Steamboat Island, WA

I went to visit Keith at a job site his crew was working on and couldn't help but take a few pictures of our neck of the woods. This was looking from where we were at in Shelton across to a little island called Steamboat Island. If you were to drive it, it's almost 29 miles, but as the crow flies. . . .it was just a short swim across the water. Click on this link to get an aerial map view. Amazing, huh!?! And all that water? Love it! That's just another part of the beauty in the Pacific Northwest.

Lighthouses

We decided that since Keith worked last Saturday and will work again this next Saturday, we were going to take advantage of this Saturday to do something as a family. It's been a while, 7 1/2 years to be exact, when we last went to see the two lighthouses on the far southwest corner of Washington State where the mouth of the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean.

This picture of the foursome shows the bridge leading from WA to Astoria, OR in the background. We were watching a seal swimming around and peeking his head up every now and then to check us out. Click on the colored words if you're interested in seeing more facts, etc.

*note: carrots in, or I should say partially in, Jaeden's mouth, not what his lips actually look like.

Hiking the little trail to the North Head Lighthouse built in 1898.

We couldn't have asked for better weather - it was overcast all the way to the coast.

The kids were getting tired of Mom asking them to stop for a picture. Isn't that what a mom is for??

Doesn't this lighthouse volunteer look just like an old lighthouse keeper? He was great! The boarded up window to the left was intact all these years until our HUGE storm this last December.

We climbed the steep 69 steps up to the lantern room at the top of the lighthouse. Whew! Clammy hands and pounding heart (Anita doesn't do well with heights).

The north view below the lighthouse from the lantern room.

Two miles further south, we hiked up to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. Normally, you don't find lighthouses only two miles apart. Ships coming from the north couldn't see it, so North Head Lighthouse was built a few years later.

Daffodils on the bluff. Detail at the top of the lighthouse. Taken from Waikiki Beach (WA not HI) at Cape Disappointment State Park. So that was basically our getaway on Saturday where fun was had by all! Brooklyn started getting a cold and it progressed throughout the day, but she was quite a trooper in spite of it.