Vacation and Reentry

I feel like I have spent a lot of the summer going away and coming back again. This time it was harder than usual to get back into my routines, because I spent a whole week mostly relaxing. No cooking, no cleaning, only one load of laundry (!!!) and lots of sitting in the sun, chatting and knitting. I even got a few hours each day to myself to think, read, write, and enjoy nature. You see, the kids and I were fortunate to go with hubby's extended family for a reunion at a most unique place. Holden Village is an old mining community that was acquired in the 60s by the Lutheran Church and turned into a retreat center. It's very remote, and takes most of a day to travel to and from.

First you take a boat up the long Lake Chelan. No roads go into the area.

Then, you get on a bus for the ride 11 miles up into the mountains to the Village

There is no cell phone service, no land phone line, no internet (except for that required by the Village for registration and business purposes.) They prepare all the food, guests sleep in the lodges that were the old dormitories for the miners. There is programming you can attend, or not. There is a kids' program each weekday morning, built-in babysitting. And it was sunny all except for one day! The kids played hard all day, I went for a long hike without them (thanks Grandma for watching them), and spent a lot of time sitting around.

Deer roam through the village daily. They are used to people.

Railroad Creek runs next to the Village. You can just see the mine ruins on the hillside in the distance.

I took a hike to Hart Lake. Of course, it was the only day of the week that it rained. But the waterfalls and flowers were spectacular.

The color of Hart Lake is deep teal green. Lovely!

The views from the vicinity of the village are breathtaking. You just have to ignore the tailings piles.

Indian Paintbrush were in full bloom - red, yellow, orange, pink.

Lovely penstemon all over - big and small varieties.

Gabriel enjoyed a new journal he bought with his own money. He spent a lot of time writing and drawing.

I found it tough for a few days to get back into all the work that comes with being home and raising children. I wanted to rest from all that resting (the travel day home was tiring). But now I think I'm back in the swing of things, cooking and cleaning, catching up on laundry, decluttering. I need to plan the kids' school for the next semester, which starts after Labor Day here. I'll have two officially in school now, so I need to figure out how to fit Annika into our day. I have a sneaking suspicion it will involve being more structured, but we'll see. Hopefully I can figure out how to work Kindergarten and Fourth Grade together as much as possible.

It's finally sunny here in Puget Sound, and I am enjoying the warmth. I've picked several pints of raspberries to put into the freezer for the winter.

That's about all I have in the garden this year, except for some chives and rhubarb. Maybe next year I'll get my raised beds built and planted and have more crops, but you know, summers are so busy it seems tough to add gardening into the mix. Oh well, I enjoy what I did do, and the raspberries are fabulous!

Back in the Saddle

Things have been pretty quiet around here lately. You see, I've been working on another project, and it has been taking much of my focus. I have also felt the need for a bit of a break from this blog. But I plan to be back now, and spend some time here each week keeping up with my home school adventures and knitting and gardening and such.

My new project involves my passion of hiking with my kids. I have been hiking with them since they were babies, and have compiled a website of nearby hikes and tips for getting out with the munchkins. I'd love it if you hop on over to www.thehikermama.com and check it out. There is a link for my new blog there, too. Let me know what you think! I'll still be here, too.

Hiking With Children Class

Hey everyone,

I know I have a few local readers, so I thought I'd let you know about a class I'm teaching next week. It's about Hiking with Children, and it's in downtown Edmonds at the Frances Anderson Center on May 16 from 7-9pm. The cost is $15, and kids under 12 may attend free with a parent. You'll learn lots of tips for hiking with youngsters, including where to go, what to bring, and budget-friendly tips for gearing up. Call the Edmonds Parks Dept. at 425-771-0230 by Friday to register. And let me know if you will be coming, it would be cool to meet some of you face to face!

Black Canyon Field Trip

Black Canyon Road

Last week I had the opportunity to leave the kids at Grandma’s for a few days. I had some time to take care of appointments, a bit of work, and just thinking clearly for a few moments. I also got a totally free day to explore! I coerced encouraged a friend of mine to come along on my adventure.

It took forever to get out of Seattle – so much traffic for the mid-morning. Traffic was bad over the Pass, too, with construction and an accident and rain and fog. But finally we made it out of the grey. The clouds gradually lightened as we drove farther east. Suddenly, there was sunshine and blue sky! Ellensburg was warmer but breezy, and we drove through and onto the Umptanum Road. Up we climbed into the hills, the pavement soon gave way to gravel and dirt. Bluebird houses lined the fences for the entire route, and I was ecstatic to see the first wild western bluebirds of my life. We took our time driving, stopping often to take photos and just soak in the scenery.

Looking out over the sagebrush to the windmill farm and the Stuart Range

Eventually we made it to the turnoff for the Black Canyon road. I tried to make it up the road a bit, but my Camry protested, so I turned around and parked in a wide spot. We walked up the road. It was such a relief to be in short sleeves with sun glasses after all the grey and wet we’ve had this spring. The air was dry and fragrant. There were flowers all along the sides of the road.

Balsam Root on either side of the fence

Sagebrush with insect galls

My friend got a good introduction to hiking with me, as I stopped every few minutes to take a photo of a flower. The bird song hung like a liquid golden curtain on either side, western meadowlarks and bluebirds fluttering out ahead and behind.

Desert Violets

We met another gal along the trail, and slightly envied her for staying the night. We decided to stop and turn around at the true trailhead. I did want to go on farther, but we had a long drive home and my friend was ready to be done. We slowly made our way back down the road, finding a few flowers we had missed on the way up.

Ladybug on desert parsley

We realized that we had actually climbed pretty far up from the car. The drive back home took less time, and too soon we were back into the rain and clouds of the west. The sunshine and birdsong faded into the distance. But we’ll be back.

A herd of elk, as photographed through the windshield

We saw elk, deer, butterflies, beetles, and lots of flowers and birds I couldn't identify. I have put a few pics here, but there are more on my nwhikers.net post.

Note to self: Get the Best Desert Hikes book, and a desert flower book.

Padilla Bay Outing

Annika checks out whale bones and baleen

Up north a ways, out of the city and sprawling suburbia, is a large estuary feeding the Salish Sea. Padilla Bay offers beaches, mud flats, marsh habitat, and other fabulous environments for exploring. We spent a few hours at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, which has a free museum with an aquarium and some excellent exhibits about estuaries, ocean life, and the general area.

The kids liked opening and closing all the doors and drawers.

There is an area where kids can touch specimens and play games.

Feeling the fur of different local creatures

An unfortunate hummingbird who hit the side of a house so hard his beak went clear through the plywood. The poor thing died on impact.

My kids enjoyed the whale bones and baleen, the puppets, and the felt board the best. They also liked all the sea creatures and eel grass floating from the ceiling. We were the only ones there last Friday, and it was nice to have the place to ourselves and chat with the friendly staff. The aquaria have been updated since the last time we were there, and we spent a lot of time searching for sea creatures and looking at them up close.

The new rocky shore aquarium

Lots of tube feet!

Colorful creatures

After we explored a bit and had some lunch, we took a walk on the Upland Trail, which starts in the parking lot and makes a 0.8 mile loop through a small forest and meadow. We checked out a backpack with an activity guide and some props for the activities, as well as 2 pairs of binoculars to use on our walk. My kids enjoyed looking for the numbered posts along the trail and genuinely appreciated the information included in the activity guide. It was a bit early in the season for many of the activities, but I think it was worth it anyway, as using the booklet helped to focus our walk.

Stinging nettles are coming up

Indian-plum is blooming - one of our earliest blooming native plants

Some kind of small mammal left these tracks in the grasses.

Piles of stones from homesteading farmers who cleared the fields of glacial debris

When we were beginning our walk, a great blue heron landed at the edge of the parking lot and the meadow. Gabriel and Annika were enthralled. We practiced walking closer up to it, sneaking quietly and stopping to observe with our binoculars. It let us get pretty close before it leapt up and moved farther off.

Gabriel stalking the heron

The Great Blue Heron waits quietly

Woops! We scared it off!

At the same time, 3 bald eagles were flying overhead and chattering in their unique voices. Fabulous!

From the meadows at the interpretive center, you can see across the bay to the oil refineries and the hills of Anacortes.

The highest hill, Mt. Erie, has radio/tv/cell towers on top. There is a road up to the top, too, and the kids liked my idea of driving up to the viewpoints up there.

Looking south from Mt. Erie to Lake Campbell and Whidbey Island

Unfortunately the clouds were thickening and it was getting misty while we were up on top; the best part, though, was crawling on the giant boulders and rock outcroppings.

My little rock climbers

The kids talked about this part for several days afterward. When they get a year or two older, we'll be able to hike from the bottom of the hill to the top on one of the many trails.

The third part of our field trip was to Deception Pass State Park. This park has so many neat sections to explore; this is the first time I took them to Rosario Bay. Gabriel found a covey of California Quail in the black berry bushes. That was his first sighting for these birds. We spent some time on the beach, a clean pebbled slope flanked by large driftwood logs.

Gabriel hiding in the driftwood.

The gentle waves made a swooshing sound as they washed up and down the pebbles.

The kids running on the beach

We threw rocks - oh, the lovely colors and variety of stones on these beaches!

Colorful stones

Some of the tide pools were exposed by the tide, and we poked around a bit, finding a few anemones, snails, and small crabs.

Rosario tidepools

Gabriel gently exploring the tide pools

I had my little binoculars, and saw some new-to-me birds floating and diving out in the water. I thought for sure I'd remember their details until I got back to the car and my bird book, but by the time we made it back, I'd forgotten what I saw. I guess I need to sharpen my observation and memory skills!

By now dusk was beginning to fall, so we reluctantly made our way back to the car and snacks for the drive home. The rain started in earnest, so I felt lucky that we had avoided the worst of it for our little outing. Gabriel had been uninterested and lethargic in the beginning of the day, just wanting to go home and play on the computer. But by the end of the trip he was excited about what we had done and asking to come back soon. Deception Pass truly is a special place, and I love that even the kids can feel that specialness. Next time I think we will explore some of the hiking trails there.

A Good Day for a Hike

Yep, it was a good day for a hike. Of course, the weather is changing from the gorgeous sunshine we have had for the last several days, but we got our hike in before the rain started. We met Sarah and her boys at the Tradition Plateau Trailhead at Tiger Mountain. I even was able to drag the hubby along for this one. He had the camera most of the time, so many of the pics on this post are actually from him.

My wonderful husband

Beginning our hike

We tried out some new-to-me trails at Tiger - the Swamp Trail, the Big Tree Trail, the Wetlands Trail, and the Around-the-Lake Trail, with part of the Bus Trail thrown in for good measure.

It's good to have a map along for all the cris-crossing trails

Though most folks trek up to the top of the mountain, or at least farther up on its flanks, we stuck to the lower sections for these flatter and easier kid-friendly paths.

There are story boards along the Swamp Trail

Smiles from the baby

Walker sticking his tongue out

There weren't as many folks at the parking area as I expected for a holiday, but we did pass several people throughout our walk.

We ended up going about 3 miles, I believe. Kids of all ages did well - the baby slept much of the time in the pack, the 4-year-old is stronger now than last fall, the 8-year-old was speedy and uncomplaining, and the 13-year-old put up with everyone. We made one little stop for lunch and a rest, at Round Lake. The kids threw rocks in the water and later sticks for a dog to chase.

This is about the only access to Round Lake

Walker gets his lunch

Annika takes a break. We bring along inexpensive foam mats to stay dry. She's only half on hers, and was already wet and muddy from playing in the lake.

Gabriel's hands got chilled

We visited The Bus - it's looking a bit worse than I remember - and enjoyed our stroll.

Gabriel checks out the mysterious bus "artifact"

Good thing his tetanus shots are up to date!

The kids and adults appreciated how green and mossy many parts of the trails are. It's kind of neat in the swamp area, and the Big Tree is, actually, big.

The Big Tree

How this giant escaped logging, no one seems to know. Annika really liked all the ferns we saw. A few plants are beginning to bud, but otherwise it still looks like winter in the forest.

A rare photo of me

Whenever I get out with the kids, I get to thinking about all the other places I want to take them this summer. I hope this is the year we really get our groove on, as far as hiking goes. We all benefit from making the choice to get out and enjoy nature and move our bodies. And it is a choice, really - to stay home and work on laundry and dishes some more, or to leave the dishes in the sink and come back with more dirty laundry in exchange for great memories and fun experiences.