At a nearby park, we came across a massive chess set. Chess has become something of an obsession for some of our family members recently so this was quite an exciting discovery. Greta and I played a round of speed chess. Girl kicked my butt!

The second little hike we did was the Weatherwax Trail, only 10 minutes away from the place we stayed at. It was a nice flat, 1.2 mile loop, with lots of big, fat mosquitos. We really tried to do bite sized activities for the kids (Maeve) on this trip and that was pretty effective!

This was a fun little climbing exercise and happily no one was hurt! It took 9 years to build this jetty. I'm not sure how far it extended, the mist obscured the end of it. Because the jetty, the beaches have collected sand. The boulders were huge!

This was the day I was the most excited about - venturing into Olympic National park, a day trip. First stop was Kestner Homestead Trail for a short 1.3 mile loop past the homestead and through a maple grove. It was beautiful and the trail was just right (sort of) for Maeve. The surroundings were so lush and green and we kept crisscrossing over streams. After our hike, we picnicked, flew the kite and fed the babies before heading to our second destination.

Naturally, we were off to the beach on our first full day, but first, we went to a kite store to buy a kite. And yes, we had sufficient wind and then some to fly the kite. I can't say wind blown sand is an environment best for babies. Conor was in the water with Holly and Greta and I had to wave him in because 2/3 of the littles were crying and 1/3 of the littles was whining. It was comical. Conor, Holly and Greta had a few more swimming opportunities just them that I hear were delightful. We did observe many a vehicle driving on the beach and I was determined to have the same experience myself. I'm not sure why it was so exhilarating/enjoyable/fun. Maybe because it's something I've never done before? I loved it. And no one complained when we followed up with ice cream.