Just last Sunday, we came back home our first camping trip this year. We had a wonderful time and the weather was nice – it was sunny and warm during the days and really bitterly cold at night (we had to sleep in our car rather than our tent two nights out of three). But even despite this little inconvenience, we could not have had a better time!
We left on our trip on Thursday afternoon after making a spur-of-the-moment decision. Since we were out at the time (I was shopping for John’s birthday gift), we bought some groceries on the way home and immediately started packing. It felt so good to be this spontaneous, let me tell you! We got ready to go quite fast and left for Deception State Park.
Since the weather was beautiful and we got there before it was dark, we went for a walk on the beach. Oh, it was so fun and I felt so energetic! I could have walked and walked and walked… We had a campfire that night and were visited by several persistent raccoons (it was quite fun to watch them, except for the time when one of them stole a bag of our marshmallows and started to run away with it 
).
We woke up in the morning, really cold, and went for a walk on the beach. The tide was out quite a ways, and we could walk down the whole length of the beach. It was so much fun! Since we have come to Deception Pass State Park before, we had so many fond memories to remember as we walked. I have to admit that it feels so good to find that I have been here long enough to create so many precious memories. It makes me feel like I belong here more, that I’m not a total stranger anymore.
After the walk, we packed up our camp and headed towards Keystone- Port Townsend ferry as we wanted to get to the Olympic Peninsula. It’s been our dream for quite a while to drive along the coast of that peninsula and we finally decided not to wait for anything but just go. And so we did!
The Olympic Peninsula is such a beautiful place and so peaceful, too. After you get past Port Angeles, you can drive for miles and miles and not see any towns or even houses. At first, it feels very refreshing to be away from the civilization but after a while, it started to feel not so good. I felt like we were out in the middle of nowhere (which we were, literally) and it was a little bit unsettling.
We spend two nights on the peninsula, at campgrounds right by the beach, sleeping in our car to stay warmer. It worked, too, even though the first night could not be more uncomfortable (we didn’t have time to set up our car for sleeping in a more comfortable way and paid for it with pain in our legs the next morning).
We had quite a few adventures during that trip (all of them ended well, thankfully) and we managed to do some hiking, too. Since we were right around the Olympic National Park, we decided to go ahead and hike to the Marymere Falls. It was not the most difficult hike ever, but the waterfall was so beautiful! Oh, I love waterfalls so much!
The highlight of the trip, I think, was finding the Dungeness National Park and deciding to camp there. It’s a beautiful place and we also learned that the Dungeness Spit is the longest sand spit in the USA. We decided to hike the trail down the beach to the lighthouse (5,5 miles one way). It was very fun and very enjoyable, even though the way back was extremely hard for me (due to pain in my knees and my right hip). I barely made it back, but I still don’t regret going – I wouldn’t miss it for anything!
All in all, it was a very fun trip. Now I can’t wait to go for the next one 
~eireen
