A Ferry Ride, The Beach, and Bunkers… oh my!

Warning… picture heavy! 

For the past several years, the boys and I have taken a week-long trip to my parents’ house during Matt’s hunting trip.  But since his annual trip will fall later this season, we opted to go when the weather was favorable – thus making the trip last week.  Over the next few days, I’m going to flood this blog with my favorite photos from our time with Grammie and Papa.  I think I’m risking getting booted off Blogger for it, but oh well. 

Its become tradition to spend one of our days at the Beach House in Port Ludlow and the mode of transportation to get there, HAS to be on the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge…  Its a short ferry ride over, and the boys were mostly just mesmerized by the vastness of the water…

I love taking this trip to the Beach House… after the hustle and bustle of our time there at the Fourth of July (see here, here, here, and here) relaxing quietly there, is a nice change of pace. The weather was beautiful, but it was pretty windy, which I unfortunately didn’t anticipate … but fortunately, I was the only one that seemed bothered by it. 

 

We stayed at the beach until naptime then drove to Port Townsend to explore the Bunkers at Fort Worden.  You’d think I’d be able to tell you what war they were built for, since I’ve been visiting this place since I was little, but I’m at a loss. 

Last year when we came here, we tried to venture through the dark, creepy tunnels, but without flashlights it was a bit scary for me the boys.  But this year, Grammie thought ahead and brought some enforcement along.  I think the boys were more excited about using flashlights for real than for actually visiting the bunkers.  The things NEVER left their hands. 

(I had to get after Gage for always squinting in photos… this is his solution…)

Up and down the tunnels we went, with Gage bravely leading the way… until he decided NOT to be brave at one point and made his little brother go first. 

With so many cool colored walls and places to perch, I had to attempt some portrait style photos of these kiddos… I couldn’t believe they obliged. Oh wait… they did only after I threatened to take away their flashlights and make them go into the tunnels by themselves… hehehe. 

After dinner at the local pizza joint, we made a very stressful drive to catch the ferry… which we did, with 4 minutes to spare (despite the crying baby, wacked out little boys, hitting every red light and being followed most of the way by a cop…).  

At certain locations on the ferry, to say it was windy would be an understatement.  It was a challenge to walk and I was glad for the high railings…

Attempts at taking a photo of me and my boys…

The captain of the ferry helped with this one… he saw me desperately trying to get these munchkins to cooperate and probably noticed all the other passengers laughing at my desperation… so he HONKED.  Have you ever heard the blow-horn on a ferry.  Holy Smokes, it was loud.  It got the boys to freeze and grip onto me for dear life and it scared Kaden out of crying.  But only for a second. 

 

It was a joyful day…