Olympic Peninsula Summer

Odd, but we'd never really spent much time there, unless you count the Grays Harbor and Ocean Shores areas.  For camping, as opposed to overnighting on trips, we generally like to stay in state and NFS campgrounds.  I'd actually checked over the last couple of years finding that there wasn't really much for our 36 foot motorhome in those places on the Peninsula.  So, I guess maybe it wasn't that odd that we hadn't been there.  Anyway, we finally broke down and picked out some private resorts instead of campgrounds. 








This coincided nicely with Micaela's desire to take a couple of friends to Forks, WA.  Forks as in the home of the Twilight series of books and movies.  Didn't do much for me, but what the heck...

Third trip to "Twilight" town this summer.  My manhood finally crushed.

   We spent many evenings in Port Angeles, on the Straight of Juan De Fuca.  We were able to find a bowling alley that was actually reasonably priced, and had a couple of nights of fun there.  Port Angeles afforded us the opportunity to enter Olympic National Park, and head up to Hurricane Ridge.  Once again another place that we had never been.  It was quite nice.  The area is a ridge in the park featuring alpine meadows and incredible views including the Olympic Mountains, Straight of Juan De Fuca, and Vancouver Island.  Also the home of some of the tamest deer around.

Looking southwest from above Hurricane Ridge

North from above Hurricane Ridge.  Straight of Juan De Fuca and Vancouver Island in the distance.  Yes, that's snow on the ground in mid July...

Told you they were pretty tame.

The campground in La Push was in a very nice location and had great hook-ups, but was a little different.  it was right on the water, with a great beach.  The kids had a great time collecting polished glass from the beach.  Next time we'll need to bring fishing gear to catch some of the surf perch that were being landed.

Colton and Dad on the beach.

However, there were quite a few people and dogs just wandering around through the RV park.  Just different...  Stay tuned.

Confuser is back

The computer is back, and almost all of my photos survived and are now backed up.  Actually, everything before this past April was already backed up, just the summer stuff wasn't.  Gotta be more on the ball about that.  Hopefully get some more stuff posted before our hunting trip this coming weekend.

Taking the "Dirt Nap"

I shut my laptop down the other night, and it was working fine.  I tried to start it up yesterday and it's done.  Hard drive is dead.  Second time in eight months.  HP laptops are "crappola".  Coton's is also dead right now.  If we hadn't bought them at Costco with their two year warranty, none of our three HPs would have lasted 6 months.  Never again will I buy an HP product.  Anyways, I need to come up with some spare cash to recover this summer's photos, which I had not yet backed up.  So no more posts for a bit...

Daroga State Park

I know...  I had never heard of it either.  Very nice campground on the Columbia River, just south of Chelan.  A little windy in the evenings, but otherwise nice.  It made a nice base camp in June when we sent the kids to their Aunt & Uncle's place in Colorado.  Janae and I took a week and went RVing.  We went to Chelan, Grand Coulee, and Stehekin.  We had a really poor, long, wet winter and spring around Buckley, and this was a really nice change.  Mid 80's all week.  Well, the first day, was tough, but we got used to it by the second or third day.  I spent a great deal of time shirtless.  Oddly enough, and Janae tells me it was a coincidence, the number of bigfoot sightings in the area tripled that week... 
We spent one day traveling Lake Chelan to the small town of Stehekin.  Very nice place in the North Cascades, very close to the National Park.  Had a great time there seeing the sights and having lunch.  On the trip back downlake, we saw deer, mountain goats, and a bear.  A day later, we drove east toward the coulees.  We drove through several state parks including Steamboat Rock, Sun Lakes, and Bridgeport.  I envied the people fishing on Banks Lake.  And of course we made the customary trip to the Grand Coulee Dam.  What a great time we had without the kids (sorry guys).  I had been raised on camping trips to Alta Lake State Park on the eastside.  To be honest, it's a hell-hole.  One hundred degree temperatures.  Sand at the beach so hot you can't walk on it, rattlesnakes...  How we survived as kids I don't know.  In the last few years I've finally discovered some of the other parks east of the Cascades, finding them very nice.  We will be hitting more of them in the future.  But, our summer was only beginning, and I was still to face my final emasculation...  Stay tuned.

Bad Tom!

Have I been bad, or what?  All summer without a post...  I'm soooooo sorry.  Working nights again has messed me up.  Typically, I get home at 3am or so, and grab some Z-time.  I get up after not nearly enough sleep and finish loading the motorhome, and off we go.  To make it a long enough trip, we don't come home until my monday.  Typically this summer, we've arrived home in time for me to unload critical items, park the motorhome, shower, change, and head off to work until 3am.  As is normal during the summer, my work days are 14 to 15 hours, not leaving much time for this blog!  Will work on it the next couple of days, when I'll be home without working.

March 2010 Twanoh State Park

This weekend was out first outing of 2010. We saddled up and headed across the Tacoma Narrows to the Hood Canal. I don't think I've stayed there since I was a child with Mom and Dad. Definitely our first family outing there. We stayed at Twanoh State Park on the south side of the canal. I remembered that there were supposed to be lots of oysters, and a quick check of the WDF&W website confirmed this. Wow, there were a lot of them. I had remarked to the family that I couldn't promise anything because the low tides weren't very low, but we'd give it a try. Even with not so low, low tides it was like walking on a carpet of oysters! So, finding the oysters was no problem, but I had no experience shucking them. I do now, and my hands show it. I forgot that you are supposed to use gloves while shucking, and therefore didn't have any. Those black things covering the oysters are mussels... Sharp mussels... Oh, and barnacles, joy! My left hand got all tore up while holding the oysters and trying to insert an oyster knife with my right. It took about two limits (36 oysters) before I kinda got the hang of it. By the time I finished shucking Dakota's limit yesterday, I felt semi-proficient. Fried oysters Friday evening, and oyster stew when we got home this evening. We still have 18 in the fridge that I'll fix in the next couple of days. Unfortunately in Washington you must shuck the oysters on the beach leaving the shells there. So no barbecued oysters. Did I mention the weather? Beautifully sunny and warm on Friday and Saturday. Not too bad for having picked this weekend about a month ago, if I do say so myself... The kids had a great time. Colton had to explore the tide flats, finding crabs and eels among other things. Micaela took lots of photos to throw on her Facebook page. And even Dakota managed to have some fun, while handing me oysters to shuck. Dakota even found he likes old John Wayne movies. Go figure, The Duke!? He watched several on his bunk LCD screen last night. Weird. All in all a pretty good weekend spent together. Unfortunately, I work for the next five weekends. Man, that's a long time until we can depart on another adventure!

To Estes Park and West Yellowstone

So, here we are in West Yellowstone, MT. Been a long time since I posted. We left home on June 25th, heading toward Estes Park, CO for the big Longtine Family Reunion. It was an interesting beginning. We left that evening, and made it to Spokane. You see, we needed to pick Micaela and Dakota up from church camp in Medical Lake on Friday morning. So, we boondocked it in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Although it may seem odd, it's not uncommon in the RVing world (check out the fringers of a Wal-Mart parking lot some evening or early morning).

On the 26th, we picked up the kids and headed for Montana. We ended up in Deer Lodge, MT taking Micaela to the ER for a foot injury that occured at camp. Yup, broken, so into a walking cast (or boot if you will) she goes. I titled this Longtine RV Adventures, didn't I?

Eventually, we arrived at YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. Everyone had a good time, although it does take some time to remember some names and faces. The kids of course hit it off well with all the other youngsters. Miniature gold was enjoyed by all, and sometimes for many times a day. I got together with Mike and Lisa, Mike Stork, Scott and Josh Smith, and Ed to climb Flattop Mountain and Mt. Haullet (sp?), ending up at just over 12,700 feet in elevation. Amazing how the lack of oxygen sturck most everyone at about 12,000 feet. You really had to concentrate on breathing correctly. By the way, that peak behind Mike Stork's head is, I believe, Mt. Haullet. Mike eventually went on and climbed another peak just to the south of Haullet, that was over 13,000 in elevation. Can't remember the name of it right now. Mike, Mike, and Ed had an adventure of their own coming down the glacier after that, but you should ask them about it. Janae and Colton enjoyed horseback riding on a couple of occassions. However, Micaela was not happy, as she couldn't go due to her foot. Micaela was excited to fine that her walking cast did not keep her from rafting with Dakota and me on the Cache Le Poudre River. We enjoyed viewing the local wildlife including elk, deer, and owls along with a thunderstorm or two. The original plan was that we would check out on Saturday morning July 4th, along with everyone else. However, Janae found out that her Aunt Nancy would be at her Aunt Pam's house Friday evening. So we changed our plans, and checked out Friday Afternoon, saying our goodbye's a little early.

We arrived at Pam and Darrell's house in Parker, Co on the evening of the 3rd. We got to visit with Janae's Aunt Nancy for a bit that evening. After watching firworks the eveing of the 4th, we returned to Pam and Darrells where Dakota found his sole-brother, a toad. We went to a local amusement park with them. Now, Janae had been to this park many times in past, but never got to go down the alpine slides due to poor weather. This time she, along with the rest of us got to ride them. Later that night, we ended up at an interesting Mexican restaurant that he live shows, cliff diving, and an arcade for the kids. Very unusual. We left the morning of the 6th to head to West Yellowstone. This was tough on the kids, as they had become quite attached to Janae's neice, Taylor. We arrived in West Yellowstone on the evening of the 7th.