Trip to the Washington Coast

Two years ago when we went home to Washington we went on a camping trip during it and had such a wonderful time as a family building memories exploring our new home state, we also realized that it was a nice break and a way to reconnect during our trip home. Spending time with family, coming and going and mostly working on our house are all wonderful things but they take time and we found that taking a couple of days to get away helped us reconnect, talk about the upcoming year in Saudi and so much more. So, this year we wanted to do the same….and camping with a newborn seemed like a bad idea so we had to research some other options. My mom's bible study had done a women's retreat at the housing development/beach front community called Seabrook on the coast of Washington. We looked into it and decided to head out there! We rented a little cottage for two nights and off we went!

After packing up the car with kids, a pack n play, clothes and food we would need we started the drive to the coast and of course a Washington family trip wouldn't be complete without a ferry ride….we actually could have made the trip without a ferry ride but we decided to take a longer route because there was a hike that we had wanted to do in the Olympic National Park the year before that we didn't do and thought that it was worth the extra hour to our drive to be able to experience it. So off we went on the ferry!

We stopped in Port Townsend for lunch for everyone and enjoyed a 50's diner lunch before heading into the National Park and our hike!

We then made the drive into the Olympic National Park and to Hurricane Ridge and it was breathtaking! I am so glad we took the longer route and experienced it! The kids always love a nice hike and it was just full of beautiful scenery and lots of wildlife to see.

We then had a snack/feed the baby break and headed on our way towards our cottage rental and of course we completely overestimated how far we would be able to get before someone needed a bathroom break or a nursing break and so we had to stop in Forks, and then somewhere else and then a third time off on the side of the road to nurse and then burp the baby….who at that point was over the car and wanted to be outside….

We finally made it to our house, unpacked and got settled in for the night. It was such a cute house and decorated really nice and beachy! The big kids had fun bunk beds and then Shiloh was in our room. The community has a general store, some restaurants, an indoor pool, tons of playgrounds, paths, the beach and other amenities and it was a great place to relax, have some family time and recharge!

Someone was happy to be out of the car!

For the next couple of days we soaked up the beach, exploring the changes in tides and what we could find, went for walks, played at the parks, had campfires, board games and had a great time as a family! The beaches in the Pacific Northwest are so much fun and such a different experience than our beach days in Saudi. There is so much to explore and the weather makes it much more enjoyable to be out longer although this time we were actually pretty cold most of the time….I didn't come prepared!

Another great family vacation on our vacation and a great time exploring another part of Washington! We look forward to next years trip and hopefully in a couple of years get back to camping as a family!