Summer Hike #4 Guillemot Cove Nature Preserve

I can't believe I only did 4 hikes this summer! I had much higher expectations for myself. The truth is it was sometimes pretty hard to get the boys out of the house with me (and I'm including Steve in "the boys"). Today Steve was back to work, so I thought we better try to get at least one more hike in before school starts. I looked on the Kitsap County's website and found a hike at Guillemot Cove, way out at the end of Stavis Bay Road.

Length: 2.5 to 3 miles
Elevation Gain: all downhill on the way to the beach and all uphill on the way back.
Views: forest, beach
Wildlife: bugs, deer
Kids: generally happy, with a little whining on the uphill climb.

This is a very unique place. I tried to find some history on it, but failed. The hike is mostly wooded and is pretty typical for the Pacific Northwest--lots of trees, ferns, and other low shrubby bushes. It was downhill and quite steep in spots. When we got to the bottom of the hill, we came across an old house. It was kind of creepy (especially since we seemed to be the only people around), not boarded up at all, but definitely abandoned.
Not sure why they left the beds, but that really upped the creep factor.
There was another house down at the beach, this time all boarded up. The boys stopped for some lunch, then went out to look under rocks and climb on an old tree trunk in the water. They got their feet all wet, of course, which probably made the hike back to the car less comfortable.
The Kitsap website said that this park had restrooms. Obviously Kitsap County and I have a different definition of what constitutes a restroom as this is the only thing we found that remotely resembled restrooms.
The boys chose to pee on the trail as we were the only ones there. I waited until we got to Target. Simon let me take a few pictures of him while we were at the beach house; Torsten did not.
We explored a little more, found an old barn, then headed back to the car via the access road.
Simon trailed a little behind Torsten and me and whined that his legs hurt and we were going too fast.
Later we found out that we missed seeing the stump house, a house that is made out of a huge tree stump and apparently was once used as a hideout for a criminal. I'm kind of bummed. I guess we might have to go back some time.

Simon's Bold New Room

Simon is braver than I am when it comes to color. We've been living in this house for five years and haven't even attempted to paint or decorate any rooms. But Simon wanted to do something with his. He told me he was too grown up for his bug themed comforter, so we headed out to IKEA for some new stuff. Simon also needed a new dresser and nightstand, so we picked up those as well. Then we went to Home Depot and let Simon pick out his own paint color. The result is pretty bright, but he seems to like it.

He's No Ichiro

When they announce the Mariner's in batting order at the games, the crowd always cheers louder for Griffey than for Ichiro. I get a little disappointed with the fans when that happens. I like Griffey (we did go to the game to get his bobblehead and he hit a homerun for us), but let's show some love for the guy who's been a loyal player, who could play for team that actually makes it to the playoffs or even the World Series.

We made it to the game on Friday just in time to get our bobbleheads. Safeco opened earlier than stated on the website and we heard they ran out of bobbleheads shortly after we arrived. It's a good thing we took the earlier ferry (one boat earlier than we took to get Ichiro bobbleheads).

The boys wanted to get food right away. Simon got some chicken tenders for $10. Seriously, $10 for chicken tenders! Shortly after getting them he was being his usual clumsy self and dumped it upside down on the ground. He started picking it up and eating it, and I said, "Oh, but it's all dirty now." He replied, "That's ok, I'll eat it anyway." Am I a bad mother that I didn't want to spend another $10 on chicken tenders and just let him eat it off the ground?

Once we made it to our seats, we found out that we weren't the only people to have tickets for those seats. They ended up moving us, because we were in wheelchair section and didn't need to be whereas the other group had one person in a wheelchair. It worked out well for us as we ended up with better seats.

Not only is the food expensive at Safeco, drink prices are ridiculous. You can't bring drinks in, and after dinner and popcorn those boys were thirsty. I bought two bottles of lemonade and a bottle of water for $13. I could get over 100 water bottles at Costco for that price. There's a reason we can't go to more games. Torsten tried to help out by buying his own dippin' dots, but then Simon who had no money of his own insisted that he needed ice cream too. That's was another $5 for a single scoop of vanilla. It all added up to a pretty expensive day, but I guess it's not as bad as other parks in the country. There is a reason that when the Red Sox come to Seattle half the crowd is dressed in red (I think it might be cheaper to fly here from Boston for the weekend than buy seats at Fenway).

We had to leave early to catch the ferry, but the Mariners did win. They won last time we came to a game as well. In fact, I think the M's have won all the games we've been to in the last couple of years. Maybe we bring good luck with us. Too bad we can't bring it a little more often.

And not totally unrelated, here's a funny picture of Ichiro when he met Obama. He has such a goofy grin on his face it makes me laugh.

This weekend we had to say goodbye to our first baby, Zeus. He had a lot of health problems that kept getting worse each day. We hated seeing him sitting around the house in pain, waiting to be carried up and down the stairs, and being heavily drugged so that he could walk. We had a good twelve years together and we will miss him.

He was a good travel companion and came with us to St. George and Cannon Beach several times.


He tolerated our two kids, and even let them cuddle once in a while:

He watched over our other pets:

He joined in for games in the backyard:

He slept in the sun and didn't even complain that we weren't taking him for a walk instead:

He licked the glass on the back door when he was ready to eat his dinner:

He took an interest in what the boys were getting for Christmas (after all, it could make good chewing material):

He eagerly awaited the opportunity to clean up anything I might have accidentally dropped on the kitchen floor (such a good helper):

And he slept with one eye open so he could make sure that we stayed close by:

We love you Zeus!

Heat Wave

We are sitting at home today enjoying some A/C due to the 100 degree temps outside. But earlier this week, we enjoyed a sunny and hot day at the beach in Hansville. The cousins came along and the kids spent their time digging a big hole:

buring themselves in the sand:

serving a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct:

They all stayed very busy and gave me some time to read my book while Steve slept. Afterward we headed home to cool of with some Otter Pops and Rockband.

My husband joined the Mariners!

Just watching the M's tonight and noticed that Chris Shelton looks a lot like Steve. Apparently, I'm not the only one who noticed the resemblance. He even has the same sideburns.

Photo from flickr.

Summer Hike #3 Franklin Falls and Denny Creek

Length: 4-5 miles total for both hikes
Elevation Gain: 500 feet or so; uphill first, then turn around and down hill on the return trip
Views: forest, waterfalls
Wildlife: bugs, bugs, and more bugs
Kids: Some whining during the trail walking
Difficulty: toughest one yet

We decided to do the Franklin Falls hike after seeing it in the newspaper (it was also in our hiking book). It is near the Snoqualmie Pass summit, so this was a whole day trip for us. We started off by missing the Bainbridge ferry by about 5 cars. There was a lot of "if only Simon had gotten his shoes the first time we asked" and "if only we hadn't stopped when the cooler tipped over." But then we got over that and decided to kill some time wandering around the beach near the ferry. (Steve killed some time napping).


The tide was super low and from the ferry it looked like the two sides of the inlet were going to meet in the middle. I worried about the ferry hitting the sand, but it didn't. It had to sort of weave through the area so that it's in the deepest sections of the inlet. I think it does that all the time, but today you could see why.


Once we got to the Franklin Falls area we found that we had to go somewhere else to get a forest pass before we could park and do the hike. We had to drive a little farther up the road to get back on the freeway and then we realized that where we got on the freeway was where we were supposed to get off the freeway, so we ended up driving in a circle.

We did finally get our pass, find a space to park, eat the lunch we packed, and then we were ready for the hike. We started with the Franklin Falls trail. It was mostly uphill all the way there until the last 100 yards or so, which was a steep downhill climb. They boys really liked the area and played around in the water there for a while. If you stand in front of the pool of water near the falls, you get a nice spay of cold water to cool you down after the hike.

The return trip was quick and easy once we passed the first uphill section, since it was mostly downhill from there. The boys stopped to climb on a rock and do strange poses.

Then we stopped at the car for a quick drink before heading up to Denny Creek. This trail was over a mile long and was also mostly uphill, with even more elevation gain than Franklin Falls. I was beat after about 1/2 mile. I wanted to quit and go back, but Steve made me keep going. When we got to the creek there were a lot of people there playing in the water and falls. Some kids were sliding down the rocks in the water (although that wasn't that easy to do--rocks are not that slippery). The boys had fun here as well and we wished we'd been to this one first while the sun was still overhead.

Torsten tried to get under the falls a little and got sucked in.

Simon is showing just how cold the water was.

After our workout, we were definitely ready for some food (and it was dinner time by then as well). We stopped in North Bend and Steve found Los Cabos. I think he has some sort of supernatural ability to spot Mexican restaurants. Simon and I split Carne Asada:

After a stop at the fish store, we made it to the ferry and found we had a 40 minute wait until the next boat. But the sun was getting ready to set, so we enjoyed the scenery and let our muscles rest from our hike. It was a good day and definitely a hike we'd do again.