Camping on the Olympic Peninsula

Well, I think we've discovered what we are doing EVERY summer weekend we are here in Washington! We took a VERY spontaneous weekend camping trip up on the Olympic Peninsula this weekend and had an absolute blast. I never knew camping could be so active, dynamic, fun or exciting! I was always a s'mores over the fire type camper... Will more of the serious back pack the Appalachian Trail type camper. But this was great, and SO beautiful! And Quint seriously had the time of his life. Beautiful weather, ocean breezes, campfires, "tent nigh-nights," and all the running he could possibly manage. We can't wait to go back and hike one of the Olympic Mountain Ridges, Camp, drive to Lake Crescent and spend the day canning/kayaking/swimming, Camp, then drive to Sol Duc to visit the hot springs and drive to Ruby Beach to finish of the weekend in a lodge to refresh. Well enough of my blathering, I think I am going to let the pictures do the talking!

Foraging, no big deal ;)

No vacation is complete without me being ridiculous!

Loving Life! 

View from the car

Olympics

Hamming it up ;)

Quint's on top of the world!

Manly Men!

HAHA, Will was like, "JEN! We'll take photo at the top, otherwise we'll never get there!

Hikin'

More hiking

It kept going UP

Will found this inspiring

After 2 miles of continuous switchbacks going up, we made it!

Family Photo... you'll probably be seeing this again around Christmas time ;)

What was I thinking?!

Campfire!

SO, Will is always giving me a hard time when I take pictures of the food I cook for my blog,  so he had to take a photo of the Instant Oats we made while camping...

Q

Lake Crescent

Merrymere Falls

Q loved this bridge. We ran int this couple that was shocked that we let him run across this bridge by himself. Then when he made it safely, they were kind of impressed! 

Quint says, "Come get me!" And then chases you...

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Q loved this tunnel too...

Lake Crescent through the forest

Lake Crescent

Ruby Beach. It always has this really cool mist that blows in over the sand/rocky area. It's really neat and kind of mysterious looking!

The Great Outdoors in Steilacoom WA

I would have to say based off of the last couple weeks, we are going to like Washington a whole lot. Especially the little fishing village of Steilacoom, where we live. It has 3 parks within walking distance, 2 of which also, conveniently, are right by a beach! So when you get bored of one, you can easily transition to the other! Even better, is that there are also trains and train tracks by two of them, which Quint finds extremely intriguing. You can see the Puget Sound from all of the parks and the various big and little boats that are cruising around on the water at pretty much all times. We've even been out on various boats pretty much every weekend since we've been here. You can see the occasional seal and dolphin too in the early morning hours! We really can't get enough! I am hoping to improve my photography skills :). Enough of my rambling, I will post some pictures now :)

Say Cheese!

He loves these diggers, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet...

Running to see the train! You can see the sound and a bit of the pier where the Ferry leaves from in the back round. It's cool, on the pier this time of year, people come out in the evening and go "Crabbing," which Q finds SUPER entertaining. It stays light out here until like 10pm so we were out there until 9 the other night and didn't even realize it!

Playing on the train tracks... I secretly don't like that he likes to do this...

Lone Ranger hanging out at the beach

Lone Rangering it up

Warming up to his friend :)

Buddies

Seeing another train. He can really get right up there to see them. There is a little wire fence that separates you from the train, but that is IT. It's funny, many kids will whine and put their hands over their ears, but Quint just runs up to them squealing, TRAAAAIIIINNNN!!! Like it's the first time, every time ;)

Sitting and quietly watching his trains

OK, I have to get some sleep because tomorrow we are going hiking/camping/swimming/hot spring-ing in the Olympic Penninsula! Quint's first camping trip :). Hopefully I will have much to report!