire from going out because it was so windy. You couldn't even really enjoy a fire. Not our idea of a fun camping weekend, so we forfeited the $25 (I was happily surprised we didn't have to give up more ($40/night!) since it was so late) and we headed back to Port Angeles to find a hotel. The next morning Brian rallied the troops and we headed into the park and found a great campsite at Heart of the Hills for $12/night, my kind of camping! It was such a great weekend. We set up camp Saturday morning and hiked from the campground for a couple hours. That night we went up to Hurricane Ridge which was absolutely beautiful. There was a lot of road construction, so Brian kept seeing these huge pieces of equipment on the side of the road. We found one that was open so of course we had to get a picture. Sunday we drove to Marymere Falls and walked around Crescent Lake Lodge. Later that afternoon we went to Sol Duc Falls and had lunch in the parking lot. Ashley of course was such a trooper, she was not on any schedule, but she hung in there and is becoming quite the camper. It's something we love to do, so it's important to us to get her used to it when she's young and hopefully she'll like it when she's older. We didn't take Brody this time, he stayed with a friend who has a beagle and a huge backyard so he had a good time too. We left him because you can't hike in the park with a dog and we didn't want to be limited on where we could go. It was weird not having him, though, our family wasn't complete.

Hurricane Ridge

Marymere Falls

Ashley took advantage of any nap she could get this weekend whether it was in the backpack or the car. I felt so bad for her though. Every time she fell asleep in the car it was right as we were pulling into the parking lot, so her naps were really short. At Sol Duc falls we felt so bad that she wasn't sleeping we waited in the parking lot for 20 minutes until she woke up before we went on our hike.



Brian and co-captain Ashley at Bri's Big Boy Camp.

Ashley is very independent now and does not like to be held very much. This tent my mom got for her worked out great. She played in the while we cooked and broke down camp. She's pretty content playing on her own, except when she's tired.

"Whoa did you see that!"

"Ok, Dad now do you have a plan because I'm tired of waiting around, let's get this camping thing on the road before I throw a tizzy fit! (Ashley Saturday morning in the hotel)

Our little snuggle bunny. It was a cold weekend, but we managed to keep warm with many many layers! It was in the high 50's during the day and got down into the 40's at night. Luckily when all of us were in the tent it warmed up, so we slept great. Well.... except for the first night when I woke up every hour to check on her to see if she was cold. The second night we had it down.

Believe it or not, this doesn't bother me anymore. Now the first time he did it I freaked out!

Crescent Lake

"Look mom, you wouldn't believe what they're talking about... salmon!"