Exploring Ape Caves

Last Sunday, we joined our friends from Greater Grace in Portland and went exploring Ape Caves for the first time. Being first-timers, it was nice to have Randy along as an expert to show us the ropes.

The lower caves were a pretty even and easy walk. There was lots of stuff to look at and ledges and holes to explore. heading down to the lower caves

checkin’ out the cave

Look out Jesse!

Samantha found a nice little nook

climbing up the rope to explore the ledge and rooms above

the view of the rest of the group from the ledge

Amanda in the hole

the group on the rock above the walkway

It was so enjoyable, that we decided to give the upper caves a try next. The upper caves were definitely more challenging: huge rock falls to scamper over, sheer lava falls to climb, all with a flashlight/lantern in your hand. I was very thankful for a helping hand every so often and that the kids did so well all on their own WAY AHEAD of us old folks. :o)

  Lyndsey really liked all the mini-caves

Theresa and Evy

the first daylight we saw in over 3 hours

(it was really tempting to want to try to climb out that way) LOL

at the end

the real way out

The kids patiently waited outside the caves for about 45 minutes for the grown ups to finally show up. I think they ran most of it, although I can’t imagine how. We all had a great time and will go back again someday, especially after seeing this gorgeous lake on the way home!

The Great Escape – Days One and Two

The Great Escape started bright and early Saturday morning. We met at the church at 5:00 am. We loaded everyone’s luggage into the already full vans, grabbed our muffins, juice, and bananas for the road and were off.

We got to the ferry landing right on time, picked up Bradley and headed across the water to San Juan Island. While on the ferry we ate our lunches and went over all the ground rules for the trip.

waiting in line for the ferry

San Juan Island from the ferry

When we arrived in Friday Harbor, Josh, Beth and the kids made the 4.5 mile hike to the camp while the rest of us drove the vans with the gear. The sun made for a rather warm walk, but the kids had fun getting passing motorists to wave and feeding camels on the side of the road.

Lakedale Resort was not exactly what we had expected for the price. Our “secluded” group spot was all dirt, surrounded by other campers, and had no level spots for tents. After only a few hours everything, and I mean everything, in camp was filthy; including us. And to make matters worse, a 5 minute hot shower cost $2. Since showering every day would come to the staggering total of $152, everyone got one shower for the week. This made swimming every day even more imperative. I was very thankful for rather warm lakes versus cold mountain streams.

Samantha likes climbing

 

playing soccer

cooling off after soccer with a dip in the lake

Sunday was spent having devotions, eating meals, swimming, playing Ultimate Frisbee and volleyball, checking out the camp, playing board games and crashing shortly after lesson and camp journal time.

playing “Would You Rather” after breakfast

 

Chris getting ready for a “guess who this is” challenge

No peeking!

the 3 Stooges (Peter, Edwin, Aaron)

soccer

volleyball

swimming and chicken fights

Ultimate Frisbee

The Great Escape – Day Three

By Monday, we had pretty much seen and done everything there was to do at Lakedale Resort. So we decided to take a little field trip to Lime Kiln State Park.

some of the kids decided to do a bit of tree climbing in the morning

 

Joel, Erinn, Will, Zack, Andy

Tia (it’s just hard to tell with the wind)

there weren’t any dead men at the bay…

just lots of driftwood…

dead jellyfish…

and cool seaweed

the lighthouse

we didn’t hear any whales, only boats

some of the cool tide pool creatures

Andy, Nathan and Joel

looking at more tide pools

there were lots of these little jellyfish

The lime kiln itself was rather interesting and we learned all kinds of things about the making of and the transportation of lime. We also learned that we would not want to be aboard a wooden ship carrying lime as it creates heat when it comes in contact with water and would burn leaky ships at sea.

inside the kiln they would heat the lime to 2000 using 3.5 cords of firewood in 24 hours

leftover lime deposit

a ring where they would tie the ships

Amanda writing her name on a rock with limestone

Samantha found a baby crab to be our mascot

Hobo gets revenge on the rock that cut up his toe

guess the tree thought it was a stupid rule

when we got back to camp the boys put up a warning sign along the trail made out of a skull they found near camp