Back from Camp (early)

I shouldn't be here. I'm not supposed to be sitting at my dining room table updating my blog on Saturday night. I'm supposed to be at my campsite on the Washington coast. Alas, we were rained out. We've never come home from our yearly campout with my sister's family early because of rain. But there are only so many games of UNO and Cranium Family Fun a grownup can be expected to endure while trapped in a yurt with 5 children aged 4-15. As you can see by the first few photos Thursday evening was beautiful. Very little wind, comfortable temperatures, and even a bit of sun. But everything changed overnight. Friday morning brought a steady, persistent drizzle interspersed with short heavy showers. The kids played outside for awhile in the morning, and then we took off for town to see the lighthouse, maritime museum, the docks, and to have a hot lunch of fish and chips. The maritime museum was interesting, the kids loved the whale bones, but the most amazing thing for me was the Fresnel lens from the Grays Harbor Lighthouse. It broadcast rainbows all over the walls as the light revolved inside the lens. Then we went back to camp for the rest of the afternoon full of the aforementioned games and a few of us even got in a nap. We even gave in and let the kids watch "Night at the Museum" on the laptop in the yurt. After a yummy Dutch Oven dinner which included sausage pasta bake and berry cobbler we discussed the possibility of going home Saturday instead of Sunday for the weather forecast was for the rain to get worse rather than better as the weekend progressed. By Saturday morning there was a short break in the weather. We decided to try to get in some beach time before we packed up to go home because we were out of dry clothes and towels, and more importantly the grownups couldn't handle more time in close quarters with the kids. While we were at the beach the drizzle returned and by the time we got back to camp we were all drenched. We didn't even feel like having lunch together at camp so we packed up everything wet with the knowledge that we'd have to set out everything to dry in our garages once we got home. It was very depressing. So now we're home. The trailer is opened up in the driveway to dry and air out before we put it away, and the garage is full of our other camping equipment spread out to dry. The kids are sleeping in the trailer with the neighbor kids so they're getting their 3 nights in the trailer. The photo of the banana slug is for my aunt from Texas. She'd never seen one until her last trip to Washington. Enjoy!