Trip to the Coast

We had a great time at the coast this year. We are members of the NW Civil War council, participating in living history and battle reenactments about 5 times a year. It started out as a good excuse to go camping, not to mention great rates (free w/ our membership) and stays at beautiful state parks. The Ft. Stevens event falls on Labor Day weekend every year and we decided to stay an extra day and go exploring further north. We headed out to Ft. Stevens on Friday evening, setting up camp in the dark with a slight sprinkle. We have a large cabin tent and with our 10x10 canopy and 20x30 tarp covering the whole set-up, we stayed dry and toasty. We have gotten spoiled on having our business stuff to take camping; hot water hand washing station, folding tables, marine cooler, etc., which is all quite nice and makes camping pretty smooth. We would eventually like to go all rustic and camp with the living history group, but for now we stay in "modern camp", since we have all of the equipment already.
The weather cleared up Saturday, and stayed beautiful all Sunday and into Monday. Gil had a fun time playing soldier, the boys had a great time camping, going to the beach on their own, hiking and biking around and I had some much needed rest and relaxation. Saturday night was the dance and Gil and I danced the Virginia Reel, some other fun "period" dances and Aidan and I waltzed.
Sunday night was the company potluck, and everyone was asking when we are going to get our Civil War gear and camp with them. This is our 2nd full year doing this and I did notice 2 families that have joined after us are already camping in "Civilian Camp". I'd love to, but we are saving up for a real house folks!
Monday afternoon we headed north to Cape Disappointment and the weather turned nasty. Fitting name, eh? We got camp set up and went to the beach, getting completely soaked and chilled in the foggy rain. We stayed warm and dry in our shelter though, and the rain let up long enough for us to sit around the campfire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.
Tuesday we got packed up and went to Long Beach to visit Marsh's free museum and gift shop, which is something unto itself. The place is packed with trinkets, stuffed animals that are falling apart because they are so old, crazy old antiques, a "mummified alligator man" (oi vay!) and all of these old contraptions dating from the mid-19th century that you can put a coin in and get some sort of show; organ machines, periscopes, games, weird little shows, you name it. It was really amazing and quite entertaining. After that we headed up to Ocean Park to visit Jack's, a general store that has all kinds of old-fashioned gadgets and candy. The boys spent all their money on candy and I spent mine in the kitchen section. Got those cool little corn-on-the-cob holders, a neat nutcracker, some beautiful wooden utensils, canning supplies, rootbeer extract, and other fun goodies.
I guess we were all tuckered out because nobody cared to go to the beach again, just ready to go home, where we arrived at 9pm at night. What a trip!