Hoh Rain Forest

The first objective of the day was to find a sleeping bag for my poor, frozen body.  So Ryan and I fixed some breakfast burritos, then we packed up and left for Port Angeles.  We found a Walmart, and bought a mummy-style sleeping bag and one of those skinny blue foam pads.  (It made all of the difference come night time!)

We headed out to the coast and decided on Rialto Beach for lunch.  The picnic benches looked ready for a flood-

 The driftwood on Rialto beach was amazing and huge.

We played "Hot Lava" where we couldn't touch the rocky beach.  We lasted a long time.

 The sand wasn't cooperative for making sand castles, so we made do- rocks and sand mounds.

Next we were off to find a new campground.  We passed some signs on the way:

 We had to stop and take pictures.  That's our van behind the no vampire sign, so I guess we were good. :)  (As soon as we hit the Olympic peninsula, Ryan started cracking the Edward/vampire/werewolf/Twilight jokes.  This totally cracked us up.)

We decided to camp in the Hoh Rain Forest, and had to look for a dry spot.  We (sorta) found one.  It is the rain forest, after all.  No worries, though.  The camp site was gravel, and wouldn't flood for a while.

Then we went on some walks.  First through the Hall of Mosses.  (Not Moses- mosses.  I had to do a double take.)

 Those mosses were long, and hairy, and huge.

 And then we checked out the other hike.  The kids walked the whole thing.  They did great.

But they were pretty tired when we were done.  So we went back to the campground for a foil dinner and s'mores.

We attended the campfire program that the campground put on at 8 pm.  I thought it would be stories and camp songs (a la girls camp), but it turned out to be a power point presentation and slide show on the cooperation of organisms in the rain forest.  Interesting, but not child friendly.  After about an hour (luckily a lady brought her two dogs that kept the kids' attention) we decided it was time for bed.

When we arrived at the camp ground in the afternoon, it appeared that the plumbing was undergoing some changes.  One of the campers told me that this was the first night there was running water in the bathrooms.  Yes, the water ran, but it didn't necessarily go down the sink very well.  If both sinks were running, not only would they retain a lot of water, but gunk started popping up through the sink drain.  It's really lovely to brush your teeth and spit into someone else's toothpaste water.  Also the spigot for drinking and dish washing water was gone, but there was a utility sink that looked like a Hagrid-sized toilet you could use.

Ryan and I got the kids in their sleeping bags and laid our weary bones down.  Although all of the kids looked and exhibited signs of being very tired, they giggled, wiggled, and quarreled until past 10 pm.  At last they went to sleep.