Our trip to these sister parks was delayed by a month due to The Big Guy's tumble from his mountain bike the week before we would've gone. While falling off a mountain bike and breaking a rib is far from ideal, so was the weather on the original dates, and we made out better in that regard. The long Thanksgiving weekend, with its forecast of clear and cold, gave us the perfect opportunity for a reschedule. We spent the evenings leading up to the trip preparing a few Thanksgiving dishes ahead of time since we'd have to cook the feast with only the gas stove and the microwave.
Only one of the two campground loops was open, and we got the last space available in the sunshine with a water view. It's a "dry" camp (i.e. no hookups) but we felt well-prepared with plenty of propane and gas and battery power on board.
Our view reflected in Arvie's window.
Our view from inside Arvie.
We had some time before we wanted to have dinner, and we set off for a walk. I'd heard what sounded like big birds fussing at each other not far from our campsite and wanted to go see if we could find them.
Searching...searching...
Found 'em! Hello, national birds. I bet you're thankful that Ben Franklin didn't get his way when he wanted to have the turkey be our national bird, aren't you?
After marveling at the eagles for awhile, we did the loop trail through the park, returning on this access road. I dubbed this Turkey Hill since it seemed like a good way to earn the turkey we were about to gobble down.
Ready, set, feast!
After stuffing our bellies, we each cuddled up to read our books and enjoy the beautiful sunset with Mt. Rainier on the horizon. The Big Guy would probably like me to clarify that I was the only one who actually cuddled. He's obviously made of sturdier stuff and didn't need to be under the wool blanket just yet.
A few hours later, and after we'd played some games, we enjoyed our pumpkin pie and eggnog, even though we weren't anywhere in the neighborhood of hungry. But that's Thanksgiving, right? I'm always particularly thankful for eggnog. I freaking love eggnog.
Then it was time for everyone to cuddle under the woolie and get some shut eye.
The sunrise looked remarkably like the sunset.
We had to wait until 0800 to run the generator to run the coffeemaker. Ok, I could have boiled water on the stove and made my coffee in the french press, but waiting was fine with me since we like to take our hot beverages on our morning walks, anyhow. We distracted ourselves by gazing at the sunrise and eating the leftover biscuits in bed.
The dawning day was worth the wait.
Making use of the new binoculars that live exclusively in the rig (you may recall our forgetting the binoculars on our last trip.)
Pretty pretty.
The Olympic Mountains.
Our Black Friday plans included making the trek up to Cama Beach State Park.
Sunny but cold.
Cama Beach was built in the 1930's as a resort locale. The little cabins can still be rented, and there is a cafe (open) and a little store (closed). I imagine in the hotter summer months, it is a nice place to cool off, if you like crowds. Which explains why we were there in late November.
I don't know if this was around in the '30's but it was pretty cool. If it hadn't been in an area that was getting no sun whatsoever, we might've played a game.
After poking around the little Cama "village," we decided to go check out Cranberry Lake. It seemed appropriately named for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Cranberry Lake was frozen!
It was a nice, sunny walk back. We talked a lot about how much pumpkin pie we were going to eat when we got back to camp since we had hiked through lunch.
Overlooking the boat launch area. Closer and closer to pie time.
Once back, we decided to just have our leftover feast early and save the pie for later. Everything was just as good as the first time, except we were a little sad that there were no more biscuits.
We were treated to another glorious sunset, and I was just settling in for an evening of jigsaw puzzling, when disaster struck. The Big Guy wanted to start the RV's regular engine, but all he got was the click of a dead battery. While we could have stayed the night easily, since we had all the energy sources we needed to live on, we still would've had to deal with a dead battery the following day (on which we had planned to leave anyhow.) After a few attempts to power ourselves up, and a check with Les Schwab, who was available but at exorbitant cost, we were quite fortunate to borrow a charger from a neighbor and get Arvie started. Then we had to leave while she was running unless we wanted to repeat the process the next day.
On the way home, we encountered a tremendous traffic jam due to an accident. While we inched along, we talked a lot about how much pumpkin pie we were going to eat when we got home.
I freaking love pumpkin pie.
