Habs on the Road

We drove over the freaky Astoria bridge and had to stop at the top for construction…doubly bad!!

We then arrived in Raymond and got to see uncle Gary and aunt Kelli!  They saved us an awesome spot on the water at their RV park (Raymond RV).  We were all excited to see them and also to take a tour of their giant catamaran sailboats!

The catamaran they are building for themselves is MASSIVE!  6 bedrooms 7 bathrooms!!

Got a private tour!

The kids had fun with (borderline terrorizing) some kittens Kelli brought home.

We had a great time hanging out!

Gary grilled some killer burgers!

The next day (day 38), Kelli took us crabbing in their boat out in the Willapa Bay, which was a total blast!  We set out four crab rings a few times and brought home 3 Dungeness crabs (we caught more than that, but they were either female or too small).

We are seasoned crabbers now!

 

Good times!  Reminds me of when I was Avin’s age and we would ride in Granny’s boat to her cabin on Eliza Island.

We proudly took home our three crabs and Gary and Kelli showed us how to cook, shuck, and eat them!

The kids were brave and helped put the crabs into the pot!

Doesn’t get any fresher than this!

They helped crack the crab legs for us (it was really neat to use Granny’s old crab cracker tool), and Avin even tasted the crab meat!  Good job, Avin!

We ended the day with a nice bike ride down the path that connects Raymond to South Bend, and let the kids play on a cool playground.

I love the sun hitting the tops of the “pointy evergreens”.

The kids love this playground!  What a cool design!

It was a really fun day!  At bedtime, Avin said the RV felt like it was swaying on the ocean after being on the boat for so long.  I thought so too!

We find ourselves thinking about how much we have been able to do in the past month. It has been such a fun adventure! We have experienced so many things in such a short amount of time. Carla and I like anything to do with marine life, so those things always top our list.

Beautiful night with super calm water.

Day 39:  I love my office view today! 🙂  It was neat to hear tons of seagulls outside yelling about the fish and crab leftovers that were tossed over the bank yesterday.  It reminds me of the seagulls in Finding Nemo saying, “Mine!….mine!……mine!”.

We took the kids to Long Beach to play in the sand and get some yummy bakery food that Gary and Kelli told us about.

You can drive on the beach, but it was really dry and soft today. We watched 3 vehicles get stuck, including a huge 4X4, so we passed on that!

The big kite festival was gearing up for the weekend.

I flew Dad’s kite he bought over 30 years ago in Oregon (Seaside I think).  It was a ton of fun!  Someday our boys will be flying it with their kids!

The Long Beach version!

Our car is jam packed most of the time!  Lots of sand everywhere!  4 Life jackets, 3 beach towels, 2 beach chairs, 1 small beach table, 4 pair of water shoes, 2 paddles, snacks, 2 skateboards, and a bunch of other junk!  Oh yeah, and the kids are in there somewhere!

We then went Kayaking in the South Fork of the Willapa River, which is a mixture of ocean water and freshwater (probably mostly saltwater, given how close it is to the ocean). We launched from a neat kayak launching pad!

Thank you Kelli for these great photos from the shoreline!

On our return trip we let the incoming tide carry us back to the dock…that was nice!  Hardly had to paddle at all.

What a great end to the day!!

We will be sad to leave tomorrow, but will be back next Summer to visit and kayak a little more!

The next day, we headed to Seattle!