Olympic National Park

On Thursday we drove up from Federal Way to Port Angeles. We stopped at Walmart on the way for potty breaks and ended up spending about an hour there. By that time, it was almost lunch so we took another break to get gas and Jimmy John’s.

 

We arrived late in the afternoon at Port Angeles and drove to the Olympic National Park visitor center. This was the first National Park visitor center I’ve been to that has a dedicated play room for kids. We could even close the door so Clarissa couldn’t escape. It was so nice to just sit there, let the kids play, and do NOTHING. We did that for over an hour.

Then we took a hike in the rain.

Ok, well I forced everyone to take a hike in the rain. No one wanted to do this activity, but I think we were all happy when we hit the trail and were surrounded by verdant beauty everywhere. Ironically, I was probably the only one to not enjoy the hike because shortly into it, I noticed my iWatch was missing. I felt sick to my stomach thinking it had come off in the parking lot when I changed coats or somewhere along the trail. I spent the rest of the hike worrying about that and the next hour trying to locate the watch with a GPS. The GPS said it was on the side of the highway, which I combed to no avail. An hour later while unpacking I found the watch by Ammon’s booster seat. It had fallen off when I squeezed my hand in to unbuckle him! That was the last time I wore the watch on the trip. I didn’t want to ruin another moment worrying about a watch.

This is why my watch fell off when unbuckling Ammon. This van had a double stroller, a tent, tarps, 7 sleeping bags, snacks, clothes for everyone, and waaaaayyy too many books. (We don’t do screens on car trips because we always lose the chargers and can’t keep track of them. It’s more laziness and disorganization than any philosophical principle, but no screens mean TONS of books.)