2022 road trip with bikes

On the 4th of July we returned from our longest road trip yet.   Jack and I both took some family road trips as kids but we've never done any long drives together, even without the kids in tow.      This trip was a ten night, counter-clockwise loop from Seattle to Idaho to Alberta to British Columbia.   

Quantitative Overview

• driving distance from lodging to lodging: 1476 miles  -   daily activities added more miles.
• gas bill: 1196 - yikes
• miles biked: 85  - pretty good for a family trip :)
• longest ride: 36.8  - a one-way, mostly downhill ride!
• trips between Banff and Canmore: 8   We should have stayed in Banff itself.  Once I forgot the cabin keys at a restaurant and we had to turn around at 11 pm and drive back to Banff again to get them.
• bike rides: 6  - one was just Jack and D, while I drove the car down the road
• bears observed: 5  -   2 Grizzlies and 3 black bears, one of which we saw on the side of the road as we biked past it...
• swims: 4  -  Radium Hot Springs, the hotel pool, Okanagan Lake (Kelowna)  and Hillcrest aquatic center in Vancouver
• national holidays: 2  - Canada day on July 1 and the 4th of July on our way home
• rainy days: 2   - drizzles when we were in Banff one day, but not actually on our long ride followed by a downpour on our last day in Vancouver.
• museums: 1 -  Museum of Anthropology at UBC on a rainy day
• number of tantrums: 0  -   Awesome!
• unpatriotic thoughts:  ? ...... quite a few with the combination of national holidays, incredibly low covid rates in BC vs. WA, rolling back of American women's rights and even public investment in swimming pools.   

This was the longest trip we've taken since we went to the Azores in early 2019.  Thank goodness we took that trip when we did, pre-Covid.   It felt awesome to get away from it all - work, home and mostly covid.

Generally, this trip boosted my confidence a lot for future travel.   Dd, at 3.75 years, is at the point where naps aren't essential.   He took a couple, but mostly did fine without them and we didn't spend any time battling him to fall asleep in an unfamiliar and exciting environment.    We also pushed the kids by staying out pretty late several times.  There was lots of daylight and the drives were long.   They handled it like champs, and if you put it in perspective relative to jet lag, staying out until 10 pm isn't so bad.   One surprise success was on the hydration front.   I brought my osprey pack (thank you, Jack) with the hose and soft water bottle and the kids just could not get enough of drinking from it, so we all stayed hydrated.   

Keeping track of our stuff was a challenge.   We lost misplaced Jack's kindle a couple of times and it camoflauges extremely well against bedroom furniture.  Then D inexplicably put it in a drawer at an AirBnB.   Never put things away on vacation!   In the end, I think the only things we lost were a water bottle and two pairs of pyjamas Dd would have outgrown soon anyway.      

Also, our credit card had some fraud on it right when we got home, so that might be a souvenir of the trip as well.    All in all, it was a great trip.

Camano with bikes

 Camano Island was a nice labor day weekend destination.   We picked D up from school on Friday and headed straight to our cabin on the beach, making it the rare 3-night trip.   Jack's birthday was the day after we returned.   Will he be able to pick them both up next birthday?

We ate lots of blackberries and some comically big apples.

As with nearly everywhere we've been this summer, the kids spent a lot of time digging.   D actually dug up a pickaxe right in front of our cabin.

We found some crabs and I need to make a point of getting out to more low-tide opportunities with the kids.

Four years ago we did a fun biking weekend on San Juan Island (Friday Harbor!) and D and I are wearing the same shirts again.  The roads were pretty nice on Camano and much smoother than on San Juan Island.   Drivers were nice on both and the shoulders were good enough most of the time.   

On Saturday we rode about 20 miles from our cabin on the north part of the island.  It included some long hills and the kids were troopers.    Sunday we drove to the south part of the island to start and rode about eight miles.   Despite the good roads, I would rate San Juan Island higher because there are such nice destinations.  Camano has two (hilly) state parks, right next to each other and few (if any) other good parks or charming public spaces.  

D's Piccolo has gears and he can definitely help on hills.   Dd's Wehoo is really cool and these were the first rides where he actually pedaled, though it was only occasionally, as one would expect.  Jack's bike has a habitual problem with broken spokes, but fortunately riding on two broken ones didn't cause any problems this trip.

Coming back to our cabin to hang out was really nice.

10th anniversary trip

Jack and I went away for a week on our own in mid June for an early 10th anniversary celebration.   My parents generously stayed at our house with the kids.  By this point we were fully vaccinated, but still felt that a simpler trip, close to home made the most sense for us, so we drove to the Olympic Peninsula.  Here are 10 things we did.

1)  Sunday - we lucked out and caught the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston with only a 5 minute wait and walked 6 miles on the Olympic Discovery Trail, along Lake Crescent.  We did a short side trail to see the Devil's punch bowl.   We stayed in a cozy, little cabin near La Push.

2)  Monday - Our most ambitious hike was 13 miles up Mt. Muller (3350 ft net elevation gain).  We saw one person leaving the parking lot as we arrived an no one else for the whole 8 hours it took us.  Before we were engulfed in clouds we saw a bit of the spectacular views that motivate the trail.   It was hard and we were still learning (again?) just how far off out smart watches are when it comes to hiking distances.  At three separate points we though "oh there are just five miles to go", first from believing Jack's watch and them from misidentifying a landmark rock described in the guide book.   The last bit was nice and flat and I'm proud of myself for doing it.   Getting back to the car at 8:15 pm meant that dinner was tricky.   Luckily the grocery store in Forks was still open so we bought a frozen pizza and some other supplies and ate dinner in bed.

 

we already know my apple watch overestimates distance by about 25%

3)  Tuesday - We took it easy and walked 4 miles (total) to Third Beach.  We found a log big enough to string up our hammock.  It was sunny.

4)  Wednesday - It was a very rainy morning when we checked out of our cabin.  By the time we got to Kalaloch beach at noon it was sunny again.  We did a short walk (2 miles) along the beach and then drove on to Lake Quinault Lodge.  The trails just behind the lodge were surprisingly nice and we walked another 1.5 miles and ate dinner at the lodge.   Everything was still take out style so we ate most dinners outside and breakfasts in our room there.

evidence of bears behind the lodge

Jack at the spot where his mom and step dad got married way back when

5)  Thursday - After resting we were ready to try another peak.  We went part way up Colonel Bob Peak (starting to the south with Pete's Creek trail).  As expected from a Memorial Day trip report, Moonshine Flats was covered in snow so we turned around there so it ended up being a 6.5 miles hike with 3,500 feet of elevation.   Without my hiking poles I would have twisted my ankles 10 times over.  We saw only two other hikers who proceeded up in to the snow at 3:45 pm in shorts with light packs and several more miles than us down to the other trailhead they started from.  We took bears pretty seriously on this trip.  I even wore the bear bell to make noise on my pack and we sang and shouted as we got near noisy water to avoid surprising any bears.   On the drive out we did startle a bear and got to watch it run away down the road a bit, while sitting safely in our car.

6)  Friday - Quintessential Olympic Peninsula rain arrive on Friday and we hiked 3.5 wet miles along the east fork of the Quinault River with quite a few other people.   Back at the lodge we swam in beautiful indoor pool again and played a great board game called Seven Wonders Duel, which we've only played three times in four busy years.  I won :)

7)  Saturday - We left at 7 am to get back for D's last baseball game, since Jack was the coach.

8)  We read aloud Piranesi, the new book by Susanna Clarke.

9)  In a stroke of good fortune, just before our trip we learned that a TV series had been made from the book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, also by Susanna Clarke, so we were able to buy and download it before we left good internet access.  We both read the book about 10 years ago and then over the past six months or so we listened to the audiobook together for a second read.   Clearly it's a good book and the show was done very well.

10)  We enjoyed time together without work (mostly), kids or much cooking and we slept!

snow and Sequim

 On Valentine's day, we had more snow fall in Seattle in a single day than any day in the last fifty years.  First we had a dusting on the 12th, then snow during the nights, loads of snow on the 14th and yet more snow on the morning of the 15th.   Snow that I shoveled in our shady alley didn't completely melt for 6-7 days and two days ago I saw small pile of snow in Volunteer park, a whole month after this epic snow storm.

For the first time ever, we actually went sledding on the hills immediately around our house.  Here are some pictures, including the amusing melting pattern around our neighbor's leaking skylight.

We planned an AirBnb getaway in Sequim over President's Day weekend, and happily had made reservations starting on Sunday instead of Saturday.   We kept expecting the snow to stop falling and start melting on Sunday so we didn't leave home until 4 pm, and even then we had to do significant shoveling to get out of our parking spot and to turn down our hill before getting to the major, plowed roads.   

We've had some mixed luck with AirBnBs lately but this one was great and was just as described.   It was un-cluttered, kid safe and also kid friendly, meaning that there were some toys and a big yard with a big toy that we used a few times.   Jack and I went in the hot tub every night.   

Originally we'd hoped to bring our bikes but it was too cold so we scaled back and very much enjoyed the under-scheduled time.   We went out to the bridge over the lower Elwa river (as soon as we left Sequim there was still snow on the ground) and checked out some eagles, walked and scootered around Sequim Bay State Park and hiked in the Dungeness National Seashore, which we last visited when I was pregnant with D.   We also played Settlers of Catan for the first time with D.   Three nights was enough to relax all the way.

beach - smoke - beach - sickness

As noted, September has a miserable amount of wildfire smoke.  Dd brought home a cold that knocked me down as well.  Miraculously we managed two little getaways exactly in the gaps without smoke or sickness.

At Grayland Beach State park (Yurt 118) we had relaxing time wandering the beach and visiting with my sister and brother in law.  Packing was even on the simpler sides since we shared dinners, didn't pack all the normal tent camping sleeping gear or our bikes.   It was a little cool, but that suited us.

Two weeks later we took the new Argosy small ferry to Blake Island and met my parents there, who kindly carried most of our gear.  They have probably taken their boat there four or five times this season since it is one of their closest getaways from Des Moines.  We had planned to camp two nights but the smoke didn't let up until Saturday morning and Dd's cold improved a lot Friday evening, so we were pleasantly surprised to make it there for one night of camping.  Because of the recent departure of the smoke and a rainy Friday night, the very popular park was nearly empty on Saturday and Sunday morning, which was a treat.  We played on the beach, hiked a bit and spent some good time with my parents.   We had a gorgeous site (#28) and set up our tarp very successfully because there was a bit of rain.  We bought a new tent at the end of last season and this was our second time using it and our first time testing it in the rain and worked very well (unlike the tent it replaced, which would have been miserable in a serious rain).  No one could say we slept well, but compared to our camping trip last August, it was a big improvement.