After Nonnie’s Diner came home from the 2025 Family Campout in Qiulcene, we didn’t camp again the remainder of the year and into 2026 until the next Family Campout. We had two massive projects and a wedding to attend to, which left zero time for camping. Carly Lennstrom got married on our boat in July 2025, then we overhauled and sold a rental house in December. Meanwhile, the boat was in LaConner getting new decks and preparing for a massive 40 year overhaul that would take a full 10 months to complete.
That didn’t stop us from planning and preparing for the family campout though. We wanted to find somewhere that had cabins for some, and discovered Dosewallips State Park on Hood Canal fit the requirements perfectly. It’s a huge sprawling campground right on Highway 101, which has never appealed to us as a destination. But it had cabins, and tucked up in a corner away from the road noise was a loop that we could reserve to gave us a sense of privacy and wooded outdoor space. So nine months in advance of our arrival, at 7am exactly, we logged on to the state parks reservation system and booked three cabins (C3, C4 & C5) and five camping spaces (124-128), securing a really nice space for meals and another for games.
As usual I did the planning, purchasing and prep for meals. But this year we had assigned teams to help at each meal with setup and cleanup. It worked out really well. The only real problem was that we ate too much. And by too much, I mean really lots of food. It was all good. Christine made and brought the chili for Friday.
Rob bought a new griddle this year, so he volunteered to cook an omelette bar on Saturday and pancake bar on Sunday. Both were delicious.
But the pièce de résistance was the shrimp boil we had Saturday night. Rob & I had been to New Orleans for a quick birthday trip in February and learned from a local how to put one together. We had practiced a couple of times at home on ourselves and friends, and pretty much had it dialed in.
The Dosewallips River runs alongside the campground, and there are nice trails to the river. Everyone took walks to different areas of the river.
Brother John took advantage of a very low tide and hiked out to the tide flats and scored some fresh oysters as an appetizer before the shrimp boil. We also had some fun lawn games going on but didn’t get any pix of those.
We had late night adult beverages, campfire, music and fun every night. The weather was beautiful this year, leaving us absolutely zero to be unhappy about. All in all it was teriffic. So well, in fact, that it was unanimous (even from those traveling across on ferries) to not only repeat next year, but to extend an extra day. The only changes next year, though, will be to eat just a little less and explore a little more.
Pix from this campout are here