San Juans Camping

1 We were at Wal-Mart getting some last-minute supplies (my lantern got rusted out, etc.) and look what we got Ben! He really is into SuperMan but we have no idea why.	2 Seeing if the cape helps him fly :)	3 Sam doesn't need a cape!	4
5	6 Such cute boys :) Mommy is all packed up and ready to leave in the morning for the San Juan Islands!	7	8 We've been very busy building a new trail this weekend as well (even though Daddy had to work on Sat - he spent his Father's Day helping create the new trail). So here we are out for an after-dinner walkabout, starting with Sam's excavation site. It is getting really big! He was using these crossed boards to make a catapult a couple weeks ago. Then we moved onto the lawn for that.
9	10	11 Goofballs love to see themselves in the air :)	12 Running through our trails with glow sticks and capes on :)
13 Why is Ben's mouth always open?	14	15 Always!	16 On the new trail...
17 Truck all packed up!	18 Can you see two eyeballs peering out over the back? I am leaving right on time at 8:30am for a 10:15am ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville, then drive north to Anacortes and pick up another ferry to Orcas Island. All in all you leave our house at 8:30 to arrive at the campsite around 8 hours later.	19 Waiting for the Whidbey ferry.	20 Ferry time! I will probably not annotate every picture as there are so many...some will be so funny without any comment from me!
21 Like this. Yes, we wore the cape and shirt the whole time, with walkie talkie. I kept trying to avoid learning how to operate it so that we wouldn't cause a scene. You can see how long that lasted soon - we did eventually cause a scene.	22 Now you can see outside a bit with the change in focus.	23	24 Sam is actually able to read and interpret a map to help me with directions now. Quite a great skill! No GPS needed, thanks!
25 Here he is on Whidbey helping me figure out if my little unintended side trip to historic Coupville was a big problem or not.	26 And this is what this one is doing in the meantime. Toward the end of the trip they are boxing each other with sleeping bags!	27 Ferry snacks! Always a good time! Now we are going through the San Juan Islands.	28
29	30 I knew the cape would fly out here! See the guy in the background watching us? I didn't notice him at the time but Dave saw it in this picture.	31	32
33	34 Love love love! So funny. You wouldn't believe the looks we are getting.	35	36 The big island is the one we're going to, and we'll be up on top of Mount Constitution in a few days.
37	38 Pulling into Lopez Island first for a drop-off/pick-up then to Orcas.	39	40
41 Ben is enjoying seeing his big S shirt in the reflection.	42 Eagle in the tree!	43 Heading to Orcas now.	44 Pan of the view.
45 Horsing around - gettin' giddy!	46 Doesn't that look nice?	47	48
49 Wouldn't it be nice to live on that island?	50 Finally at camp! I actually stopped and filled up my tires with air and got gas - the island is so unpopulated I was like...hmmm...better have enough gas and have air in tires! Dad trained me well.	51 Ben being helpful!	52 Sam showing us how it's done :) So nice to have big helpful boys.
53 We are up high here - probably 50 feet up, and down below us is a picnic shelter, bathrooms, and across the small parking lot, Cascade Lake, which is one of 5 lakes on Orcas Island.	54 This is a tradition of mine - when finally set up it is impossible to keep the kids from snuggling up on the bed, so we might as well take a picture of our feet! :)	55 They loved the air bed. We turned a queen bed sideways and lay on it three across that way since they are short and don't need the length. Bought me some more elbow room and turns out it doesn't matter if my feet hang off. It wasn't a big deal.	56 Cuties!
57 Our site from down below by the shelter. We had to hike things up from the truck, but again - not a big deal and a nice way to ensure some privacy.	58 Making dinner!	59 Not bad - hot dogs!	60 Nice sun shining through our site in the late afternoon. Remember it is nearly solstice here so it is not dark until 10pm!
61 Time for s'mores! One of very few pictures of me since it is so hard to set up a timed shot and have boys cooperate!	62 Ben got pretty good at this.	63 Caterpillars were fine friends all along the way. This one is learning his colors :)	64 The shelter with sink and fireplace.
65 Morning time! Looks like "Pythie" is awake :)	66 As are we! Sam noticed that we had "Dogs, frogs and sneezes" to keep us awake while we tried to fall asleep. The dogs arrived with a neighbor camper - they were quite excited upon arriving at 9pm after a long drive up from Oregon. Lots of barking, snorting and running. Turns out we had fun with them over the next couple days. Then the rain started. And the frogs were going nuts - Ben said "They never even took a breath!"	67 But we did end up asleep, and I had packed everything up in the event of rain before bed so there was no major panic, thankfully. Even my charcoal was fine.	68 Yup - there's Rosco and Louie! Up bright and early!
69 See- managed to make some coffee with Folgers crystals. Not great, but not bad. Really you just need something hot that approximates coffee.	70 Sam pouring cakes!	71 The lips are really out, concentrating!	72 I'm making a snake cake!
73 The snake even had two little air bubbles emerge first for his nose! Unbelievable!	74 Pythie loves it!	75 Oooh! Yeah!	76 Proving to Dave, once again, that I managed to pull a meal together. In fact, the boys say I am a better outdoor cook over fire than inside, hands down.
77 A rattlesnake cake - not easy to flip!	78 And now an Eagle cake! Wow. I was just on fiah fiah that morning!	79 Looks pretty darn good with beak and all! (Feet are at 10 o'clock here, then clockwise from feet are wing, beak, head, wing.)	80 Stump dancing is always fun!
81 These guys were driving me nuts running up and down and around the campsite! My safety instinct kicked in knowing what Dave would say if he saw. Turns out - upon relaying the story to him - he probably would not have worried as much. But I didn't want to miss hiking up Mt. Constitution - at least get that in, then get injured! Sam is in the background messing around on a stump - can you see him?	82 Here he is again with a very funny dance he does whenever perched up high on something. Like the antics The Beatles pulled on the Magical Mystery Tour. I felt like that frequently! So funny. Ben is on walkie talkie messing around.	83 On a hike up Mt. Constitution. We tried one lesser traveled trail, which was nice, then headed up further on the mountain to pick up one closer to the summit. All in all about 4.5 to 5 miles.	84 The views are astounding...
85 We named this slug "Licorice" for obvious reasons. We found the same exact one on the way back down the trail!	86 On the second, more traveled trail.	87 Finally emerging from treeline to see the small islands in the Strait.	88
89	90	91 A pan of the views!	92 And the Stone Tower at the top which was a fire tower.
93 So cool! Like something you'd find in The Hobbit, perhaps?	94 From the top - pretty bright!	95 Looking northwest toward Canada.	96 Looking eastward toward Seattle.
97 Trying in vain to get the three of us!	98 See what I mean?	99	100
101 Causing trouble!	102 While Sam is cubing away.	103 Calling Daddy from here because I finally have signal strength - I hadn't spoken to him since the day before when I left! I am glad he knew we were fine.	104 This was so funny - I noticed the fly when I took the picture and look at his face! This is the face he makes when he swallows gum by accident, which he REALLY and TRULY cannot stop himself from doing. Doesn't it look like the "I swallowed a fly" face?
105	106 Looking down we notice that someone has left a pair of pink underwear up there! Huh? This comes in late...	107 For Uncle Tom!	108 More whittling :)
109 It was cold, but felt pretty good!	110	111	112 Just past Ben's head is where our campground is - at the south end of the lake.
113	114 Oh yeah!	115 Mommy might possibly have sang a silly little song then jumped in with her pants rolled up. Still got mighty wet!	116
117 More stump dancing! Really? One of you is going to trip and shove his teeth up in his gums! Just like my brother did when he was your age and camping!	118 The site! Love this tent - has served us so well.	119 See what I mean? Crazies! While I am cooking!	120 Jumping off the stump now :)
121 Running up this incline, then racing down again...and around the tent.	122	123 Um...up on Mt. Constitution Ben might possibly have caused confusion on channel 8. He was going "92125925." After one comm, a guy responded "What does that mean?" and we all split a gut! Ben tried to raise him again and said "Come on you song bander!" - I think he got the "band" of the radio mixed up with a music "band" which would sing a song. Who knows! It was so funny. Later at the campsite he'd radio from the bathroom when he was ready for wipes - that was convenient! Then he'd march around the campground on his walkie, not realizing he doesn't need to shout because he has a microphone. At one point I was cooking up - you guessed it - hot dogs when I heard him radio up "Hey Mom, you need to make a reservation!" - "What?" "You need to make a reservation. There's an officer without an office!" This time I truly cried with laughter as Sam and I just shook our heads. We have no idea how Ben's brain works but he is so outrageous.	124 Cascade Falls, below which lives a colony of ... caterpillars!
125 A late afternoon jaunt.	126 Playing pooh sticks :)	127 Finding caterpillars ALL OVER!	128 See? And a dead crayfish to the right.
129	130 Spying more of them!	131	132 Such pretty light and a nice time together even if we were pretty tired from dogs, frogs, rain, 30 sneezes (forgot to tell you the guy who moved in next to us camping kept sneezing and sneezing!).
133 Making dinner!	134	135 Look at that face!	136 Sam put those two logs on the fire all by himself. Quite good!
137 There's a bathroom not more than 30 paces away on a run, which the boys always do downhill, and yet we had to endure seeing Ben's belly exposed above his pee stump!	138 You have to really be on your game if you don't want to spend an unplanned night on one of these islands! The footnotes and dotted lines - reader beware! I was really (REALLY) on my game, though. I rocked, I am not ashamed to say. Early for every ferry, relaxed and informed. I took a picture of a fellow camper's schedule and studied it while the kids were waking up.	139	140 Checking to be sure we are not missing a piece.
141	142 They liked these oatmeal mashables.	143	144 Reheating extra pancakes...sort of ok, not amazing.
145	146	147 Packing up to head out!	148
149	150 Taking a hike to the Lagoon before we leave.	151 Nice bridge and neat walk around the lake.	152
153 Wild orchids?	154	155	156 Really long banana slug!
157 Eyes are on the end of these eye stalks - "I see you!"	158	159 Checking out a spider web.	160
161 Can you see the blob of blue? Once again - going to the bathroom in the woods, when the bathroom is just feet away, and I had JUST asked him if he needed to go!	162 This is on Orcas - Eastsound. So pretty. On our way to Lopez Island for an additional night.	163 I planned enough time to grab some coffee and a yogurt for the boys on our way to the ferry. Luckily my cooler in the truck kept Ben's leftovers chilled for him to enjoy later. That was handy :)	164 Such a quaint town. There are a few B&Bs here.
165 The ferry routine :) Park, get out, go up, hang out, then try to find our truck again. Sam kept track of it pretty well, but if left to my own devices I'd be forever going down the stairwell.	166 Almost to Lopez - a quick stop at Shaw.	167 At Lopez Island now. We scouted out this campground (Odlin) then over to Spencer Spit to see if it was more to our liking. We settled on this one and nabbed the last beachfront campsite. We ran into some nice mountain bikers who were biking the islands and some other nice campers.	168 This is Lopez - much less hilly, and very agricultural. We had an awesome burger for lunch - clearly the cows are very happy here. It is pastoral with a capital P.
169 Getting ready for fire time. Boys walking the beach.	170 There will be quite a few beach scene pictures - just can't get enough of putting toes in sand. It was very different than our shady, forested site, but really nice.	171 Talking about something. I think his fort that he built.	172 Here it is! We hauled driftwood from down the beach to make a good fort.
173 And added some firewood to make it more rain proof.	174 Having some fun :)	175 Oh no!	176 Mommy fell off the log!
177 Ha ha! That was funny!	178	179 Let's see if that happens again.	180 I feel like I'm slipping!
181 Yeah!	182 Here I go!	183 Sam is laughing really hard now while taking pictures.	184 Hoping I don't eat the sand!
185 Sam giving it a go :)	186 With lots of daylight in the evening, there is plenty of time for goofing!	187	188 That was funny :)
189 The view from the tent as we were going to bed. Ferries go back and forth in this waterway, and sometimes Orcas.	190 Love these "cubes" for clothes organization.	191 Found this nice relic! Yes, I brought it home for my artifacts shelf. Dave has not thrown it out yet. Think it was some kind of seal? Or a prehistoric man?	192 Rootbeer floats for late lunch/early dinner!
193 Oh yeah!	194 When they got back, I asked Sam what he planned to do at the beach site. He said "Tussle with Ben in the tall grass." I didn't even realize there WAS tall grass near the site! But indeed - there was a patch for tussling!	195 There it is!	196 Here is seaweed - my friend Brie went kayaking here to harvest seaweed so I thought maybe she had eaten it right off the beach, but she said no - they kayaked from Odlin to go get it.
197 A camping still life. We forgot toothpaste, but that's easily remedied - use Trident! The boys loved it. Ben almost learned not to swallow his gum, but not quite. Didn't quite get it reliably.	198 Roasting!	199 This is how Ben got marshmallow in his hair. I found it several days later!	200 Thinking about not swallowing. He's sitting there concentrating, trying not to swallow it. If he makes it past the sweet spot when you'd normally swallow a bite of food, he's ok. But if you don't actively keep him from swallowing for that first minute, he'll down it.
201 Sam out protecting his firewood from mountain biker marauders. I was proud of him for going right out and talking to those big boys.	202 See - it's still in there, Mom!	203 We found a natural teeter totter. It was so much fun!	204 Sam surfing on it :)
205	206	207 I love you, Sam! Thanks for finding the teeter totter!	208 Reading "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" while we wait for Ben to wake up. Sam and I have a hard time sleeping after 4am when it's light out. We can't make it past 7am.
209 Still out! But not for long.	210 Ferry going by!	211 It's raining - has been lightly raining all night but it sure picked up in the morning just as I was cooking and packing up!	212 Found a little friend to play with! Solomon is helping stir pancakes.
213	214 Orcas Island pancakes! The inspiration didn't stop!	215 There it is!	216 Yup - really starting to rain now, but the fire is going strong thanks to charcoal. You really can't go wrong with MatchLight. I love my water jug, too, sitting on the table. Means you always have water handy. This campground only had pit toilets - not so fun. No way to wash hands and Ben was afraid of falling in.
217 Playing on the beach with Solomon.	218	219 Out on a hike before we left for home.	220 Woodpecker - hard to find but a big one making a lot of noise!
221 Heading home. The crossings were really rough. I felt like I was still on a ferry for hours afterwards!	222 The chowder never tasted so good!	223 Almost done! Sam was really into this book - he devoured it.	224 Back in Port Townsend. We stopped at the Marine Science Center to see some boat building and reintegrate into "normal" life slowly. I had such a fun time with them.
225 So sorry camping has ended, but looking forward to seeing Daddy again. I can't wait to plan another adventure.	226 Checking out some rock finds (I bought them a few little items at a local rock store they love). Time for another campout! I hope you enjoyed "camping" with us. I know mom is happy to finally have these pictures up :)