A Serious Expotition

It's been a while since we've been on a serious expotition... And this one was definitely a serious expotition. Of course, we all strapped on our expotitioning hats before we left.

We discovered a beach about a quarter mile from our house, and every time we've gone down there we've looked at this little peninsula. It looked totally uninhabited.... And not TOO far away. So we made a mental note that we should try to walk out to it.

Today was the day. We strapped Abbie into the backpack, and Carolyn got to walk around free as a bird. The stroller wasn't cut out for this terrain. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked... And saw some INCREDIBLE things (you'll see below). As we got closer to the peninsula and the day got later we debated on calling it 'close enough' and heading back, but we just couldn't get 'almost' there and not see what it was.

So we pressed on, and got there, and saw what there was to see (not much). And turned around.

And then we noticed the tide had come in....

Also, our little trooper Carolyn, was pooped... So... we strapped Abbie onto my back, and Daddy put Carolyn on his shoulders. And we walked and walked and walked. Washington beaches, by the way, are not the easiest terrain for walking on because they are almost entirely round rocks and pea gravel. But kept on... And we waded around some landmarks that had previously been on land.... And finally we got home.

And we decided that the six mile walk round trip (thank you Google Maps!) was so very, very worth it. We were just thankful that our stroller, which we'd parked on the beach at what seemed to be a place that was far enough from thet water, didn't get pulled out to sea.

Now that I've blabbed for way too long I'll let you see the oodles of photos we took.

 
Carolyn's got her expotition hat on.

 
Our destination--it looks closer than it really is because I zoomed...

 

 
Abbie snuck in a nap.

 
Barnacles on rocks make for a rugged looking landscape.

 
Um.... Honey... I think we found a Hatch!

(Actually, we decided it was a very heavy looking piece of a former dock.)

 
There are some rocks that just invite you to sun yourself on them...

 
Carolyn joined me.

 

 

 
This was by far the highlight of the hike... Andy told me that he saw an otter during the month he was here before I came out way back 5 years ago. I've been wanting to see one since and I'd pretty much stopped believing that whas he said was true. So we're wandering along the beach and we see something splashing. At first we thought it was a seal... but it just wasn't quite right. Seals are usually like a little eight-ball in the water eye-balling you. This was spashy and playful and, well... there was a lot of flailing. The closer we got the more clear it became that we were seeing Sea Otters. Not just one, but three of them!!!! And not only did we get to see them, we got to watch them for quite some time. They came out of the water, oblivious to us, to sun themselves... Then they caught onto the fact we were around and headed back to sea. But they stayed close enough to land that we could watch them play for another 25 minutes or so. Oh, it was so cool. It was just so cool!!! They seemed to be as interested in us as we were in them. They just kept looking back at us from various spots. Anyway... By far my favorite wildlife sighting since we've been up here. I LOVE Sea Otters.

 

 
"Um... guys... I don't know what those things are, but I think we better go..."

 

 
Andrew impersonating a sea otter for the betterment of our children's knowledge-base.

 

 
The one where we all have our expotition hats on.

 
We all look happy here... Don't be deceived. Abbie had just thrown herself back in protest.