After we started our spring break at the tulip festival in Portland, we decided to end it with more tulips in Washington with our friends, the Perkins. This time Brigham was able to come as well.
Good thing tulips are my favorite flower since we got double duty. I felt lucky to get a second shot at walking through fields of these beauties.
I tried to get the kids to take a picture in front of their favorite color again. Some were more cooperative than others.
Kendrick's favorite were the "green ones" again, but then he wanted his picture taken in front of everything.
And really, with all the color in the background, I was happy to snap away.
The fields were a lot less muddy than the ones in Portland so it made it easier to explore.
We spent an hour or so admiring the tulips before we moved to our next activity.
About a half-hour away from the tulip fields, we set off to explore the Deception Pass area.
First, we crossed the top of the bridge and took some scary pictures before we hiked down to explore under the bridge on our way to the beach.
We met our friends, the Zappes, as we were hiking down and chatted with them for a little bit before skipping rocks and climbing rocky ledges on the beach.
Satisfied after lunch on the beach, we set off on Lighthouse Point Hike to explore the beaches on the opposite of the pass.
The hike was easy enough for the kids but still provided excellent views. At the Lighthouse Point, we climbed a hill to get to see across the pass.
The kids scrambled the hills and I constantly shoved down my fears of instant death as I watched them climb with little regard for safety. Little did I know, my fears were not unfounded.
The ledges pictured above caused quite an ordeal. Brigham, Matt, and I were taking pictures and enjoying the view when we heard a calm and yet wary, "Daaaaaad" ring out. Because it didn't sound urgent, I asked Brigham to go check on Lydia. Something told me it was serious and Matt must have sensed it as well because he hurried over the hill to see what Lydia needed. What he found was Lydia hanging off the ledge above a field of rocks! Her legs had caught on some roots, luckily, when she had slipped trying to climb back down. Matt had to tell her to stop struggling because she was about to come loose and fall to the rocks below any second. He held onto a branch to lower himself down enough to grab her. Brigham manage to get below to watch and said that it was quite the dramatic scene. I'm glad I didn't see it and I'm glad Lydia was safe. Thank you, Matt, for the rescue! Usually, Lydia overreacts and screams when she has no reason to and we have been working with her on tempering her reactions. Apparently too well! This time she had every reason to scream and alert us of her precarious situation and instead she calmly called out. The irony.
I was sitting on top of the small mountain with Kendrick as the drama unfolded. Once Lydia was rescued and we had each scaled back down to the bottom (Brigham climbing down, very unsafely, the sheer side of the cliff with Ivy on his back!), we explored the tide pools and named a starfish we found Hot Biscuit.
We then hiked back to our cars and drove to Fort Casey to explore the historic Forts.
Brigham loaded Ivy into the gun -she IS a bullet ha!- and we checked out the dark bunkers below.
Once we finished exploring, the kids decided to frazzle my nerves more with a game of tag and then hide-and-seek as they ran across the forts and high walls.
As it grew later in the day, we raced back to our cars and then headed to the ferry to leave Whidby Island.
After such a jam-packed day, we were starving and finished our fun together off with some dinner at Mod Pizza.
Pizza was just the right thing to restore our energy to make the drive home. Or at least some of us...
I don't blame Kendrick for falling asleep on the way home. We were going going going all day, having so much fun and seeing so many beautiful parts of nature. Exploring the tulips, Deception Pass, and Fort Casey with the Perkins was the perfect way to wrap up spring break!
