So, it's been a few days.
Let's play catch up again, shall we?
We went to the lovely town of Poulsbo on Sunday for their Viking Fest. The town was founded by Norsemen and they have reveled in their ancestry ever since. The festival ran Saturday and Sunday. We went with high hopes. Turned out it was just all right. It was a rainy day and looked something like a cross between a renn faire and a county fair complete with the Zipper ride, among others.
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| See, stripes and swords. How viking can you get? |
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| Totally Nordic. I think I am growing a beard just looking. |
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| See, a freaking viking with a spear and magic helmet. |
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| Chain mail? The only thing that could be more viking is... |
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| A doughnut eating contest. Apparently the vikings were huge doughnut guys. |
Then it started to rain. Like really rain. You know, the kind you always hear about in Washington. Turns out that is pretty true.
Luckily we were not too far from a marine science center. Dash inside, get some knowledge working and escape the rain. Kids = happy.
Then we got some viking doughnuts and went home. Not a bad day, but hard to build a blog post around.
So, today we tried harder. Oh boy, did we.
We decided to go on a research hike. I have been threatening the kids with a hike in camping experience. You know, cart all your supplies with your and hike in to a campground unreachable by car. My big, lusty, dream camp would be the Royal Basin beneath Mt. Deception. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/37940454
But that is a little too ambitious for the kids
So I found another possibility and figured we could go out today and take a look around. Without hauling gear it would give us an idea of what we are up against and provide us with a nice hike in the process. So we set off and SQUIRREL!
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| Did that sign say waterfall view? |
OK, OK, back on task. Nothing to see here. We will just proceed on in an orderly SQUIRREL!
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| Hey, a tidal flat. That's as good as a marine science center. |
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| About a bazillion oysters |
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| Crabs galore! |
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| This place was teeming with life. |
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| Strike a pose. |
OK, seriously this time. Let's get there and get hiking. We're burning daylight people.
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| There we go, that's more like it. Even if it was raining. |
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| Found this tree and thought it looked like an elephant. |
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| This place was teeming with life too. |
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| The goofiness was out too. |
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| I felt sorry for this poor guy stuck in the tree. |
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| Add caption |
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| Keep them goofy, keep them happy. |
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| Beautiful bridge out there in the middle of nowhere. |
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| And now the bridge is even more beautiful. |
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| Add caption |
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| Taking a break and keeping spirits up. |
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| Nice little waterfall |
It was getting late and we were all tired by this point. The "When are we going to get there?" birds were coming out. Finally though, we made it.
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| Lena Lake |
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| Sitting on Picnic Rock. |
All too soon though, it was time to pack up and head back. The kids were pretty tired already.
The hike back was faster, but we were way more tired. We managed to spice up the trip with wonderful commentary from Max as he chattered on about any and everything. We also spotted this little guy.
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| We saw this dead tree with a moss mullet. |
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| Business in the front and party in the back |
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| The Saguaro cactus grows weird here |
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| As do the banana slugs. |
It was a great hike and pretty doable even for the boys. We have all but decided this is the place we will try to make camp later in the year.
Check out the hike.
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/lena-lake
