ADVENTURING WITH ETIENNE AND ANDRE

We had a day and a half ‘off’ from our past 2+ weeks of adventuring before picking up Jenny’s two boys: Etienne 7 and Andre 4, for their camping adventure with us. We spent the first two days at home and Grandma (Susan) thought she found a perfect activity to take these dinosaur addicted boys to. 

They are nobody’s fool though, and could see right through these fakes.

To use my friend Cindy’s word — at best it was a ‘cheesey’ show that cost way too much to drive through. Oh well, it did get us out of the house for a bit at least ;’-).

After a few more nearby activities — a hike and a geocache hunt — we packed and prepared for our morning departure. Next day we arrived at Fort Casey for some exploring of the “Big Guns”…

…explored our way through some catacombs of this old fortress from WW II… which never had to fire at enemy forces during that war.

New flashlights were a hit, but a lesson in where to point them for a photo would have helped ;’-).



Climbing to the the lookout tower was NOT a favorite activity…

…as Susan was the only one to take the ‘risk’ of looking out from the tower.

Phew, time to come down and be done with this high point! Hold onto me Grandma!

After this breathtaking outing, we had our picnic lunch and headed to Deception Pass State Park for one night of camping.

The big rock next to us gave them a place to climb and play to use up some of their energy before gathering some of the blackberries from the vines next to our site. We would have those for breakfast.

Fortunately we were here just at the right time for Junior Ranger ‘training’. Got the workbooks and worked on those, went to join Ranger Joy for the activities of the day.

Activity was to search through some ‘owl pellets’ (like cat cough up of hairball) to find bones and parts of the small animals the owl cannot digest.

We stayed to learn a lot about owls that Ranger Joy taught us. After the program ended, Susan asked to take a photo  of the newly badged JUNIOR RANGERS  (who had just taken their “promise pledge” to be good rangers) with Ranger Joy. They always have their masks at the ready, know when to use them, and do not complain about them (good parenting). Keeping their distance, they joined the Ranger.

One more activity the next morning before moving on to the next camping spot. Riding our bikes around the somewhat hilly campground did not daunt the boys. Andre unconcernedly walked a couple of the steeper inclines and immediately got back on his bike to keep pedaling. We stopped for some corn hole gaming.

Tired them out for the drive to Anacortes for more adventure.

 This is not our first time camping here with the boys. We like it mainly because it is directly on the bike trail that takes us to the beloved Hot Dog Stand.

You may recall this destination from our similar adventuring this past April. These next three photos are of from that visit. (you can find the post for April 8, 2021).

They were only slightly younger — and Andre learned to pedal his bike with no assist from Grandma.

We rode to the same place this year as you can see the trail to the right of our campsite. So convenient.

This early afternoon, on our last day for this adventure, as predicted — it started to lightly rain. Fortunately we had taken advantage of the earlier hours to get some playtime (a lot of playtime at the playground and around the campground), and a bike ride across the Tommy Thompson Bridge.

I took some time for myself and did the relatively short ride around March Point. The route is on road and even though traffic is fairly light, it is not safe for the little guys so I rode alone. I found a treat to bring back for them at least. Next to this fun mailbox was a bench of treats.

I picked two items I thought the boys would like and tried to leave a donation, but there was no safe place to do so. A happy thing for the residents to do along this sparsely populated road.

With rain and quiet time activity (or a nap), I think this is all we will be doing for this adventure time. The boys have loved it, especially having their own free time using our walkie-talkies to play cops & robbers (Susan and I are Police Headquarters in the van, and they are detectives #1 and #2), and who knows what else! They have a good and creative imagination and play extremely well together. We have enjoyed our time with them, and Susan crowned me only once as “Cranky Pants” ;’-). Only once.