Skimming Stones

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What a great day! We spent most of the day skimming stones across any body of water we could find.

We started out on a trail called the wonderland trail. It was down on the ocean edge on the "quiet side" of the island. The big catch here is to arrive at low tide so that you can hang out by the tide pools -- one of our favorite activities. If you stare at a tide pool long enough you can see the most amazing little creatures. We didn't get a peak at the big draw (a starfish) -- but we saw lots of shrimp and lots of little crabs.

One, Two, Three, YES!

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One of K/s homework assignments this week (she is missing two days of school for this trip) was to do a recyclying project. We opted to pick up trash in the National Park. From the wonderland trail we pulled out the mother load of garbage. It seems all the stuff lost from fishing boats land in this little inlet. I bet we dragged 30+ pounds of garbage back to the motor home. It was about a mile and a half loop.

Then we headed for the ship harbor trail just a short ways down the trail. This is by far one of my favorite spots so far. A short walk put us on the oceans edge. First, we were in a small inlet that was very, very calm. The shoreline was just small chunks of stone -- all perfectly rounded by the ocean. Most rocks were about the size of an orange only flatter. It only took one stones toss by Dad -- that skimmed perfectly across the very still water about six to eight times to get the girls demanding a lesson in skimming stones. First of course, was the lesson in finding the perfect stone to skim and then the technique. I am sure we spent well over an hour in this little inlet trying to perfect techniques (and yes, R. nailed K. in the head with a stone). Dad spent quite a bit of time with each of them demonstrating just the right flick of the wrist to get the stone to skim.

From this very quiet still inlet, we wondered down the coastline and around a corner where we found ourselves on very big boulders watching the waves crashing in on the rocks -- a big difference from the inlet just a few hundred yards away. It was exciting to watch the waves get closer and closer.

Following the walk along the ship harbor trail we headed back with a quick stop at the echoe lake boat launch. For the first time the girls wandered into the water. It has been still quite cold up here. When we arrived most of the trees had no leaves (now it is Friday and a few days of warm weather and the park has almost 80% coverage). The water on the ocean is still unthinkable -- in fact we are still quite bundled up. But at echoe lake with the sun shining down right on us -- they finally ventured in a bit. But when Dad stormed the waters threatening to grab them both and throw them in there were screams and a dead bolt for shore -- I guess the water wasnt' that warm.

Having decided that a full dip was not in the plan -- they went back to skimming stones -- yes, another hour invested. But really, can you think of a better way to spend the afternoon!