We went on a 3 day camping trip this weekend - joined by my parents and Sara’s grandparents. We didn’t have any particular goals for the trip - but managed a good mix of hiking & the outdoors with some window shopping and hanging out in some placed we haven’t been in a while. We took off on the trip Saturday mid-morning - after picking up Sara & my parents from a fun night of swimming and sleeping over at the hotel. We drove through to Leavenworth for lunch at a beautiful restraunt by the water.
Sara also repurposed her new see through box for collecting flowers and leaves - a gift from Grandma Joan.
After lunch and grocery shopping, we headed to Icicle gorge for a quick hike. The loop is 4 miles, but it was raining profusely and it was getting late so we only 2 mile (a mile out and a mile backdid a mile out and a mile back.
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Sara was her normal trail chatty self on the hike - There was a melted down bear in the puddle that might pop out of a puddle as we walk by but we already walked by the puddle so the bear already popped out. Such imagination!
We made it to camp that night and had a delicious meal of steak, grilled peppers and asparagus - cooked mostly by my dad. Great meal but it took us a while to cook it so we were very ready for bed. Sara wanted to watch a movie so she went to the van with Grandma Joan to watch - but nobody lasted more than about 10 min before we all wanted to go to bed… :)
The next morning we had breakfast (eggs w/cheese and peppers) and headed out to finish the Icicle Gorge hike. It was a beautiful day and Sara had a blast once again. We almost made it the entire way around, except I didn’t plan things very well and we had to race at the end to get my mom and Sara to the show.
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About 3 mile in, my mom noticed that we only had an hour and a half until the play that she and Sara were going to see. Poor planning on my part. The last mile or so of the hike was along the road back to the trailhead, so I left Sara and Oakley with my parents and ran the last mile along the road back to the van - then hopped in the van to go get them. We raced to the show and almost made it on time (about 10 min late), but they had to change in the car and Sara didn’t get much of a snack before the show (which was unfortunate). All reports were that they had a great time at the show (picture below), but it sounds like the first half was better than the second (likely because Sara was getting hungry).
After the show, Sara/my mom met us across the street for dinner and we headed out to Conconully for the night (which was about 2 hours away). We showed up late, but the cabin exceeded my parents expectations and everyone packed up for bed. Sara wanted to sleep in the cabin with my parents while I stayed with Oakely in the van, but it sounded like she changed her mind when the lights went out (it was dark and everything was new/strange) - so Sara stayed with me in the van that night. The next morning we were greeted with an amazing view from the cabin that we didn’t even know was there the night before - complete with deer and wild turkeys.
Oakley was a great dog around all the animals - she noticed the deer/turkeys right away, but stayed close and didn’t cause a ruckus. Very proud of her - took some picures of her watching the deer to prove it.
After packing up and enjoying the view, we headed to breakfast in town to fuel up for the long drive back over the north cascades highway back to Seattle. Sara had some fun on Grandma Joan’s phone sending stickers to Momma (normally she uses Momma’s phone to send the stickers to everyone).
I also found these cool framed leaf rubbings that I though would be cool additions to our home decor - if I can convince Angela.
About halfway across the N Cascades highway we stopped at NewHalem to do a quick hike of an interpretative trail that Sara and I had done in the past. Sara made some bouquets for her friend Roshni and then decided they would make a better tail… :) She was very sad when she had to leave the bouquets for the next children.
I also took a picture of the tree from my last post from this area. The tree has the center rotted out (and burnt) and you can see through the tree - but it is still alive and growing. This type of tree doesn’t use the center of the trunk to stay alive so they end up hollow in the middle as they get older.
We headed back to Seattle afterwards and made a delicious family dinner together - Canlis salad and shrimp. Wrapping up a great weekend all around.