Not All Rainforests are Tropical

Olympic NP is huge and we knew we couldn't see it all in one day, so I asked my brother which part we had to see (it's their family's favorite park) and he said absolutely the Hoh Rainforest. So, that's where we went and it did not disappoint. We are huge fans of the redwoods, and this had a very similar feel, but with more variety in the plants.

And from the very beginning, I found mushrooms! Tiny, perfect little mushrooms in a carpet of moss,

 and bigger ones, too. All types of mushrooms. It was fantastic.

Also loved all the different mosses and lichens.

They're so beautiful. The first trail we did was called the Hall of Mosses and there were a lot.

It's like a whole second forest, in miniature, on each log or under each shrub.

Also found a couple of banana slugs.

After we finished that first loop, we went back to the car to get out our picnic lunch.

And were quickly joined by some visitors. These canada jays were relentless, and despite our best effors, were rewarded with 1/2 a graham cracker when they swooped right in front of Peanut and grabbed it from him. We defended the rest of our lunch pretty well.

And then it was back to the hiking trails to do a few more miles, and find more fungi, like these bird's nest fungi,

and this slime mold.

There were some very large trees around. Our biggest take away is that an old growth forest, whether redwood, or Douglas fir and Sitka spruce, is stunning. They have a lot of similarities, and are so impressive. It's sad to realize how many have been completely destroyed.

We walked to the first river spot on the Hoh River Trail and watched a couple of fly fishermen for awhile.

These trails were just so green! It was a lovely area to hike in.

After we were done, we stopped at Beach 4 on our way home. The low tide was still a couple hours off when we got there, and it was drizzling pretty good, which meant we got completely soaked in the hour we were there and didn't even stay for the lowest tide.

But we saw lots of barnacles, snails, and mussels.

And a lot of anemones and sea stars, too. It was a beautiful beach and I'm sure a great spot when you can time it with a negative tide.

But we were cold and wet, so we'd had enough for the day.

The hike to and from the beach was a beautiful stretch of rainforest.

Back at the house, we got warmed up, made dinner, and played video games. Peanut has been wanting to do stuff with Bug more than usual--trying to soak up the brother time before he's gone. It sounds sweeter than it usually is, haha, because the interactions aren't always fun, but I still feel a little sad when I think about how much our house will change when there isn't the daily sibling interaction. We're all going to have to get used to it.

Mt Madonna 2023

It was our 6th year camping with this crew (and a couple new additions.) We look forward to the few days we get together where the kids can just be kids and embrace the dirt, free play, and total chaos.

 

There was a lot of card playing,

learned a few new games like Egyptian War and Mao,

and had a Nerts showdown with Shelley dominating!

We hiked--moms went out two mornings, and then the bigger group did a short hike one afternoon

(and saw a snake! Actually, I saw two, but this one was nice and posed long enough to get a picture. Garter snakes--nothing dangerous.)

Peanut and his friend, E, put together a talent show the first night. They told jokes,

did card tricks,

and got people to sign up to sing,

do more card tricks, and even got the moms to do a "fire" dance, with broken glow sticks, haha.

There was a lot of lying around in hammocks (or swinging like crazy from the younger half of the group.)

And the deep philosophical discussions that happen around the campsite. Lots of storytelling

and laughs.

Lots of time hanging out with friends--we had 5 families represented, although there were only a couple of us who had everyone there (well, everyone living at home--we were actually the only ones with everyone there because of older kids who have real adult jobs now.)

The dads were sadly underrepresented--there were three total the last two nights--Daddy-o was on his own the first night, which was different since he always came up late the first few years. 

It's a fun group and always a good time. I love that our kids get to have a similar summer experience as Daddy-o and I each did, camping with friends or family year after year, growing up together.

And I'll just end with what is probably one of the funniest pictures and represented some of the change that has happened over the years:

Bug and his groupies watching him chop wood. The girls were hilarious and this is just an example of some of the funny things we saw or heard the tween (and a couple of teen) girls do while we were there in realtionship to Bug. They were mostly off doing there own thing, but every now and then. . .

Love this group and the memories we make each year.

Another Adventure in SF

It's another SF adventure day! The kids and I all love spending a day in the city exploring, with a few random stops, some favorites, some new places.

This year, we started with one of my favorites that was new to them.

The Palace of Fine Arts, which is left from the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition. It's such a beautiful spot, and feels like California's version of ancient builidngs.

Once we got over the initial hiccups (Peanut had forgotten a jacket and was pretty sure he was going to freeze to death if he left the car), we were off to a good start.

We walked around the water and explored the structures.

Peanut was pretty happy in my sweatshirt.

Then, it was off to another favorite spot--Fort Point at the base of the bridge. 

I've never actually been in the fort because it's always closed when I've been there, but the view of the bridge from this angle is really fun.

It was foggy and kind of cold, of course. Hard to plan non-foggy days in the summer.

We stopped by the warming hut for hot chocolate and a cookie.

Love these adventurers of mine.

Bean was going a little crazy with the fussiness, but we were mostly having fun, haha.

We went for a hike at Land's End which was new for all of us.

Found some pretty little beach spots, along with the labyrinth. 

And then the Lincoln Park Steps.

We found a really good burrito place (Chinos Taqueria) for dinner and then had time for one last stop on the way home. We'd done around 20000 steps at this point, with lots of actual step climbing and everyone was pretty tired.

But Lombard street was worth a few more minutes.

We drove down and then stopped to get a picture with the hill.