{25dec2011: Merry Christmas}

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

{23dec2011: flashback Friday}

Christmas 2009:

Christmas 2010:

{21dec2011: wordless Wednesday}

holiday photos at the park edition:

{09dec2011: Thanksgiving weekend part 2}

In the morning we decided to check out the beach again. The only problem was the tide was almost at high tide and so our wide open beach we were able to run on the afternoon before was now gone.

All the waves and moving logs were a bit disconcerting so we left the beach and packed up our things so we could head out for breakfast and the hike we had planned.

Before leaving the coast we stopped at one more beach just to check it out.

We then headed to Forks to stop for brunch, then continued on our way. It was a bit of a drive from Forks to Sequim where were planning on hiking so we didn't get there til 2. As we drove up the hillside the dry grounds turned to snowy/ice. I was driving at this point and Jason's usually the snow driver (me being from Hawaii and all) and I slowed down to pass a fallen branch in the road. I guess I slowed too much because our wheels lost traction and we started slipping. EEEK. After awhile we stopped moving and the wheels were just spinning. Jason had to get out of the car and start pushing. I was aiming for a flat spot on the side of the road, but it took a good 10 minutes to get there because I kept sliding in the wrong direction. We luckily had our snow chains in the car and got out to put them on. Can I just say those things are NO FUN. A couple tries in the chain on the right side popped off and got wrapped around the back of the wheel and we couldn't pull it off. I was worried for a minute we'd have to call a tow truck to rescue us, but instead I got out the car jack and jacked up the car (my first time ever). We managed to reach under and behind the tire to get the chain off. Whew. We decided to try one more time to get the chains on and we somehow managed. By this point it was almost 3 and the sun was going to go down around 4-430 so we drove a little hoping to find a place we could let Darwin out to run and stretch her legs (we had let her out while we were chaining up the car, but we kept her on her leash close by so she wouldn't run off). We drove and drove and  couldn't find anything so we turned around and headed back down so we wouldn't be caught driving on the snowy hillside in the dark. We passed the snowy road, and took of the chains and ended up at the base of the hill at a closed campsite near a river and let Dar run around. 

After that we loaded back in the car and headed home.
It was a LONG road trip and we didn't even get one hike in! It was disappointing, but I have to say, entertaining. Snow, rolling logs on a beach, rain, icey roads, snow chains, jacking up the car... it was a pretty filled couple of days even if we didn't get to do what we were planning.

{07dec2011: belated wordless Wednesday}

Halloween edition:

I realized I didn't show off our Halloween costumes. Can you guess what Jason and I are? Darwin tried Jason's out for size too.

{06dec2011: Kalaloch Lodge}

This year for Thanksgiving we stayed in town so we decided to use one of the Groupon/Living Social/one of those sites we bought for a cabin at the Kalaloch Lodge out on the Washington coast. We had grand plans to drive out there early and get a hike or two in before check-on (at 4pm) and then hike a bit more on the way back to Seattle. Our total hike count at the of the road trip = 0. That's right we got none in. hahaha.
Thanksgiving day was very rainy, when we drove out to one hiking spot Jason had printed out, the roads were closed. So we tried looking for another spot, and instead we got caught in snow!

We drove for a bit but got worried since we hadn't stumbled upon the hike we thought we were headed to so we turned around and decided to just keep driving to Kalaloch.
We had already been driving a couple hours at this point so we stopped at a park along the Hood Canal and let Darwin out to stretch her legs. We walked along the beach and ran into this:

A dead fish! I was the one who spotted it, Darwin didn't even notice it at first til I pointed it out to her.


After a few sniffs she did try to pick it up, by its mouth, but a quick "uh uh" and she walked away. We ran down the beach and ran around the park a bit before loading back up and heading west.
We did get Thanksgiving lunch on the way... Jack in the Box! Darwin got her own cheeseburger and some fries.
After a long drive we made it to the Lodge where we were able to check in early. Darwin settled onto a bed while we unloaded the car.

Then we went to check out the beach while the sun was still out.

Beaches in Washington (and Oregon) are nothing like beaches I'm used to in Hawaii, but I love how wide and flat the beaches are here. 

Wide beaches are great for spreading out and making Darwin run between us!

Though we realized it's best to do that without a bright red coat on your dog at areas where off leash dogs aren't allowed (we walked far down the beach away from people and the lodge).

Getting down to the beach was pretty easy, getting back over the logs to the stairs, not as easy. It was starting to drizzle again by this point, and Darwin was a bit nervous crossing over the slippery logs. It took some time to find the route with the widest logs and the most sand, but we did it.

We headed back to our cabin and had some relaxing down time.

(This is a really good book btw for those of you who like to read: The Man in the Rockefeller Suit)

We had a 2 burner stove in our cabin so this was our Thanksgiving meal:

While Darwin had this:

And that was our Thanksgiving!
Stay tuned for day 2!