Washington Birthdays {2021]

For both of our birthdays this year, we found ourselves in the wonders of Washington.

We celebrated Dylan's 37th with a trip to the Olympic Pensinsula with the first hike up to our campsite at Lena Lake. It was a beautiful hike and lake spot, but the camping aspect was not the most comfortable with two big dogs. Luckily we kept them out of the lake so they weren't two big, wet, stinky dogs. The next morning, we hiked on down and drove up to Port Townsend where we stayed two nights at the Palace Hotel. It was the cutest little room that we could've lived in. This little lofty apartment had a view of the Port Townsend Bay's ships and historic street. Its history was entertaining too, as it used to be a brothel, with the rooms named after "the girls." Port Townsend was quite a cute town as well with good walks, gardens, views and friendly kids.

The second day, we were awe-struck by our Badger Valley hike in the Olympic National Park. From the slightly scary dirt road down to the trailhead, to hiking these diverse mountains, I was just amazed. It changed so much from walking up through this dry area, up and around the Grand Pass with breathtaking panoramic views, heading down into the lush valley to see the honorary badgers, into the forests, then meadows full of wildflowers. Incredible.

Our error and admission of guilt is we took the dogs on this no-dogs trail for various reasons I won't go into. But unfortunately (and fortunately at the same time), a rule-following hiker sent us on our way back to where we started, unable to complete our hike. We were annoyed and shamed, yet also somewhat relieved, as we had taken an extra long detour that would've bumped our ~9mile hike like 12 miles? So he saved us some exhaustion I suppose.

The rest of our trip was spent exploring the little town of Port Townsend and slowly making our way back home around the Peninsula. One of my favorite moments on this trip was stopping off at Lake Crescent for a little driving break on our way home. Had it not been for the guy up the shore that shared the pleasures of his swim, we would've let our over-analyzing adult rationalizations take over and miss the wonderful experience of diving into this crystal clear, chilly water with mountains around. One of the most memorable of all, really. Unfortunately don't have pictures of that spot.

For my 32nd, we headed up to Seattle to stay at Kaila and Chad's new place. I was detemined to see fall colors and a Washington mountain lake hike, so Kaila and I did not let the boys pursuade us against it. It was a fantastic hike that went from woodsy, foggy forests to the anticipated fall colors, up to slushy areas with snow up ahead, snow covered sections, and finally, past these slushy ponds and knee-deep snow, we reached the Hidden Lake.

Our crew had some skeptisism we would even make it there based on the returning hikers and the confusing trail that just kinda disappeared. But I ran ahead, determined to see this darn lake and finally caught a glimpse, waving to the rest that their efforts were not wasted.

We made it to the Hidden Lake and it was gorgeous. The extreme wind at the top changed our original plan of eating lunch by the lake. But we oohed and awed, got our photos, stared some more, then sloshed and slid our way back down. Dylan zoomed on ahead so fast I was confused. He must've been doing some ski maneuvers down the mountain.