Vacation

There was a vacation, somewhat minimalistic.  Steve and I and the girls went to a beach house in Moclips, WA for a few days.  I thought about blogging, but didn't do it.

The ocean is always a good idea. 

Building sand castles below tide line, however, I have never quite appreciated.  This one was quite pretty while it lasted, with a magician's cave and an island guard tower.

Tertia built a 2-dimensional sand castle, a combination of Hogwarts and Narnia, which gave her more time to play in the waves.

Daddy and Quarta kept laboring away.  It did not last.  When we came back in mid-afternoon it was nowhere to be seen.

 So they started a new one just below high tide mark.

Those waves are cold, but she's stubborn.

 The next day we took a trip to Lake Quinault and the rain forest.  Quarta bought a souvenir eagle.

 This is the largest Sitka Spruce tree in the world.

 And from a greater distance.

We took an arduous climb over rough ground to reach the largest (or once-largest) Cedar tree.  It was completely hollow inside, but still living at the top, although it had lost most of its branches.

We stayed at Katie's Cottage in Moclips, ate at Home Port and Viet Hoa restaurants in Ocean Shores, and prepared the rest of our food ourselves.  It was nice, especially seeing shooting stars and the Milky Way from the back deck the first night, and waking up every morning to the sound of the ocean.  We each got sunburned in different spots, but not to the degree of agonizing pain.  It never got very hot, mostly 60's and 70's.  The boys stayed home to work and hang out with friends.  It was another bittersweet reminder of oncoming empty-nesting.  Daniel has only a week before going back to college, right after family camp.