Henry Turns 15 !

For Henry's fifteenth birthday, we had dinner at Din Tai Fung. During the day, Dad and Henry took the bus down to Seattle and went up to the top of Smith Tower, which, when it opened in the early 1900s, was the tallest building in the world outside of New York.

Camping on the Ocean

In mid-August, we went out to Shi-Shi Beach and took our first backpacking trip. While we've camped before, it has always been car-camping, where we drive to a campsite and unload. This is the first trip we took where we packed it all on our backs and hiked to the campsite. It was a 2-mile hike to the beach, and then we walked another 2 miles down the beach to find a nice spot. It's a popular beach for camping, there were probably 40 groups there, but spread over the 2.5 miles of beach meant we had no one within 100 yards of us and a nice stretch of sand in front of us.

We brought frisbees and cooked freeze-dried pasta, beef stroganoff, and chicken and dumplings, along with hot dogs and (of course) roasted marshmallows. It was a HEAVY load for all (we packed our water in rather than relying on filtering the streams running into the ocean) but it was downhill on the way in. The hike had lots of mud to slog through, but a beautiful trip through the forest to the beach.

The ocean was beautiful with rock stacks along the coast and a series of rock arches at the end of the beach, about a 10-minute walk from our campsite. The water, even in August, was far too cold to swim in, though we did see several otters swimming in the current, along with an eagle soaring above. A great trip!

The group before setting out on the hike

Arrivign at the beach

Jack and Henry walk ahead to scope out a campsite

Point of Arches

Joseph used his Civil Engineering training to construct a model of
the Seattle skyline in the sand

Time lapse of the sunset from our campsite!

Long video of the beach and campsite

Hiking Up Thorp Mountain

Continuing on our summer of hikes, Joseph, Henry, and Dad found an off-the-beaten path hike to Thorp Mountain and hiked it on a beautiful summer Saturday in August.

The hike left from a trailhead down a Forest Road north of Roslyn, and was just short of 8 miles round trip, with about 2500 ft of elevation gain. Along the way we passed a beautiful mountain lake, with campsites and people swimming there, and then up a steep mountainside through meadows of wildflowers to the summit. At the top there is a fire lookout and an amazing view of Lake Kachess and Rainier in the distance.

Henry's Political Leadership Camp in DC

Henry spent a week on the campus of American University in Washington D.C. for a National Student Leadership Council camp centered on politics and public policy. It was an amazing experience he enjoyed quite a bit. Mary Jo flew out with him (and then spent the rest of the week on the East Coast, in upstate NY/Vermont with Maureen and DC with Janet and then Margaret; she also got to go to a Nats game!).

Henry's week included a senate simulation (he was a Republican Senator for Kentucky), a campaign simulation (he was a communciations director for a presidential campaign), and lots of 'behind-the-scenes' tours, including of the Pentagon, Monuments, Museums, and Capitol Hill. He got to see the Senate Office Building and heard a talk from Todd Young, Senator from Indiana. Photos from the camp were posted on their blog, including these.

O Canada ... again!

Even though the month was not yet halfway complete, John had his second trip to Canada this month, going to Calgary with Jack for the Babe Ruth Regional Tournament.

We got there two days early, and went up to Kicking Horse to do a Via Ferrata. Unfortunately, there was a thunderstorm so the outing was canceled. It was nice to be there just five months after skiing there - and beautiful scenery!

Not able to do the adventure, we stopped in at Emerald Lake Lodge, and then on to Banff for a nice steakhouse dinner. The following day we drove down to Calgary and got some luge-go-karting in before heading to the baseball opening ceremonies.

Lakeside didn't do all that well in the tournament. There was an odd format and a very tough draw - you play four random teams of the 9 teams there, and four advance to the finals. All four of Lakeside opponents wound up in the final four, and Lakeside went 1-3, and did better against the opponents than other teams. Jack pitched two shutout innings in the second game loss.

Jack at Kicking Horse

Jack at Emerald Lake Lodge

The Lodge at Emerald Lake

View of Mt Rundle from our hotel in Banff

Olympic Training Centre in Calgary

They've turned the Luge Training track into a cart-track

Jack on the mound in Calgary