Camping!

Salt Creek Recreation Area at the Strait of Juan De Fuca, right on the ocean.  Waves crashing, gorgeous western Washington foliage.  Perfect campsite. My hubs knows how to find 'em.  This was the view directly across from our campsite...

I love camping with my little family!  I DON'T love camping in the rain.  I am a fair-weather camper for sure.  Max and I followed the rest of the fam there on Thursday night so he could go to his football practice; we got there about 9 p.m., had a yummy dutch oven cobbler around the fire, and then we heard the thunder. Oh boy.  Actually, it didn't really pour, but it was a constant drizzle (harder at times) all that morning and into the afternoon.  We tentatively said at about 2:00 p.m. that we would roast marshmallows and then pack up.  The kids were getting to be slightly miserable because I thought the forecast had said SUN, so I didn't pack/plan for the rain.  But...hallelujah! The sun came out and we stayed.  Even with the rain, though, we had fun.  We're Washingtonians, after all.

The campsite was located around/on top of an old WWII bunker, which was slightly awesome for our 6-year-old boy.  And there had been a cougar sighting at the campground just a few days before we got there.  More excitement.  When we were checking out the bunker and saw the map of the inner workings, we decided to go to separate bunker entrances and yell through to see if we could hear each other.  We kept yelling "Heeellllooooo!"  It was really fun and the kids thought it was a hoot.  As we were walking away the park rangers pulled up in their truck.  They thought someone was yelling "Heeellllppp!"  And with the recent cougar sighting they were  worried.  Oops.  Later that day Ty was taking a nap in the tent with Tucker and Kelly needed to go potty so I left the boys at our campsite.  I came out of the bathroom and saw Max and Everett making their way toward me.  Max needed to use the bathroom so they had trekked over on their own...it wasn't super far.  But there were the rangers in their truck again, asking if I knew about the cougar sighting and if I knew my sons had walked all the way to the bathroom by themselves.  Turns out they had asked Max which campsite was his, he pointed, they went and talked with Ty, and then they tracked me down.  Man, we were troublesome campers!  Mr. and Mrs. Park Ranger would be happy to know that the gravity of the cougar sighting finally sank in and I was on high alert the rest of the time.  I'm sure those rangers were glad to see us go.

Highlights of the trip - exploring the bunker, watching a serious squirrel squabble between Larry and Perry (we gave the squirrels names and Ty did funny commentary on their fight), the fearless raccoon who wanted our stash, the 7 deer who came into the camp meadow and grazed for a long time, the Jacket Around the Waist Club, watching a lightning storm over the ocean in the arms of my handsome hubs after the kids were asleep.  I just love that uninterrupted time together; there is something special about camping as a family.