One day when randomly searching for any available campsite reservations, I came across a double score – one for the ORV and one tent site for Buddy & Britt to bring and Max & Murphy. Perfect! Except I didn’t realize it was Mother’s Day weekend. Once we got the OK for booking, I locked in the dates. We were so excited to get the grand-nephews out overnight.
This campground had been formerly Camp Hayden, one of many forts in Puget Sound set up to protect the entrance to Puget Sound, the Victoria BC harbor, and the Canadian naval base at Esquimalt. After the war, federal lands were offered first to local municipalities, and Clallam County negotiated for several years and eventually bought this site and turned it into what is now an extremely popular recreation area. Families come from all over Western Washington to enjoy weekends camping here.
Our yet-to-be-named ORV was parked up on the hill, with a nice view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was exposed to the breeze off the water, which is pretty cold even later in the year, but the view was lovely.
We bought some camp chairs for the boys. Pink was the only color in stock, but they still loved them.
The campsite for the kids was down below on the point, surrounded by woods with protection from the breeze off the water. We spent all our mealtimes down there, trying some new camping food recipes I had discovered (campfire doughnuts – deep fried using canned biscuits and cinnamon sugar, yum!).
One day we took the boys to the Elwha River, where Rob & I had bicycled the previous year in an October trip. The plan was to do a little fishing, but the river is closed completely to fishing in order to help the Chinook Salmon run regrow and support our Southern Resident Orca pods. So we walked to a waterfall and had our picnic lunch by the river.
There were lots of busy tide pools to explore, and Rob got to spend quality time with the boys teaching them about the residents of Puget Sound. It was a special bonding time for all!
Sunday morning came and it was time to pack up the campsites. Murphy’s question to Buddy was “Can we take the tent to Fort Worden tonight and camp?”. I’d say the first actual camping adventure was a success!!! And even better, when Buddy brought the boys up to the trailer for morning breakfast, he told them “Come in to Nonnie’s Diner for breakfast”. And so the name for our little ORV came to be.