Sunday, October 7, 2012
Chuckanut Drive and Larrabee State Park
On the way home from a fun weekend at Rasar State Park, we turned north on Highway 11/Chuckanut Drive. Chuckanut passes right through Larrabee State Park, lucky us! A late afternoon, quick trip up Chuckanut Drive and a brief walk to the beach at Larrabee provided the perfect ending to a perfect family trip!
Skagit Cabin at Rasar State Park
BEST EVER weekend getaway! Funny story, this one.
We left Friday around 4pm for our weekend of camping.
We hit Fred Meyer in Burlington around 7pm after having a quick dinner with our friends in Mount Vernon. We headed to the park from there around 8pm and arrived at the park in the dark at 8:45pm.
The campground host was off duty and no lights on. Our cabin did not have a car in front of it and was dark.
John went to the front door to see if there might be a key and found a note that was addressed to the previous guests...let's call them the Changs...the note said “collecting firewood is illegal and call me for the new door lock code” signed "The Park Ranger". Whatever.
We swung around and saw a ranger house with a lamp on. Yep, knocked on the door. Ranger came to the door..John explained that we needed to get into our cabin and needed firewood. John wrote the code on the back of the note we got at the cabin (the note addressed to the Changs). Got some firewood. Headed back to the cabin. Parked in our empty spot.
Excited, we all grabbed some stuff and went to put in the code in the door. I noticed a tablecloth outside on the picnic table...weird.
Well, when we opened the door and turned on the lights-THERE WAS STUFF IN THERE! Like someone was living there! But no people, no car. ??
Uh...now what.
We headed back to the ranger’s house (!) Uh, excuse me, but there’s someone’s stuff in our cabin. So we walked down the road to the gatehouse and the ranger checked our reservation...DUH...our reservation is for SATURDAY NIGHT only!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uhhhhh....I made the reservation in June and forgot it was for only one night! I remember thinking one night, but I didn’t write anything on the calendar...it was on my “hiking summer calendar” for this weekend and I assumed Fri/Sat nights. We had to drive ALL the way back home.
But here’s the HILARIOUS part. Where were the Changs? What if we had walked right in on them? Well, I suppose there would have been lights on, but the lights were off and their car gone.
When John went to the ranger’s house the first time, we now realize that the ranger thought he was Mr. Chang. John said, “we need to get into our cabin” and the ranger said, “yeah, I had to change the code” (John thought “ok, fine”) ...John said, “what do we do about firewood” and the ranger
said “well, it’s illegal to collect firewood, so I can sell you a bundle”. (John thought “sure, I know it’s illegal to collect, I just need to buy some firewood”) None of this seemed strange to us, but the ranger thought he was talking to Chang because the ranger had left the Changs a note!
Then when we went back the second time, John told the ranger our name so he could check the reservation!!! He must have put it all together after we left, like we did.
The SAD thing is that we forgot to put the note back! Those poor Changs were going to get back to their cabin for the night and not realize they have a new code, the door will not open for them! They won’t know WHAT is going on!!!!! And who knows where they went or when they’ll be back! It was 9:30ish by the time we left the park! They have no idea that we were there!
We went BACK to the cabin on Saturday afternoon and had a MARVELOUS time riding bikes, playing on the playground and shooting hoops before it got dark. The weather was simply PHENOMENAL and we decided to stay Sunday night as well.
We left Monday and ventured east through Concrete to Rockport State Park (sadly, the campground and many trailheads were closed) and Steelhead County Park. It is salmon spawning season, so we found several dead salmon along the sandy beach on the Skagit river. We stopped at Hurn Field and saw an elk herd in the shade...well, I DID. The rest of the family sat in the van! From there we headed back to I5 and north to Chuckanut Drive. Can't wait to go back to Rasar because we LOVED the cabin!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
What We Did This Summer
Here's a reminder of what we did this summer:
Rasar State Park (Skagit cabin), Rockport SP, Steelhead county park, Chuckanut Drive, Larrabee SP
Library Walking Tour (July, August and September)
Arch Cape/Cannon Beach, OR (Labor Day)
Book covers took us all over King County on many weekends...Maple Valley, Black Diamond, Enumclaw, Federal Way, Vashon Island, Skykomish, North Bend, Renton, Kent, etc
Lighthouses: Point-No-Point, Browns Point, Point Robinson, Skunk Bay, West Point
Yurting at River Meadows (August 4-6)
Lake Padden hike, Bellingham (picnic with Gramma) and Little Mountain Park
Stimpson Nature Reserve hike, Bellingham
Magnuson Park, Seattle
Driving in Olympia and Roy
John MacDonald park in Carnation (picnic with Gramma)
Potholes State Park (cabin)
Mount Rainier (Ohanapecosh and Grove of Patriarchs)
Horseshoe Bend hike, Silver Lake Park and drive to Mount Baker (awesome!)
Rasar State Park (picnic with Gramma)
Squires Lake hike, Bellingham
Camano Island SP hike (picnic in rain with Gramma!)
Kanaskat-Palmer SP yurt/campfire (Mother's Day)
Beaver Lake hike, Darrington
Coal Creek Falls hike, Newcastle (Easter)
UW Cherry Trees, Seattle
Rasar State Park (Skagit cabin), Rockport SP, Steelhead county park, Chuckanut Drive, Larrabee SP
Library Walking Tour (July, August and September)
Arch Cape/Cannon Beach, OR (Labor Day)
Book covers took us all over King County on many weekends...Maple Valley, Black Diamond, Enumclaw, Federal Way, Vashon Island, Skykomish, North Bend, Renton, Kent, etc
Lighthouses: Point-No-Point, Browns Point, Point Robinson, Skunk Bay, West Point
Yurting at River Meadows (August 4-6)
Lake Padden hike, Bellingham (picnic with Gramma) and Little Mountain Park
Stimpson Nature Reserve hike, Bellingham
Magnuson Park, Seattle
Driving in Olympia and Roy
John MacDonald park in Carnation (picnic with Gramma)
Potholes State Park (cabin)
Mount Rainier (Ohanapecosh and Grove of Patriarchs)
Horseshoe Bend hike, Silver Lake Park and drive to Mount Baker (awesome!)
Rasar State Park (picnic with Gramma)
Squires Lake hike, Bellingham
Camano Island SP hike (picnic in rain with Gramma!)
Kanaskat-Palmer SP yurt/campfire (Mother's Day)
Beaver Lake hike, Darrington
Coal Creek Falls hike, Newcastle (Easter)
UW Cherry Trees, Seattle
Monday, September 3, 2012
Arch Cape Oregon
Happy 70th Mom!
What an incredible trip! The weather was insanely gorgeous and the views from the house were spectacular. Sooo fun to spend Labor Day with Campbell!
more photos to come
What an incredible trip! The weather was insanely gorgeous and the views from the house were spectacular. Sooo fun to spend Labor Day with Campbell!
more photos to come
Monday, August 20, 2012
KCLS Book Cover Walking Tour 2012
Again this year, the King County Library System is sponsoring a Book Cover Walking Tour. We did not do it last year, but this year we're going for it! They have put up over 260 book cover posters around King County. We've decided to visit them all!
Just a few of my favorites so far!
I blog about that here:
http://bookcovertreasurehunt.blogspot.com
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Weekend Outing Point-No-Point Lighthouse
We love riding the ferry, especially Sarah! She goes nuts for the wind and rumbling engine. It was SUPER windy on the Edmonds-Kingston run this weekend. We visited lighthouse #8 and #9, Point-No-Point and Skunk Bay at Hansville, WA. Skunk Bay lighthouse is private property, so we stood in the driveway so as not to disturb.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Weekend Hike Lake Padden
What a WONDERFUL hike! PERFECT 2.6 miles around the lake with a bit of elevation under the trees and along the sunny beach walk on the other side.
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