Vacation Files: The Blake Island Camping Trip

You may have gathered by now that while on vacation, we Frump's aren't a relax-on-the-beach-all-day kind of family.

Nope, we're more the cram-all-you-can-into-the-little-time-you-have types that like to see and do everything possible when we have the chance.

Which was why this particular day of our trip seemed a little 'off' somehow from the rest.

We had to slow down...and wait.

And wait.



In fact, we waited so long it was well after someone's nap time, and his crankiness told me that he needed to be tucked into the nearest bed soon if there was any hope of improving his disposition before we left. Grandma's bed was just the ticket.

He took a wonderfully long nap while the rest of us continued to wait.

Though we heard, "Is it almost time?" about a hundred times, Niece E found ways to amuse herself with a hat she found in Grandma's garden shed which she wore around as she played.





Then, suddenly, it was time to go.

The tide had come in enough for Grandpa R to bring the boat around to the dock most convenient to their home where we could load up the first half of our party and our gear to take over to Island.

Jeff, Jericho and Cousin L went on ahead with Grandpa R to unload everything, pick out our campsite and set up the tent.

I'm blessed to have a husband and son who enjoy camping and don't mind the ritual of setting up the tent...because I don't care for that task one bit.

While I, too, love camping, my expertise comes in the form of the lists, laundry, packing and grocery shopping necessary to pull off a great trip.

While they went out to the Island, I parked our truck in the lot where it would stay all night and my mom, Judah and Cousin E went into a nearby store for some cold beverages.

The temperatures were unusually hot, and we were trying to make sure the kids all stayed well hydrated.

Before long, Grandpa R returned for us and we were off.



Once again, he allowed Judah to 'drive' the boat. I think Judah's face explains his feelings on the matter.



Meanwhile, my mom and I hung onto our seats, because we picked up some speed.

Ahhh, the cool air over the water felt great on that hot summer evening.



Cousin E and Judah could hardly wait to get there.



At last, we arrived at the dock on the island.

Cousin L came to whisk Judah away to go see the deer that wander freely through the campground on the island. You can see them in the clearing above Judah's head.

Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching! He promptly earned four bucks in our deer sighting game.



That game was suspended for the duration of our stay on the Island.

He didn't seem to care, because as it turned out, there was plenty of other stuff to see and do. A playground, plenty of trails, and an entire beach to explore.

Just after our late picnic dinner, we glanced out to this beach and spotted four Otter playing in the water along the shore. They are bouyant and love to frolic in the water and are fun to watch, and I was hoping to get some photos.

Unfortunately, that didn't materialize.

Someone in our party (whom I'll refrain from mentioning except to say that one never knows the thoughts whirring through a pubescent boys brain), for reasons unknown, decided that the best thing to do upon seeing said critters would be to lob big club-shaped sticks and rocks into the water in their general direction...and so naturally, they skedaddled. *sigh*



When we walked back to camp, just a few yards from where we'd run to see the otter, we heard a funny rustling in our camp and in the dusky haze saw a critter lumbering across the campground with our garbage bag in its clutches.

Due to strict rules on the island regarding the feeding of wildlife (purposefully or inadvertenly) and pertaining to packing out everything you brought to the island, Jericho loped around to head him off, and the critter dropped the bag and headed for the safety of the nearest tree.



It made him pretty nervous that we kept on shining our flashlight up into the tree, and we were hissed at a couple of times. We finally let him be, and the moment we all moved far enough away, he scrambled down out of the tree and lumbered off by way of the beach.

We're pretty sure now that the otters and raccoons were in cahoots. "We'll distract them offshore while you move in for the garbage bag."

I'm pretty sure they would have been sorely disappointed, however, as our garbage contained mostly empty wrappings, bottles, cans and a few avocado peelings.

After cleaning up our campsite well, Jeff walked my mom and Grandpa R back to their boat (where they were camping for the night) which was secured at the docks in the little marina, taking both the cooler and the bag of trash for safekeeping.

Concerned about further problems with raccoons, Jeff asked, "Are you sure you don't want to put the trash in the closet for the night?"

"They're not going to get on the boat" Grandpa R said, making it sound as though Jeff were a novice in such matters.

But, somewhere around 2 in the morning, they woke to a thump and the rocking of the boat. She rose and looked out the cabin window, and saw a raccoon, it's little bandit mask in place, trying to make off with the same bag of trash he'd had earlier, and Grandpa R had to get up and chase it away.

Twice.

They really wanted that bag of trash!

The next morning, Grandpa R heard from some neighboring boat campers that the raccoons on this island were so aggressive, one had gotten into his cabin while he was off the boat a couple of visits previous, and had managed to open and eat all his blood pressure meds. The animal was chased away and probably died from the overdose.

Which meant that we were dealing with a whole different animal on this island...a thug, drug dealing cartel of raccoons.

No wonder rules were so strict on the island!

Here is a view of the little marina cloaked in fog, which I saw when I took a morning walk with my camera.



This was the scene in our tent when I returned. Judah had apparently risen first, and had pried daddy's eyes open enough times that he finally just woke up and put his glasses on.



The girls were still fast asleep. In spite of the warmer than normal daytime temps, it had cooled off enough that everyone pulled on covers in the night.



Before the fog had completely burned off, the kids were up and about, ready to resume beachcombing activities.



That was our campsite in the background. The sound of lapping waves lulled us to sleep the night before.



We ran into this young man practicing Mr. Miyagi's secret Karate moves atop a post still remaining from a long ago dock.

Wax on, wax off.



My artist niece L used some rocks she'd collected to create these hilarious masterpieces:

The Sand Boy



The Sand Girl



We found a semi-shaded area along the beach where we could sit without worrying about getting burned. Though we were all covered in sunscreen, I was still a tad gun-shy about staying too long in the direct sun.

For some reason, at this place, Cousin E said, "This is how my sister dances."



Naturally, little brother has to mimic whatever everyone is laughing about.



Cousin L had to get in on the action, too.



Here she does her signature 'around the world' move.



Not to be outdone, Grandmaster J had to start popping.



And throwing down some old-school breakdancing moves, yo!



Jericho, meanwhile, had found something else of interest. Something that smelled horrible, having been recently picked over by some beachdwelling critter.



We told Cousin E that she needed to hop to and collect a few more for our lunch.



She didn't believe us.

Later, we went exploring, and headed to the Tillicum Lodge, which was the main attraction on this island, and which many folks take day cruises from Seattle to experience.

They have totem poles and other native art all over the place.





But we'd come back to see inside of the lodge later. The kids had found a trail that they were itching to take.

On this trail, we found beautiful large trees that my desert-dwelling boys just couldn't resist climbing around on...



...and in.











This plant is known as the stinging nettle, and were found in abundance on the island. My great grandmother used to gather these and make a spring tonic for her family to take. They apparently helped build up immunity to the stinging effect that nettles have if you come into contact with the itchy fibers on them. (Its about the same discomfort level as poison ivy or poison oak, and makes you miserable for quite some time).

Which is interesting, because nettle extract capsules are now sold in health food stores as a natural antihistamine, among other healthful benefits.



Amazingly, none in our party came into contact with this plant!

Which was due in part to my freaking pointing out each one that we saw that came anywhere close to where we were walking on the trail.

Mostly because the kids all spent a lot of time doing things like this.



And this.









Those tree roots were pretty gnarly.





We finally made it back to the lodge. It was open by now, preparing for the big Salmon bake, done true to the authentic, coastal native tradition.

They'd first build up a tower of firewood, stacked Jenga fashion about seven layers high in the circular sand pits.



Then used alder-wood to fashion racks to hold the salmon, which were cut in half lengthwise and placed on the racks staked into the sand pit skin side out to bake. The alder serves to both hold and flavor the roasting fish.

The kids were getting antsy to get back out to the beach, where Grandpa R had pulled the dinghy off the back of his boat so the kids could row around. Here, he and Cousin E are rowing around along the shore.



Meanwhile, the kids spotted a seal.

I took this photo with my video cam zoomed in from afar off, so it has that same pathetic grainy quality that the bigfoot sighting video clips always seem to have.



It was finally Jeff and the boys turn. This was them as they set out.



And this was the point in which things got a bit dicey.

About 60 yards off shore, the boys were looking into the water hoping to spot fish or jellyfish, just enjoying the quiet and the rocking of the waves.

Jericho was seated at the front of the raft, behind Jeff, and pointing out a particularly large jellyfish, when suddenly Jeff hears, "PSHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and sees the once taut sides of the raft suddenly and rather rapidly deflate. He looks up to find that Judah had unscrewed the air cap on the raft, completely oblivious to the danger.

There was much fumbling as he quickly grabbed the cap and put it back into place.

The raft had deflated so much that Jeff had to move both boys to the front so that their combined weight would balance the inflated parts enough so that he could row them back to shore.

And now you know who is responsible for most of my gray hairs.

Here is another view of the campgrounds on the island. You can see a Washington State Ferry going past on the water.



You can't see it real well in this picture, but on the above left of the below photo is part of the Seattle skyline.



These were taken while the boys and I waited with the remainder of our camping gear for the second trip over.

Though we'd had a wonderful adventure camping out on Blake Island, I wanted to get out of there pronto...and with good reason, though that story will have to wait for another time.