Vacation 2012: Stop 1, Ocean City

   So travel along with me, will you?  We left on a Saturday morning for the Washington Coast.  Many people get confused, because when you think of any seaside state, you think of it as coast and inland.  My home has a view of salt water… and many think it’s coastal.  It isn’t.  I live in the sound, and my view is actually the Guemes Channel.  Actually, let me borrow this here image from this site, slightly edited for my ability to demonstrate, and I’ll show you.

  Okay, so we left our little corner of the world for the Washington Coast.  We love to stay at Ocean City State Park.  Last year we stopped there to visit family, and had a great experience with the park, so this year we decided to return.  We spent two nights there this year, in order to better spend some time getting to know the place better.

Leaving home

The drive out to Ocean City is really one of my favorite parts: a ferry ride, miles and miles of nothing but forest, a few small “blink and you miss it” towns here and there, and more wild flowers than I think I’ve ever seen in a drive anywhere else.  It’s about 2 ½ hours from our house, and a fantastic way to start off any of our south-bound by the coast trips. 

We arrived to find our site wonderfully large, and quite private.  In fact, the surrounding vegetation so effectively screened us in, that we thought our spot was going to be too small, until we stepped out of the car and looked around.  We had plenty of space for two tents, all of our gear, all five of our camp chairs, and still extra run around space for the kids.  The Princess loves to use nearly any open floor space as a dance floor…

Our first night in was mostly spent setting up camp, and going out shopping for some of the many forgotten things like condiments.  (Oopsie….)  We did foil pouch dinners and roasted marshmallows, and then hit the beach.  Last time we were here, we didn’t try to walk to the beach from the camp.  Instead we drove into Ocean Shores and onto the beach with the car.  I had no idea, though I do believe our family out there may have made mention, what a hike it was.  First a short trek through the woods, then this prairie like area, up a hill, and FINALLY you get the sand and the waves and the sunshine.  The Hubster and I sat on a piece of driftwood and let the kids go crazy in the sand with their buckets and their tools. 

Now, ever since I learned that Washington State has its very own rainforest (and a subsequent lesson in the difference between tropical and temperate rainforests) I’ve wanted to go visit.  In all actuality, I only thought we had one; the famous Hoh Rainforest.  Turns out that there are at least three.  Doesn’t matter, I’ve spent nearly 20 years wanting to set foot in the Hoh.  So we spent day two with the plan to drive over 2 hours each way to get my little big self to the Hoh.  It was a perfectly warm, sunshine filled day… and we got a late start.  *facepalm*  We had a wide detour to pick up some essentials I had forgotten and we couldn’t get locally which also derailed us for another couple of hours.  (Way to go, Mom.)  By the time we got to the Quinault Rainforest, we weren’t sure we’d make it as far as the Hoh. 

We did, however, stop in the Quinault for our picnic lunch, and a ½ mile trail hike through a section of the forest.  I am still fascinated with how much moss is all over the place in these things. 

Loaded back up in the car and continued north, singing along with The Monkees, Bob Segar, and James Taylor…. cracking jokes along the way of vampire hunting because we kept seeing signs to Forks.  We hit an odd foggy patch, just about 25 miles out of Forks, with no cell signal, and no blue sky, and the jokes got even more frequent.  ;-)  We got our laughs at the beaches with the ever so creative names… “Beach 1”, “Beach 2”, “Beach 3”, “Beach 4” and “Beach 5”.  Suddenly the sky opened up again, turned bright blue, the temps rose, and we discovered we were very, very close to the Hoh road... and made our turn as soon as we reached it.

I was in tears when we passed the sign saying we had entered the Hoh Rainforest.  It’s hard to explain, but as silly as it was, the simple fact that for nearly 20 years this was something I’d wanted to do but kept eluding me, and here I was, finally where I’d waited so long to be… just had me all emotional.   It was late in the day, so we knew we weren’t going to do much, but the simple fact that I was finally there… yeah.

As we pulled in, we saw a Ranger trying to help an Asian family with their car, so we stopped to help.  Their hatchback on their rented mini-van wasn’t closing.  The latch completely malfunctioned.  Luckily for them, we had picked up an extra clothesline, which we happily handed over and tied their hatch to a backseat.  I stood watching Robert secure the hatch, when one of the guys introduced himself to me… Carl out of Vancouver BC.  (Okay, so the idea of an Asian guy named Carl cracked me up.)  He was explaining to me that their luck had been terrible, they had wrecked their own car the day before, and now this rental was broken. 

Sadly we got there so late that the interpretive center was closed… and the weather was too hot to leave the dog in the car to hike the “Hall of Mosses” that I still want to get the chance to do, as no pets are allowed on those trails, but we still were thrilled to be there, and are already planning a better organized trip back.

That evening was a lovely night of putting our feet up around the campfire, a couple cold brews for the “adults”, and the night I learned how to use my Dutch oven to make cornbread.  We all slept like rocks, and made our preparations to strike camp the next day, bound for Oregon.



How the Princess Broke Her Tooth

   Our trip was incredible, but we had the one, I think important, point of contention.  And I want to write up a nifty essay of how great our week was, but the one thing is just so much its own story, that I am writing a post for it alone.  The story of Sun Lakes, and how my daughter lost a chunk of her tooth.

   There are two things I learned on this trip.  One, my tiny house is HUGE after a week in a car with three kids, a dog, and a grumpy hubby.  Two, while I tend to not be a huge fan of Oregon in general, I have to hand it to them, from what I saw on this trip, they take AMAZING care of their state parks… where Washington isn’t the worst out there, but has much work to do in this area. 

   Sun Lakes State Park is located in a surprisingly beautiful part of the state.  The Geology to the area is fascinating.  Near the foot of Dry Falls, it’s set inside a canyon and at the edge of Blue Lake.  It is hot and dry, very low humidity and very desert like.  Trees are few and far in between, and shade is a precious commodity.  Our campsite had morning shade, but for most of the day, there was no hiding from the sun and the 98+ degree temperatures, except to go for a drive in the AC or to go for a swim.  It sounds awful, but with careful planning, it’s well worth it.  It’s a popular area for dropping in a boat and going out for fishing or water skiing, and there is a variety of other things to do…. But that’s not the point to this story.  The point is, it’s a great area, well worth having a park located, but it’s sadly wasted by the management of the park itself. 

   The first day we arrived, it looked impressive.  The lady at the counter was kind and helpful.  We saw nothing out of the ordinary.  We saw the many sites full to the limit with campers, nearly every site with a truck hauling a boat, and the tables full of coolers…. We knew we were in for a campground of young folks, boats, and beer.  Next to us, on both sides, however, the sites were empty.  We left that evening for Grand Coulee City to check out the laser show on the dam.  (SOOOOO worth camping out for, BTW.)  When we came home, we still had one empty neighbor site.  We were rolling in well past quiet hours, so we made every effort to keep it quiet for the newbies.

   Two sites down on the other side was a large family, headed up by a guy named Mike.  They were Indian, and looked nearly Hispanic from the first glance.  (Sadly, that point is important later.)  Halfway across the park was several sites all packed with a huge group of, what we believe are, Russians of various ages, partying hard.  They partied loudly through the wee hours of the morning, and even when they finally quit, there were two voices loud as can be right next to us, at a bench in front of the ladies room, going through strange cycles of conversation, all in a foreign language.  It started with a booming yell, that startled me awake, and a following argument… cycled into a lecturing sounding conversation, worked into laughing, then crying, and back to yelling, and just kept doing this until 5 am.  No one around us got sleep, and later talking to other campers, we all had the same thoughts… this day and age, they confronting them was either a) going to drag someone else into the mess, or b) you just never know what the drunken idiots were carrying.  We also all agreed; none of us got any sleep.  And not once did a ranger come by to try to silence either ordeal. 

   The next morning, after I cooked up breakfast over a camp fire, I decided it was time to take the Princess and get our butts into the shower.  It is also important to note, there was only one shower, but no line.  All morning long, there was very minimal traffic to the shower, as in this heat and setting, most the girls were showering in the evening and hitting the lakes during the day, so the shower was wide open all morning long. 

   In Washington State Parks, showers cost 50 cents for 3 minutes.  (Oregon, showers were free…. Just sayin’.)  So we got our clothes at the ready in the dressing corner (supposed to be a dry area to keep your things) and lined up our toiletries.  It quickly became evident after depositing our coins, that the drain was clogged.  In fact, by the time our three minutes were up, the entire bathroom, including the 4 or 5 toilet papered, nasty, filthy toilet stalls were flooded by our one single shower… at least an inch deep.  I took the Princess over where there should have been dry land to try to get her dressed and get us out of there, embarrassed that we’d flooded the bathroom, and grossed out that even in shower shoes, we were standing in the lovely water. 

   So there we are, standing in a mucky swamp, nekkid except for our shower shoes, and I’m trying to figure out how to get a diaper and clothes on the Princess without drenching all of it as well, when she makes a move, slips on the slick floor, and goes face first into the bench.  It was immediately clear she’d broken a tooth and sunk it deep into her lip.  It wasn’t as bloody and terrifying in appearance as when the Littlest Prince had his incident, but was clearly not good either.  So there I am, trying to figure out how to now comfort a screaming three year old, AND get clothes on the both of us, while standing on slick tiles in a flooded bathroom, to get her out and to the site so I could get to the first aid kit.  I still don’t even know how I did it.  I just remember finally getting the clothes on, leaving all of our stuff behind, and as soon as I got to the door, yelling for the Hubby to get the first aid kit, NOW.  And later I learned that he stood there in a stunned and confused daze, but the Eldest Son caught on and did get the ball rolling.

   I got the Princess into a camp seat, and we learned that the instant ice pack in the first aid kit was a dud.  SO, we double bagged some of the dirty ice from the cooler.  (gotta do what you have to do, right?)  Eldest did a fantastic job keeping the Princess calm, snuggled with her, read books to her, and kept her comfortable for about an hour.  Once she was set, I went back and retrieved our items, and tried to track down the maintenance crew that kept rolling by in little John Deere carts… but were impossible to catch.  I finally gave up and walked my angry butt down to the front booth.

   The same young lady was working the registration desk, and was apparently the only person on duty with a brain in their heads.  She was quick to get on it.  She radioed the maintenance crew, who apparently didn’t know I could hear them object to having to go get work done, but she demanded they get to the booth immediately and speak to her.  When they arrived and saw me there, and were briefed, their answer was, “Oh we’ve known about that for a while now, but the shower was busy so we just decided to worry about it later”  (Remembering that I was camping directly across from the restrooms and was already fully aware that this is a false statement… there was very little traffic to the shower.)  As we spoke to other campers later, we learned they had been filing complaints about this same shower for days…. It took my daughter getting injured to finally get it fixed, and it was fixed in 10 minutes.

   Then the gal at the booth radioed the ranger on duty.  Apparently they have one ranger on duty between several parks, and he was on his way to Steamboat Rock Park, 20 minutes away.  She told me that Ranger Fulton (I believe that was the name) would need to get in touch with us and fill out a safety/incident report.  I let her know we weren’t going far, just to the visitor’s center, 5 minutes away, to see Dry Falls, and to the swimming part of the lake, right in front of her booth.  And true to that, we were at our site most of the entire day.  We saw the ranger drive by repeatedly, but never stopped to get the report.

   We did learn; however… remember the Indian family two sites down?  They had been fast asleep by the time we’d come back from the laser show, and were awakened by the partying and arguing just like the rest of us… but they got the tickets for it.  6 people all ticketed $150 each because the folks who complained heard foreign languages, saw a family that looked Mexican, and pointed their fingers at them.  The ranger, who couldn’t be bothered to make night rounds and resolve the issue right away, merely came by and issued tickets in the afternoon, but couldn’t find the time to get the safety report done.  It was a full 24 hours before we left the park for home, and never did get that report done.

   I wanted the documentation, because if her tooth turns out to be a bigger problem, I’m sending the bill to the state for their faulty maintenance…. But also to cover my ass if someone was to start asking questions of me.  For their own liability, the Ranger should have filled it out, copy to me or not, as there was an injury in, and cause by, their facilities.  Understanding the serious need for this report, before we left for home, I walked back down to the booth to find it closed.  Three ranger vehicles out front (all outfitted with stickers bragging that they are outfitted with Sirius Satellite Radio services) and voices inside, but a sign saying they will open at 2:30, and another one saying they’ll be back at 3pm.  (Check out is at 1.)  The Eldest, being an eager 8 year old, started pounding on the door, but the folks inside refused to answer.  This is frightening when you consider there is big red lettering outside the booth stating the AED is located inside…. And if it was needed, it wasn’t going to be available with staff ignoring someone pounding on the door, because apparently the state can pay for Sirius, but not for staff to be on duty.

   So in the long run, we left with no report being filed, ½ less of a tooth, and me, pissed off and spending most of today trying, still to no avail, to figure out who I need to reach to file a complaint.  We loved the area, loved the park for location, view, and activities, but are not sure if we’ll ever be returning, as I heard several other families there say, because the park appears to be run so horribly.