No seriously friends...thanks for your support on my last entry. It means a lot to me. I think I finally have the courage to start posting again.
That's enough of that! This post is a recap of our Labor Day weekend camping trip with our good friends the Mansius Family. We were lucky enough to find availability at a coastal campground with spots right next to each other about a month before Labor Day, at Cape Perpetua! It is a MAGNIFICENT place, and we really enjoyed the camp ground. No showers...and that's probably why it wasn't totally booked, but it was worth it!
Day 1
a little exploration and hiking
we found the CCC shelter on the top of the cape
(we've been here before, but our friends have not)
GORGEOUS day...we could see 30 miles out to sea from up there
whale watching...it's very easy to spot whales at the Oregon coast any time of the year
exploring the shelter...and lucky Toby found a dollar behind it!
we gorged ourselves on salal berries and got purple tongues.
There were SO MANY salal berries, I really wanted to pick them all and bring them home to make jam...maybe next year?
babies at the beach!
Boogie boarding! I gave each kid a turn at some boogie boarding lessons,
and then Tara and I got to go together.
Mr. Ollie spent most of his time trapped in the pack and play again...although we did let him out to crawl around and he LOVED it! We decided it was time to leave when all the kids (including the babies) we almost getting swept away by the incoming waves.
back at camp, we washed the salt water out of our hair in the brain-numbing cold camp faucets.
(don't you love how the sign says "please no washing or cleaning at faucet"? Oops!)
Day 2
It turned out A LOT colder and foggier than day 1, and we were glad we got our beach time in the day before. We spent the day hiking, exploring tide pools, and hanging out at camp.
it was a BIG, stormy waves kind of day...perfect for hiking out to the Spouting Horn, Thor's Well, Devil's Churn and all the other exciting formations on this rugged part of the coast!
observing the spouting horn
THAR she BLOWS!
Thor's Well: a large hole in the rock where the waves pour in and out
pretty, glowing fireweed (?)
my hard-core photographer friend :-)
enjoying more salal berries
and good buddies
Devil's Churn was pretty devilish that day!
Brandon, aka the Mansius dad working on our damp fire with the mattress pump
(it was a good thing we had stoves to cook on because it was VERY damp)
just a cute baby...I can't resist, even though the picture quality is so bad!
Day 3
Another damp, cold, foggy day. We went to church in Waldport, a small coastal town. We always REALLY enjoy visiting other congregations and seeing what it's like...especially very small branches like this one! Also, lots of exploring around the campground for all the kids.
Day 4
Yet again, damp and cold. The Mansius family had to take off early for work, but we stayed the whole day and enjoyed the AH-MAZING visitors center, more tide pool exploration and hiking.
two of my cuties at our neat little camp site
the beautiful little stream and forest behind the campground...the kids spent SO much time exploring back here. They had a 'secret fort' with a potty and a shower. Humph...us grown ups didn't know about ANY of this until our boys showed us the very last day...I guess we were too busy doing grown up things.
the little bridge over to their fort
the pathway from our camp site
our plethora of wet, wet laundry. It never did dry...
We spent A LOT of time in the visitor's center
we have some budding naturalists here, checking out plants, nests, ocean life...making models of star fish and sea anemones. In all fairness, I really MUST give credit to the AMAZING volunteer lady at the visitors center! She darlingly lured my boys over to her table and taught them much about sea creatures and gave them many craft-model options. My boys will never forget that.
The displays were great too...lots of stuff about the local Indian tribes, which we always LOVE learning about.
This sign was my most favorite in the whole center:
Now you know what I mean if I ever say: The muckymuck showed great skookum at the annual potlatch.
Hitting the trail down to the tide pools, to apply what we learned at the visitors center:
the fog actually cleared off for the day and we saw BLUE SKY!
remember tide pools and tad poles? Yep, there were tad poles in the tide pools...or maybe not the actual tide pools, but some fresh water pools from a trickle of water off the cliff. As I review the pictures before attempting this post, there was a video (which I will refrain from posting cause nobody takes the time to watch videos) of the tadpoles in which Joshy said 'tide pools and tad poles'. It was very catchy! OH...and I know we *probably* should not have touched the tad poles, but I do want to express that we were very gentle and put them right back!
tadpole pools
shadow dancing!
vistas...
that mountain on the right is the cape where the CCC shelter is located
GREAT place to visit!
we walked back to the visitors center and then up the trail to the largest tree in the park
first I had to photograph these helpful signs that were set out:
Berries you can eat & and Berries you SHOULD NOT eat.
Do you see that Black Twinberry on the left? That's right, the one on the DO NOT EAT side? The ranger at Sunset Bay told us they were edible and so I ate one on our last camping trip. It was the MOST HORRIBLE thing I've ever eaten. DO NOT EAT it. EVER!!!
I gave in and bought a book about edible and medicinal plants of the Northwest...so that I will never stumble upon another 'black twinberry experience'.
On our hike we found these fruits growing all along the trail. They were ripe and they were the size of small grape tomatoes. Alas, I couldn't find them in my new book...so we didn't eat them...and the search is on!
kate, after four days with no shower... I know, I'm pretty hardcore.
Brent was packing Ollie on his front, and Ollie kept putting this stick on Brent's face
VERY LARGE tree
and the home underneath it
fun times, boys
Toby and Joshua found the best seats in the house
(Toby got all his long pants and shirts wet in the stream...thus we had to resort to having him wear pajamas under his clothes...because it was just a little TOO COLD for shorts and t-shirts. But hey, we were very glad that it never rained on us!)
good form
leaving our wooded paradise behind...
...and heading for SHOWERS!
GREAT TRIP! My kids are always asking when we're going to go back with our friends again. Sorry boys, not til next summer!
1 comments:
That was some hard-core blogging! I felt like I was right there with you (even though I never got wet, or cold, or dirty . . . ). The pictures were great. You've really got a good eye for framing your shots.
And someone in the north-west was very creative with the names The Spouting Horn and Thor's Well. Just seeing the names on a map would have piqued my curiosity!