Washington vacation 2025

Foggy morning view from my parents’ house. The marine layer rolls up off the bay most mornings and is gone before lunchtime.

Queen Anne’s Lace is one of my favorite wildflowers. It grows everywhere up here.

This is Corn Dog Creek just down the road from my parents’ house. Wild cattails grow here, and even though it doesn’t actually have an official name, I am hoping Corn Dog Creek will catch on.

Jamie got to see both his cousins and spend some quality time spinning them around infinitely on the playground at Dream Park in Port Angeles.

Jamie texted us one morning, “DEER IN THE MEADOW RIGHT NOW COME DOWN.” Sure enough, a doe was in the meadow and her fawn emerged from the forest, warily edged past Jamie standing on the driveway, and jumped down to join her mama.

Jamie and I went hiking at Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Forest — and by “hiking” I mean I hiked and he grumbled up the mountain until I said we could turn back, at which point his mood magically changed. The joys of teenagers.

I am definitely the outdoorsiest person in my family and I need to find a hiking buddy for some longer hikes I want to do. Part of me would not mind going alone, but a slightly larger part of me knows that hiking alone is a bad idea.

We very nearly hit a couple of deer with the car on the way up the mountain. A doe and a fawn leaped into the road directly in front of our car. I somehow braked in time but the car coming down the mountain in the other lane wasn’t so lucky. They swerved and ended up nose first in a ditch on the side of the road (the cliff side, and they’re lucky they didn’t go over the edge). We stopped to make sure they were okay. Their little car must have had 4 wheel drive because they were able to get out of the ditch without too much difficulty. The deer were both okay and just sauntered away across the road like they own the place. Actually, they do.