The Weatherman

Well, we kept pretty this weekend again.  Friday evening we held a BBQ at our house for Steph’s work…we had around 15 people over for a potluck – we supplied the burgers, hot dogs, and refreshments.  But the big story for the weekend was our one night of camping at Millersylvania State Park – about 10 minutes south of Olympia.

First, Millersylvania is a beautiful park and campground situated amoung a primarily Douglas Fir forest and bordering on Deep Lake (don’t think it’s very deep).  We had two adjoining campsights (the other site being used by the Alessi’s).  We packed up the van on Saturday morning and left home at 12:30…We were checked in just before 2pm.

The only painful part of this trip was the amount of stuff you need to bring camping when it involves 2 kids.  So we had our huge Kelty Green River 6 tent, the queen size air mattress, a single air mattress, and the pack-n-play.  We had enough room in our test for another queen size mattress!

We took a walk to Deep Lake where the boys ran around the little beach touching the water.  Zach did fall in – about 3 inches of water.  He got soaked and I think a little scared from his mishap so we had to hurry back to camp and get him changed.  The night was cool (Olympia got down to 37 which tied a record for this date), but the boys slept well.  Mom didn’t sleep since dad kept snoring (he was drunk).  The morning for dad was rough with his hangover.  But the boys jumped right into their playing routine.  We packed up camp and left at around 11:30am (home by 12:30)…then the unpacking started.  2 to 3 hours later everything we put back and things were cleaned up.

Lots of work for such a short trip…but we had a good time.

Palace de Arthur

Minutes before Zach fell in.

Looking out over Deep Lake.

Canoeist on Deep Lake.

Looking up from our campsite.

Random picture of Nate about a week ago…funny laugh.

And for the movie…This covers Memorial Day weekend with Jan and Mike, setting up the tent in our yard, camping, and post camping fun with the kids – It’s a long one.

We had another busy weekend for the Arthurs.  We didn’t travel far but seemed to move around a lot…trip to REI, trip to the grocery store, running, walk to coffee, morning trip to Seward Park, lunch in downtown, trip to pickup firewood, trial setup of our new tent, walk the dog, clean, and cook…it all adds up.

Before I forget, here is a picture from Zach’s birthday party that Steph took.

Rare moment on film where they are together.

While I was picking up firewood, I was able to take a quick shot of this racoon.  He wouldn’t look down since he was sleeping.  Jim kept throwing wood in the vicinity (absolutely far enough away to not even come close to hitting it) and finally the lil guy popped his head up.

Raccoon in the tree.

Zach at Seward Park

Looking over Lake Washington at Seward Park

Smith Tower in downtown Seattle (we ate just up the street at Collins Pub).

Now onto the tent…the thing is huge.  We bought the Kelty Green River 6.  It has floor space of 13.5′ by 9′ and an 80 square foot vestibule.  Center height is around 6 and a half feet.  I was able to get a good portion of it setup on my own but definitely needed help to move it and setup the rain fly.  It is a sweet palace.  We are going away for one night of camping next weekend – the first camping night with the boys – it could be interesting.

Today we cruised around a small portion of Seward Park along Lake Washington.  Wow, what a beautiful park.  It is amazingly untouched with beautiful forests and paths throughout.  I definitely want to head back and go running around there.

A quick comment about the firewood – Jim, friend of mine in Sammammish, lost some trees in the December 2006 wind storm.  He had cut up the trees into largish chunks last year and he has been splitting the wood over the last month – so I was able to pick up some (probably a fifth of a cord)…I agreed to pay $1.18 per cubic foot (don’t ask).

And now for one really annoying item.  As some of you know, Steph was at Whistler in early May for a conference.  Steph has an iPhone.  These two facts can really f*ck you over if you don’t turn off the data part of the iPhone.  We got dinged for $650 of data transfer fees…basically any email she downloaded on the phone incurred huge fees.  For example, one data transfer session for 6.2 MB (this could be one email with a largish photo) cost $94!  AT&T, those stealing bastards.  That’s ridiculous.  They have one page buried on their website that I found that discusses this.  I’ll be honest, even if I looked before she left, I may have not found it.  I need to call them, although, I’m sure it will just piss me off and I’ll get no where.