Port Angeles Adventures

Memorial Day weekend, 2009

Tom and I took the boys off on adventure for the weekend -- though in some ways it turned out to be more of an adventure than we had planned:<

I was careful, I thought. I printed up the directions to the place we were going and, according to the directions, the drive would take 2.5 hours. We had a leisurely morning and left around 9 am, stopping briefly at a nearby mall to buy the boys new bathing suits. We stopped again, briefly, for lunch... we finally arrived at our destination at 4:30 pm. Does the math look odd to you? If so, it should. See, when we got the directions, there was no mention of the fact that the Hood Canal Bridge was closed... So we drove to within 4 miles of it, following the detour directions and then had to turn around and drive all the way back and then some. But the round about route was longer yet because one small town along the route was having a fair... so they backed traffic up for hours to allow the fair to progress. Tom was, of course, cool, calm and collected. He was so calm that I was afraid he might burst a blood vessel.

We did make it and the boys were quite delighted to find that the place we were staying had both a pool and a hot tub. After a short nap (for the parents' sake) we investigated and, as it was getting windy and later, spent most of our time in the hot tub. I do like hot tubs:>

The next day was better. Everyone slept and slept and when we awoke we decided to go to a place called 'Hurricaine Ridge'. It was close by and none of us had ever seen it. We drove up and up and up... and when we got to the ridge, there was snow! The boys were over the top thrilled. It was remarkable -- the air was warm and quite pleasant and yet, there was the snow. Tom took picture after picture, happily toting his tripod while the boys climbed and kicked and explored the snow. I took a few photos myself (deprecating smile). The boys also took a few photos -- we had bought them small digital cameras, palm sized. Jason took nature photos.. Xander? He took embarrassing people pictures. The kid has a future as a photo journalist for a yellow rag....

On the mountain we saw a wide variety of wildlife, not including little boys: we saw a raven, a rosy breasted finch, a chipmunk, a rabbit, quite a large number of deer and a bear. Actually, Tom was the only one who saw the bear and he decided that it was the better part of valor NOT to try to get close enough for a photo. Wise man.

When we finally came down from the mountain, we took another rest. The boys, of course, were not particularly interested in resting so they played and drew and read... My favorite moment came when Jason was busily playing his Didj, a handheld educational computer game. In this case, he was playing 'Indiana Jones' and had to solve math problems before he could proceed to the next level. He had been throwing out math equations for his father on a regular basis.. 'Dad, what is ... plus....?' Then came THE question: 'Dad, what is 64 - 7?' Before Tom could answer him, I heard a small voice pipe up '57'... seconds later, Tom, who had been working in Photoshop on his collection of pictures, tossed out '57' and that same small voice chirped triumphantly, 'I TOLD YOU SO!!! 57!" Hmmm...

Rest period finished, we took another dip in the pool and then headed off to the beach -- imagine, snow and beach all in the same day! The beach to which we went was a wildlife sanctuary. Xander was quite unhappy with his mom when she told him that he had to leave his shells behind but I made up for it by snapping a few photos -- told him that I would make him his own 'shell' book that he could share with other people. And while we were there, the boys discovered aliens! Myself, I think that the first one looks an awful lot like a carbon atom...

The next 'interesting' moment came the following day: Remember, Xander was thoroughly unhappy that he had not been able to keep his shells so on our journey home, we stopped at not one but two public beaches and BOY! Did we collect shells... and rocks... and, in the end, without meaning to do so, one small crab.

While we were wandering around the second beach, a beach made up primarily of razor clam shells, mussel shells and barnacles (talk about crunchy!), I heard Jason give a yell 'MOM! I HAVE FOUND AN EEL! COME, RESCUE IT!!' I sighed, straightened up and turned to go help. And what did I see? My youngest, the future world conqueror, happily crunching his way across the beach, holding something carefully between his fingers. His brother had seen it and wanted it rescued so Xander, being Xander, rescued it. We deposited the little critter into the water and it burrowed its way rapidly away. It was not an eel but some sort of long thin fish -- rather like the blennies that I used to see on the rocks in Hawaii.

That second beach was very interesting: as I said, it was composed of shells and more shells and... star fish. I was instantly reminded of an old story told me by a friend -- about walking along a beach and seeing a man throwing Star Fish seaward. When asked what he was doing, he responded simply 'Saving them.' When it was pointed out that he couldn't save them all, he said 'No, but I can save one at a time.'