Nikki's Family

The trip was a huge success. We left on a Thursay and headed over to Lake Crescent, my gem of a lake on the Olympic Peninusla. It was the start of the heat wave and my dad was in a particularly nice mood so he brought the boat out for us to use. We had a great time at the lake and did alot of swimming. Brad and Ethan both jumped off the dock numerous times (first time ever for Ethan). Steve and Brad snorkeled and found some junk which overjoyed Brad. Our campsite is really shaded so even when it was 90F it wasnt too hot in our camp. We made a side trip from the lake and drove up to Hurricane Ridge in the heart of Olympic National Park. It was a perfect day. This place is hit or miss for the view, if there are clouds you cant see anything... we lucked out. The deer there were alarmingly friendly. I think the boys spooked before the deer did. After our 5 nights at Lake Crescent we packed up and left at 6am on Tuesday for the drive down the coast. We arrived at our campground at 11 which was perfect and just what we planned. Oswald West State Park only has about 20+ campsites and it's first come first serve. We hiked the 1/2 mile down to the campground and found our site, which happened to be the best one there. All of the sites are super private and surrounded by huge fir and cedar trees and 9 foot tall shrubs. It was heaven. We scored a wheelbarrow and after 3 trips (and 3 miles) had hauled our gear into our home for the next 4 nights. The ocean was a short walk from our site about 1/4 mile. The beach there is called Short Sands and it is a popular spot for surfers. Steve bought a new long board in Seaside and tried it out on the first day and decided he's a short board guy. The whim hit me to give it a shot so i tried it too. (for some reason i forgot about the whole being shark food thing). I tried on 2 of the days. I caught some waves but never tried to stand. I was just getting the feel of it. We decided we're going to loose some weight and take more frequent weekend surfing trips to Oregon. I am really excited to learn and Steve is really excited to carve. The boys had a blast building sand castles and rerouting the creek that emptied into the sea and just being kids at the beach. I had a blast drinking Honeywood wine and salt water . (ewww) We went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and had ice cream and also got some Honey from a stand for a friend. On Saturday we packed up and left Oswald West this time hauling our stuff uphill back to the truck 3 trips... Wheew! We drove to Lincoln City to our nice hotel on the beach. We had some stuff we wanted to do in Lincoln City but we didnt get arround to any of it. We were so tired we took showers and slept. It was an awesome trip and i cant wait to do it again.