Summer Vacation - Part One

Cape Disappointment – Day One Getting There and Setting up Camp

FYI: This year's blog about the family vacation is authored by Hannah & Audrey (no adults allowed).

July 24, 2011

Hello, Audrey here and I am going to be blogging this summer’s vacation ( along with Hannah ). We are starting out our two week vacation here at Cape Disappointment and then going to Cascade Peaks RV park after four nights here. So, I’ll begin now.

Today we woke up early in the morning so we could eat breakfast out at a restaurant and then start our five hour drive from Port Angeles to here. After we dragged ourselves out of the house and into the RV we set off to go to our favorite breakfast restaurant, Chestnut Cottage.

When we got there, we ordered our drinks to start us off. Dad got a mocha and Hannah and I got hot chocolate. When they brought them dad started calling the fancy doilies on our plates that the drinks were on doities. When mom corrected him, or tried to, he said: “No! It’s a doity.”
When mom tried again he grinned and said: “Doity sounds better.” When we ordered our food he was still saying doity, doity, doity all the time we were there. After we ate he continued until we had paid and we were out the door.

We set off on the trip officially and continued to our first stop. Hannah had her nose in the Washington map book most of the time. When she asked where the playground was that we always stopped at for lunch dad answered Metropolis. We continued on and then came to an area in the road where all the cars had stopped. It turned out that two baby fawns were on one side of the road and drivers were waiting for them to cross over. When they did we saw that their mother was waiting for them on the other side. We rattled along the road some more and then saw a coyote in the brush after it had crossed the road. And then again later we saw two more fawns with their mom.

Hannah later on looked into her map book to see how far away we were from Metropolis she said there wasn’t one on the map. She also said there was only a Cosmopolis on the map. Dad said he thought it was Superman’s town. We all laughed at his 20th mistake of the day. After our laughter faded we continued to the now Cosmopolis.

When we got to the park, we got out of the RV and Hannah went to the bathroom. Mom got the bread out of the cupboard and started making lunch.
I went to the toy compartment on the outside of the RV and got our softball bat, mitts, and ball. I went into the field and waited for Hannah to come out of the bathroom. When she got out she came to the pitcher’s mound and picked up her mitt and the softball. She threw the ball and missed home plate by a mile. She tried again. Same result. Finally, we switched positions and actually got to hit the softball around a bit before mom called for lunch. We ate our lunch then hit the road again.

When we were continuing on dad saw a dead porcupine in the middle of the road. Not too long afterwards dad said we were almost there so after we passed the next hill we would be at the intersection that led to Ilwaco, a town near our destination. When we passed the hill, nothing. Dad’s 21st mistake. We were another half hour away.

Ok, now I’ll actually fast forward to the part we arrived at Cape Disappointment.

When we got there Hannah and I got out of the RV and helped dad unhook the jeep, our tow vehicle. When mom had checked in and the jeep was unhooked I got in our little jeep and went to our campsite . While mom and I were driving she noticed the tire air pressure sensor was on and she had a flat tire.

“Dang it,” She said.“ This must’ve happened when Tony hit that giant curb.” It turns out that dad had hit the RV on a giant curb that swung the jeep two feet off the ground.

When we got to our site Hannah helped dad back the RV into the site and make sure he didn’t hit another curb.

Mom lowered the jacks to make the RV level so we wouldn’t sleep upside down. She said if the Rv wasn’t level she would wake up with acid in her lungs. Then mom started the grill outside and began to make our dinner of filet mignon, corn, and potatoes. We ate and then sat around the fire to roast smores.We see lots of pelicans fly by and also cormorants. And now, here I am writing while dad makes incorrect comments on what I said I wrote.

Hannah will write tomorrow.

Bye bye for now.

Audrey



Cape Disappointment Day Two

Monday, July 25, 2011

Hi, Hannah here, taking day two’s blogging into her hands. May I just say now, Audrey will be blogging about 2 out of our 3 actual RVing days, where dad’s main screw-ups occur. As it turns out, the camping days that are supposed to be more adventurous, turn out to be comedy deprived. Unless dad is driving the car of course.
The Little family started out the day trying to coax us out of bed with the movie October Sky, and then resorted to sheer force. After all, Audrey sleeps on where we eat breakfast, a booth that is a foldable bed, about two feet too short for the poor growing kid. My sleeping quarters being the couch and, well, I’m just in the way. Pancakes and bacon (butter lathered in Dad’s case) suited to be a worthy purpose for waking.
After going outside for some relaxing time, the family sat at the picnic table with a piece of paper and a pencil to write down the grocery list. It went like this:

1. Bread

2. 1 dozen eggs

3. Can of air (no fooling that's what the adults spend their money on)

4. Fishing License (only one needed because of our youthfulness)

5. Package of Diapers (adult men’s)

6. Carpet spot cleaner (not because of the dog, refer to #5)

7. Ultra light spinning reel

Audrey made sure to put the star next to the grocery item that we didn’t need. No, it’s not the can of air! Then, laughter starting to fade, Audrey proceeded to doodle on the list, giving the can of air flavors, and visualizing what the proper Huggies bag would look like for dad’s diapers. Even more humored (and humiliated for one member of the family), we took out a separate piece of paper and began to doodle, taking turns. That resulted in two stars, a Super Man in remembrance of Metropolis, a canoe in the air, a tree, a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion, and a simple campfire, with a camper happily roasting his blue berry waffle. An interesting morning so far!

After enduring organizing and washing the dishes, we headed with our animal (Cocoa the chocolate lab) to the beach, for a well deserved game of fetch. Approaching the ocean, I was reminded of one of the reasons we love Cape Disappointment, and have stayed here 6 times. Black-stained beaches came into view, with a lighthouse perched on a black cliff behind, leering out into the cloudy day. But it’s not dull day-it’s mysterious. The reason for the shiny black sand is because of the magnetic rocks in the area, producing a black and, yes, magnetic sand. And, there’s not only one, but two lighthouses in the area, this one looking out at the pacific, the other guarding the mighty Columbia. I may not be able to speak for the rest of the family, but I personally love lighthouses.

Now let’s fast forward in time about twenty-five minutes, to a place where the dog is thoroughly soaked from catching the balls in the water, and where Audrey and I and thoroughly soaked legs down from a game of the waves can’t catch me (but, oh yes they can!). Then Audrey and I proceeded to go into the campground’s showers to rinse our legs off. There we discovered that the quarter operated showers ran on cold water for free, and that the cold water isn’t so cold after all. Hey, maybe we can save a few bucks in the near future! Now cleaner, but still wet, we went back to the RV and dried ourselves off for the coming trip to Long Beach.

Why Long Beach? Well, Illwaco is about 5 buildings large, it’s not far away, and it is a tourist trap, which we ourselves happen to be. And now for the 6th time we find ourselves to be tourists with brain loss, because of what happened AGAIN at our favorite place to have ice cream instead of lunch, Scoopers. There we all decided to have waffle cones, and decided to let poor (or not so poor) Audrey have two scoops instead of one. While she choose her ice cream first, we and all the other watching citizens watched in horror as little Audrey got something that looked like it was ten scoops instead of two. So, let me get this straight:

at Scoopers: 1 ice cream scoop = 5 ice cream scoops

And that’s what the rest of the family got. As you may have figured out from my opening to this paragraph, we had forgotten about the massive proportions of “I am not 2 scoops but 10 Scoopers” not only once with the same victim, but 5 previous times. Yep, every visit! After watching her choke down what seemed like 1,000 lbs. of ice cream, we enjoyed the local business stores by burning 1,000 lbs. of ice cream’s calories to and fro each store. Dad got a sign, bumper sticker, and a hat for the dog that said “Best Friend” (Lies!). Audrey got a nightgown, jacket, and a sign that said Audrey. I got a hat. And mom? Well…think “pack mule”.

A little later, we headed straight to the place of sheer excitement and control that pleased both a 14 year old and a 12 year old. The go-carts. Oh yeah. Last time that we had come to this place, little Audrey was too young to do the large track, the age limit being twelve. So we settled for the smaller course, even though I could have done the bigger one. “But you only have to wait one more year until you can do the larger course Audrey!”

“Hannah, I’m 10.”

She’s deceiving at times with her mature personality! Anyway, two years later, we’re back and ready to try the bigger course. Audrey and I sit down, buckle up, and prepare for the epic battle that is to come. On your marks. Get set. GO! We start, I raging ahead, and then…I lap her. Encouraged that there is a logical reason for her un-appealing slowness, I slow down, let her get ahead, then race head once again, to only have to wait some more. I did this the entire time until we had to leave, because I’m a cool older sibling. Later in the car, she reported that she was afraid that the faster she went, the less control, and the less control, the greater chance that she would bump into me, cause me to crash, and make my go-cart explode, leaving me to inescapably burn in my seat. “Are you kiddin?” I then retorted, “I’m immortal!”

Satisfied from our thrilling race (not), we retired to have lunch at 2:00 in the afternoon, thanks to Scoopers. It was called the Crab Pot, but we didn’t have crab. It was way more expensive than Audrey’s fancy new jacket! And a depressing bill still came without eating the crab. All of us had a great meal though.

And here I sit, soaking in the little bit of sunshine peeking from the clouds (the first time the sun has come out today!), enjoying writing about our not so boring day.

-Hannah ^-^



Cape Disappointment Day three

7/26/11

Hi, I’m back. Audrey here. Today was one of the best days yet and it’s my job to talk about it.

We started out the morning by groggily waking up to the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou, and slowly waking up to it when the soggy bottom boys played in the movie. After we finished the movie, Hannah left to take a shower in the camp bathroom. While she was gone I played my Nintendo DS while mom made breakfast, which was malt-o-meal (not my favorite, even though I chose for us to eat it ). When Hannah returned we ate breakfast in uncomfortable silence until we had finished.

Mom and I left for the showers after we were done eating and returned shortly after being soaked to death. The family then met up at the RV to regroup and go to the beach, dad brought the mutt while I carried the kite (Hannah and mom hadn’t come yet). Mom and Hannah came later because I think they were jealous of me flying the kite. Hannah took control over it while I started playing in the sand like a little kid. I made a little sandcastle the looked like a giant snow cone until Cocoa trodded all over it with her big bear paws, forcing me to start over. This time I started with digging two big holes and then connecting them from underground to make a bridge. Then I made another snow cone sandcastle. But, of course, we had to leave then. I stayed back for a little while until Hannah fetched me.

We went to the car and left for Astoria, Oregon. When we crossed the bridge between the two states, we headed first to Astoria Column. When we reached the top, dad took his million pictures at the his million pictures of the top, absorbed the view and did the other half, climbing down. After we had reached the bottom and caught our breath it was to the car. Kip (our jeep) was pushed down deadly hills as we went to the Oregon film museum. There was stuff from one of our all time favorite movies, Goonies. I got a t-shirt from the gift shop that had the name of the movie on it.

We then drove to the other side of Astoria to the Goonie house because the movie was filmed here. It had been repainted by the owner since the movie was filmed but we didn’t care because it was the first time we had been there. After dad had taken a million photos of that, we left to the fish and chips place that was sold from an old boat, Bowpickers. The food was delicious and we met a nice couple who were full time RVers and had a good conversation with them.

Then we left to our final destination across the street which was the Columbia River maritime museum. They had all sorts of different exhibits that we visited and it was a fun experience. We also got to go aboard the Columbia which was a lightship which meant it was like a floating lighthouse that was a boat.

We then left to here and I might go back to the beach later and I hope to see my sandcastle still intact.

Bye for now,

Audrey



Cape Disappointment Day Four

7/27/11

Hullo, Audrey here, again.

Hannah didn’t want to write the blog entry for today so here I am, writing it for the second night in a row. And she’s reminding me of things that happened today. Talk about a backseat driver. If she wants me to put them on the blog, she should just do it herself. Plus, I know what happened today, I was there too!

Anyway, we started off the day by waking up to our morning movie of the day, Goonies. We watched the movie and then were forced to get dressed and prepare for breakfast. Mom quickly finished our chicken sausage and French toast breakfast which, to me, smelled like French fries.

After all of the not so little Littles anymore, after breakfast, had finished we got ready to journey to the beach. There we set up chairs to sit in and I began to make my pitiful sandcastles (they didn’t look like snow cones anymore because I was smart to bring a bucket). Cocoa dug holes with her dangerously deadly paws (more like claws) because her tennis ball that we used to play fetch with for her would fall to the sandy ground and she would be too lazy to pick it up with her mouth and so she would dig for it, which was a lot harder than just picking it up in the first place.

After about an hour of being at the beach we made our way to the squeaky little jeep, we ventured to Long Beach, a tourist town that had even drawn our attention. We parked the adorable little jeep in a parking lot next to scoopers which, as my sister described a few days earlier, was the home of the deadly two scoop ice cream. My sister thinks it equals ten but I think it equals twenty. I, the previous victim of this crisis, was really intelligent to get only get one scoop and breaking the record of not falling into the dangerous trap, which was now one.

After chugging down our humongous scoops of ice cream, we made our way to the go-carts again. This time I was prepared to race Hannah and not be afraid of accidentally killing her in a fiery inferno. Hannah lapped me twice this time. Apparently, my go-cart was defective because to make it actually go fast, you had to press down with all your might on the gas pedal. Then finally the end came after what seemed like forever of sputtering putts of speed. And we made our way back to the car.

We drove to a different parking spot and began to go window shopping. We first stopped at a store that had toddler high tops and bobble head magnets. The next place we stopped at was a bumper car place. After repeatedly bumping each other to death and tons of spinning out of control moments, we were called out of the arena because our turn was over. I think they took us out because they were annoyed of us chasing each other around and giggling like four year olds.

Our final store stop was a store that had I heart boobies belts and belts that had marijuana trees and leaves all over it. When we were heading back to the car, dad commented: “That’s just way life is; weird.” Our final stop total at Long Beach was the grocery store where I asked mom to buy me gum, but of course, she forgot. Hannah in the car before we left yelled out in victory because her book had finally downloaded onto her Kindle.

When we got back to the RV, dad, Hannah and I went back to the beach while mom napped. Hannah read her new book while I raised a sand mite farm in the bucket. It turns out that sand mites like water much more than they do sand and if you stir the water they form a swarm.

After a while we headed back to the campsite. I learned that it had been so windy at the beach that whenever I shook my head, a shower of sand came from it. Mom started making dinner after I made that discovery while I washed Cocoa and I off. Hannah read her book still. We had soft tacos for dinner and ate in silence. Hannah and I after we had waited a while went on a bike ride around the campground. We came back and now here I am typing (ping, ping, and ping).

We are going to roast marshmallows later tonight.

TTFN

Audrey

P.S. Dad and I had the best washers game of the century!!!!