A cold and windy day at the beach

We took a few side trips before school started-- so the kids would have some fun activities fresh in their minds while they were settling back into their classrooms.  One of these activities was a trip to Newport to throw down some chowder and hang out on the beech.  After enjoying some Mo's Annex chowder, we ambled down the waterfront a few blocks to see what the resident sea lions were up to.  It turns out they were up to the same old things-- lying around on the docks and barking bitterly at any interlopers that were too late to the party to enjoy a dry section of dock. 

Satisfied that there had been no new developments in sea lion behavior, we made our way to the beach, where we began to appreciate the fact that we had selected an exceedingly windy and not particularly warm day to take in the sand and surf.  The wind-blown sand necessitated leaving the camera in the car.  Hence, the only beach picture we came away with was Andrea and April returning to the car from the bathrooms.  You can tell by the looks on their faces what a great time everyone had!

A day at the zoo

Hey!  Brandon and Keely have a new baby!  Congratulations!  I swear this is somehow related to the title of this post.  As it turns out, we took Andrea's parents to the airport yesterday where they were off to Ohio to see the new baby, as well as Brandon and Keely.  After dropping them off, we headed off ourselves-- to the zoo.  We all had a good time.  It was mid-week and there was a bit of a drizzle, but this kept a lot of other people at bay, and so the crowds were minimal.  Besides getting an especially close-up view of a leopard, one of the highlights was the lorikeet aviary.  We must have walked in right at the boozing hour, because the birds were all over anyone carrying the paper cups full of lorikeet dope they sell before you go in.  A lady in front of us was assaulted by a particularly thuggish lorikeet and Jolie had to have one pried off of her thumb.  It was like a cross between a technicolor Hitchcock nightmare and Leaving Las Vegas  in there for a while.  If you don't believe me, check out the picture of the meth-addicted lorikeets.  It's really about time someone did an intervention up there...

I tried here to recreate a picture I took of Claire when she was about three or four, but without the sea lions (which were swimming around in the original), it doesn't really measure up.  They must have been having a smoke behind the lorikeet cage.

Here are the lorikeet junkies I was talking about.  These are some bad hombres!

A weekend in Washington

 
First, an item of business...  I was formerly hosting the pictures for this blog on Flickr, but I have switched to an Apple Mobile Me account.  If you are reading a post in the future and would like to see additional shots of the subject, you can check them out on my Mobileme Gallery.

As for our weekend getaway, we had a good time for a few days in Poulsbo with the Pecks (where we spent an afternoon on the beach in Port Townsend).  We then picked up the crew and spent the next few days at a cool cabin located just outside one of the gates to the Mt. Rainier National Forrest.  Among our forays into the park, we walked around the Paradise visitors area (a couple of times), viewed some lovely waterfalls, and finally spent a while next to the Nisqually river in all of its turbid, glacier water glory.  Some of us were tempted to drink its chalky water, but no one was brave enough to risk a case of ancient giardia that melted off of a pile of ice encrusted dino poop.  Maybe next time. 

Camping at Crane Prairie

Most of us just got back from a few days of camping at Crane Prairie with Grandma and Grandpa-- Jolie stayed behind to spend an extra night and the rest of us cruised home via Sunriver and Sawyer Ice Caves.  With the exception of an ill-timed, brief rain while we were packing up our gear this afternoon, the trip was great.  As an added bonus, we celebrated Claire's birthday with shrimp kabobs and ice cream cake today.  Having ice cream cake on day three of an outing is one of the numerous benefits of camping with an RV...

We also enjoyed having Sharon (visiting from Texas) on the trip as well.  She is in Oregon visiting her dad for a few weeks and she got her visit started off right away with a camping trip.  I guess by the time she goes home, she will have spend a significant portion of her trip sleeping in a tent.  That makes for a fun summer trip! 

 

By the way, more pictures from the trip can be viewed on Flickr.