Vacation

Finally, we get to take a family vacation.

Of course, it started off with a bang as Bryce wrecked on his bike.  He has a nice "shiner" now, a sore arm, and lots of scraps.

 Despite that little set back, we left home this morning for Copalis Beach to stay at a friend's home just a short walk from the Pacific Ocean.  It wasn't too bad of trip, even though we decided to caravan.  My parents are here from Tennessee so they followed in their car and Todd decided that he wanted his own vehicle just in case he needed to head back home for an emergency.  A dear friend of ours is failing physically and if he were to take a turn for the worse while we were gone, Todd wanted to be able to join the family as soon as possible.

 The house is everything you expect a beach house to be. It is a simple two-story house with a basement.  They boys took over the upstairs loft.  Bonnie decided that she didn't want to share a room with her brothers so she claimed a couch in the living room; while the adults took over the bedrooms.

 Brian brought his BB gun along.  He can't practice shooting much at our house since we live in town and don't have much of a yard. 

 Once everyone was settled we went off in search of the Pacific.  We have to navigate through some tall grass and fields before finally cresting over the sand dune. 

 The dunes are so high that you cannot see the houses or the trails, so our friends set up this marker to make sure they could find the trail back to the house.

 The beaches on the Pacific coast line are a lot different than the Atlantic.  This beach was covered in seaweed, shells, sand dollars, and kelp.  We haven't found any debris from the tsunami but our week isn't over.

 Brian found some really long pieces of kelp.  I caught him trying to swing it into the ocean.

 The water wasn't too cold.  Lake Wenatchee is a lot colder than the ocean.  I imagine tomorrow we will go down in our swim suits and play in it some more.

 Bonnie found a small jelly fish.  No tentacles...so no need to worry about getting stung.