just beachy

I have had Thursday afternoons off all summer long, and I've barely used them to do anything fun! They've been filled with doctor visits and errands and things that just need to get done. But today we finally busted free of that and met Erin, her mom, and the kids at Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan. We had a few challenges, though, notably that Max broke his toe in the most ridiculous way possible and now has extremely restricted activity. Ridiculous toe breaking, you say? Yes indeed. He was opening the door to his bedroom, not in a hurry or with excessive force or anything, and managed to get his toe stuck between the floor and the bottom of the door and hit it exactly right to cause a fracture on the growth plate. So now his summer has basically come to a screeching halt. Running and swimming and having fun have been replaced by visits to the orthopedic doctor and constant splinting. Boo! The doctor has also warned us that because of the break, his toe might grow at a different rate than the one on the other foot, meaning he might eventually need two different size shoes. I know they say that when one door closes, a window opens ... but what about when one door opens and breaks your toe?

Anyway, once we got to the dunes and had a little picnic, everyone went to climb the dunes. Well, everyone except me and Max, who just hung out and waited. Liam came back all cranky because his feet got burned on the hot sand (memo to self: bring socks next time!), but then we all headed down to the lake to cool off. It was a gorgeous day, and Richie was working hard building a sand blob castle, and the other kids carried some driftwood logs over to make a water break for it. Eventually they found one pretty far down the beach, and it was too heavy to carry, but some people had rope (like you do when you go to the beach ... I guess), so Erin helped them drag it all the way back. But then Richie decided to destroy the blob castle in the end anyway. Ah, kids!

poor pluto

Just two days ago, he was playing with his new pal Eddie and being grudgingly tolerated by his new mentor Ollie at my sister's house. But today, Pluto took a trip to the vet and came back ... slightly less manly. He has been watching me reproachfully from the couch just in case I try to pull something like that again. Poor puppy!

one last bit of PNW history

I mentioned that my Gram was from Tacoma, right? Coincidentally, I got an email from Great-Aunt Marlene (Gram's sister) just a couple days before we left for Seattle. She wrote:

You can tell Liam that my dad worked on the Narrows Bridge, the one that went down, when the span was already at least partly completed, and the workmen parked their cars on the bridge while they worked. The bridge had enough of an up and down wave motion at times so that the parked cars would disappear from sight, then reappear.  He told us this after the bridge had gone down, more or less as an example of how the people in charge denied the obvious.

That would be my Great-Grandpa Walt, shown above working on the Grand Coulee Dam, also in Washington. I know Grandpa Walt kept journals, but I don't know if he specifically wrote anything about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. However, thanks Aunt Chris, I do know what he wrote about the Grand Coulee Dam:

[The dam was] a no man’s land in 1934 when I first plodded through the mud that winter, when the earthmovers had started to prepare for the foundations of this huge structure. When the dam was completed, it had taken more concrete than what was used in the state of Washington up to that time ... 

The workers in our group lived in a barracks-type bunkhouse with perhaps ten or twelve beds ... The country was full of skilled men and they were flocking to the work areas ... Men would camp wherever they could, living in tents, shacks and trailers. They were waiting for a chance to work here and had no place else to go, so they would stay put ... 

This way of earning a living seemed rather joyless, but it should be remembered that the Number One consideration at that time was to earn a living for ourselves and our families and that was enough for us at the time. In fact, we were grateful for the opportunity.

I love that someday the boys will have these words, both from their great-great-aunt and their great-great grandpa. I also love (where love = maybe have some mixed feelings about) how something he wrote during the Great Depression could be so universal and applicable still today.

in old seattle

Here it is, friends: the "actual" reason for our trip.

It was another early morning as we drove the three and a half hours to Seattle. We dropped the car off in the hotel parking lot (so glad I called ahead because I didn't think they would let us park there until check-in time!) and set off to explore on foot. First stop: Space Needle. We had reservations to be in the first group that went up, which was perfect because it was cool and not too crowded. We walked around the top several times, and we even FaceTimed the other boys so they could check out the view.

After we came back down, we headed to Chihuly Garden and Glass. Honestly, I probably could have spent all day there. I'm not sure Mike and Liam really knew what to expect, but they were both quite impressed as well. I couldn't even pick a favorite, though the big hall where you could see the Space Needle through the ceiling was pretty great.

After that, we took the Monorail to make the obligatory visit to Pike Place Market. I had been there 15 years or so ago when I came to Seattle with my grandparents and other assorted relatives for a family reunion, and I remembered really liking it. I know I bought souvenirs there because I still have them. But WOW has it changed a lot from how I remember it. It was PACKED, for one thing. As in, nowhere to even walk unless everyone moves at exactly the same pace and in the same direction. As in, forget about stopping to buy anything. As in, all three of us were basically mentally screaming at each other, Get me out of here! It wasn't so bad once we made our way to the back where a terrace overlooks the sound, but that was basically because there was nothing to even do back there. Nonetheless, we grabbed some (late) breakfast before setting out for our next destination.

We made our way to Pioneer Square, where we had tickets to do the Underground Tour, and honestly, by this time we were all a little beat and ready to relax for a while. Luckily, Mike was able to switch us to an earlier tour, so we decided to do the tour first, then head back to the hotel to clean up. The Underground Tour is another thing I did last time I was in Seattle (I specifically remember my Aunt Laura doing it with me because we are both interested in history, but I can't remember who else came along). It was fun, but not really a big deal. Well, now it's a big deal. It's basically a whole comedy show with a ton of history thrown in there. We listened to a presentation about the early history of Seattle first, and they explained why there is an underground to begin with (after the Great Seattle Fire, they raised all the streets up one story and required all the buildings to be made from stone or masonry instead of wood). After that, we hit the streets, going up and down into various parts of the underground (it's not a connected system, just block-by-block tunnels between the buildings and the retaining walls the city built). At one of the stops, there was a lengthy discussion about prostitution couched in terms of sewing: City officials noted an unusual number of "seamstresses" in an area that was mostly populated by sailors and loggers and workmen, and eventually they figured out that the men were getting their "tailoring" from the "seamstresses." This led one industrious madam to regulate the taxes paid by her seamstresses in return for officials not looking too closely at the (lack of) actual textiles produced. As soon as we left that section, Liam asked me why everyone was laughing so hard at all the sewing-related puns, so I had to explain the whole thing to him. I guess that's to be expected during a coming-of-age trip, right?

After that, it was back to the hotel, where we all collapsed for a while before venturing out to have a delicious dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Cactus. We asked Liam if there was anything else he wanted to do, but it turns out that by that point, all he wanted to do was rest. Hard to blame him! He did tell us that this was the best birthday trip he could have asked for, so I guess our work here is done (at least until Max turns 13)!

olympic glory

This morning we were up with the sun to start the two-hour drive to Olympic NP. We stopped along the way for a really, really good breakfast at Kalaloch Lodge, where we even sampled their homemade rootbeer. Shocker I was the only one who liked it. Oh well, more for me! True story: Before we settled on staying in Moclips, I tried to book a room at Kalaloch but it was totally booked. Now that we've seen it, I totally understand why. It's gorgeous, and in a gorgeous setting right on the ocean. Seriously, you couldn't beat it.

We made our plan for the day based on the tide charts, so the first stop was the Hoh Rain Forest, where we took a hike through the Hall of Mosses. It was gorgeous, but crowded. Surprisingly crowded, I would say, given how "end of the earth" the place is, but then again, the Grand Canyon isn't exactly in the heart of it all either, and yet there were unbelievable swarms of people there. Anyway, the trees were gorgeous and the bugs weren't too bad, at least until we finished that trail and debated starting the Spruce Nature Trail. At that point, Liam and I decided a retreat to the bug-free car was in order, and Mike continued on the trail. I think we both ended up with a pretty good deal, though: He got to explore the rain forest, sure, but WE got air-conditioning, PLUS a mother and baby deer came wandering through the parking lot right by the visitor center, and we had a front-row seat to that.

By the time we finished at the rain forest, it was time for lunch (or at least close enough). The options are, as you might guess, somewhat limited, but we stopped at the charming Hard Rain Cafe and ordered ours to go. By the time we reached our next destination, Ruby Beach, it was definitely lunchtime, so we sat on a bench overlooking the ocean and ate before heading down the trail to the beach.

I mentioned the tides, right? We were aiming to get to the beaches as close as possible to low tide because we really wanted to see sea stars and anemones. At Ruby Beach, we were half in luck because there were plenty of anemones. No sea stars, though. But I would say the interesting terrain more than made up for it.

It was still low tide, so we headed down the road to Beach 4, which was much less crowded than Ruby Beach (I guess that's what happens when your beach has a number instead of a name?), and we hit pay dirt: sea stars! Tons and tons of them. Just hanging out near the anemones, looking cool. I have never seen creatures like these outside of an aquarium, so for me this was absolutely the highlight of the trip. Totally worth all the hiking and climbing and trekking to see that.

We ended the day with delicious (though very small) pizzas in our room, and then we watched the sunset from our deck. There are people in big trucks down on the beach setting off fireworks and doing donuts and generally terrifying their dogs and any small children who may have been in the vicinity, so that's kind of a downer, but tomorrow morning we're back on the road for the grand finale!

at the end of a long day, a reward

And by "long day," I mean extremely long day. Up at 4:30 to go to the airport. Four hours on the plane. Two hours (!!!) to pick up the rental car (there is definitely a strongly worded letter coming for that!). Three or four more hours in the car, which included a stop at what I'm convinced is the World's Worst Walmart (and you know that's a high bar ... or maybe a low bar) for a few supplies. But we're finally here!

Here, in this case, is the tiny town of Moclips, Washington, population 207. But but but, you say, I thought you were going to Seattle. True, we are, but it wouldn't be a Fort trip without a visit to a park, right? Not to mention a longish side trip because the most interesting places are always far away and not so easy to get to. In that spirit, we're spending the first two nights of our trip at the Ocean Crest Resort so we can visit parts of Olympic National Park.

Unfortunately, we got here too late in the day today to go to the national park, but we did have time to explore what's right in front of us: the gorgeous Pacific Ocean (our room has a fantastic view of the ocean below, along with a lovely deck from which to enjoy it). Liam and I drove to a beach a little ways down the road where you can drive directly onto the beach (this is kind of a new concept for me) and walked around for a while checking things out. Then after dinner, Mike joined us in heading down the steep steep stairs from the hotel to the beach to watch the sun set. We saw no shells but plenty of sand dollars — but I'm not making that mistake again. Those things stink! Much better to admire them and move along.