Its harder when they leave

The kids left yesterday and so here are a few highlight pictures of our last week together in Birch Bay, Washington.

First we rode the ferry over to Whidbey Island from Port Townsend:

Then we drove northeast across the islands to Interstate 5 where we turned north until we reached Birch Bay which is just south of the Canadian border. Birch Bay is a typical small beach resort town with lots of RV parks and cabins to rent. Our park and the kids cabin were just a short walk apart.

We found a fun playground for grandma and Christian:

Michelle got into the fun too:

Michelle and Paul were told at the visitors center that crabbing opened a month early this year and so Paul drove to the marina in Blaine to try his luck. He brought up lots of crabs but all were just short of the limit size. Just as he was packing to leave, the police came by and told him he couldn’t crab yet!

Christian likes to help daddy bring in the crab pot:

We also hung around the cabin:

and played with pails of water:

Michelle and Paul went out on a fishing charter. It was a great day as they saw all the whales we missed on the whale watching trip, they caught their limit of salmon, and they survived their first day away from Christian!

We went to the Hovander Farmstead to see the animals. While it was a beautiful day, there weren’t too many animals.

However, the flower garden was amazing:

And the children’s tea garden was a lovely spot for ‘tea’.

Check out this sunflower….

 

And of course we played in the water and found lots of interesting creatures……

We took a short drive into Canada:

with a stop at a Canadian winery,

and a Washington dairy.

Followed by a visit to the Million Smiles Playground in Lynden, Washington:

It was an amazing two weeks that went by way too fast. Lee and I are now trying to recuperate, but missing them greatly.

We’ve found that it is much easier when we leave them to go on our adventures than it is to watch them pull away from us. Guess that can be said for all the growing up events…hard to watch them move on, but so proud of them when they do.

Tomorrow I’ll be reading everyone else’s blog and trying to catch up…till then, have a good night.