My brother and sister-in-law have back-to-back milestone birthdays this summer and kindly invited Shane, Juliette, and me to do some celebratin’ with them for a few days at a lovely little cottage on the Hood Canal. Within two minutes of rolling up to the house last Thursday, Juliette was shedding her clothes and digging in her suitcase for her swimsuit, eager to join her cousins at the oyster-littered beach in our front yard.  The girls splashed around while Shane got to work looking for an afternoon snack.
The oysters were smooth and briney and…apparently full of bacteria. Â I’ll get to that later.
The afternoon was full of paddling and kayaking and cold drinks down by the water. Â THAT WATER! Â It was almost Caribbean-like in its color, kind of dreamy and mysterious in the haze of wildfire smoke that had drifted down from BC.
She’s my favorite first mate.
Paddle boarding doesn’t get much better than this…
All the girls loved being on the water, but Elise was particularly insatiable, wanting to hop from the kayak to the paddle board and then right into the canal, where she bobbed around in her life jacket.
When the late afternoon winds picked up, Shane looped the kite line around a log and let it flap in the breeze, hands-free.
Between the swing and the porch and the beach and the open lawn, it was like these kids were living in their very own playground!
Shane quickly found his favorite piece of playground equipment…
Mitch and Kathryn picked up a filet of fresh salmon for dinner and we all enjoyed a meal with a view from our respective kids’ and grown-ups’ tables.
Then it was back down to the beach for our three little fish!
Morgan! I’ve missed you so.
Bedtime books were read in the front yard and then three salty, tired kiddos crashed out in the upstairs bedroom.
All was quiet.
Shane was up early on Friday for a smoky sunrise paddle.
He returned with a freshly-picked oyster and shucked it on the porch while the girls watched with skepticism. If only he’d listened when they told him it didn’t look very yummy… (Granted, no oyster looks yummy to a three year old.)
After breakfast, we piled into our cars and drove over to Olympic National Forest for a hike along the Skokomish River.
The shady woods were a lovely refuge from the heat.
And just as the chorus of are-we-there-yet’s was beginning, we arrived at the bridge near the Staircase Rapids, which was the perfect place for a lunch break.
And a refreshing dip.
Dads and daughters!
Once we’d polished off our PB&J’s and skipped a few hundred rocks, we hit the trail again.
Made it!
Shane had read about this particular rock at Lake Cushman as the perfect place for some low-risk cliff-jumping, so made a stop on the way back to watch him walk on the (conservative) wild side.
He hovered there at the edge for a couple of minutes and there was a moment when I thought he might turn back.
But, Ka-Bam!
Post-jump, we rewarded our little troopers with cones from the Hoodsport ice cream shop.
And then there was nothin’ to do but chill, with books and games and lemonade (and beer).
It’s a good vacation when you spend as much time in your swimsuit as you do in your clothes!
In another burst of daring-ness, Shane took the paddle board out in the evening for a very wavy ride.
And then did some canal gymnastics, to the girls’ delight.
After dinner, the fire pit beckoned…
A few sugar-induced laps were run around the yard, and again the kids (and adults) were completely tuckered out. Life on the water is so wonderfully exhausting.
Up next: more water-play, more cousin-love, and Shane’s insides explode. Stay tuned.