It's All About the 'Noochie! Well, Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge & Wynoochie Dam, Anyway...

Welcome back to my latest trip to beautiful Washington State!  

To catch up on my trip thus far, click the links below!

Here we go to Washington!

Beautiful Multonomah Falls and Columbia River Gorge

Westport Elk Herd and Sunset on the Beach

And for today's installment, we'll visit Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge and then Wynoochie Dam and Lake in the gorgeous Olympic National Forest. 

Sabrina and I started the morning off by grabbing a couple Caramel Apple Red Bull Smoothies (yes, they are absolutely delicious) and heading off for a stroll along the boardwalk at the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge.  The weather in Southwestern Washington could not have been better for a day outdoors. 

Being August, there weren't a lot of birds.  But there was a lot of beautiful foliage and flowers!

We did see a plethora of beautiful purplish barn swallows!  

The boardwalk itself is quite picturesque.  It would be a perfect place for portraits or wedding photos!

There was a small downed tree across the path, so we had to go around.  But I snapped a shot first.  I think it looked cooler in person.  haha 

Ah ha! Wildlife!  This slug bug was pretty gigantic...at least to me.  It was about 6-8 inches long.

After our lovely stroll, we stopped by Ida's house to say hello to the family and then headed to meet Lee, Trinity, and Logan at Wynoochee where they were camping with Lee's family.

The drive was just amazing with so many gorgeous flowers, pristine farms with horses, and random deer appearing.  Sabrina and I knew we had to stop to get some photos on the way back, but in the meantime, we were already later than we meant to be so we hurried on up.

Just in time to head for the lake with the kayak, paddle board, family, and dogs!

That's none of the above, but it was beautiful sitting on the grass and pine needles so I had to capture it.  :-)

Wynoochee Dam

Trinity and Logan on the paddleboard (is that one word or two?  I don't know so I'll use both at random.) in the sparkling water.

This old guy just loved to swim!  Elsa did her best to harass him the entire time, but he pretty much just ignored her.  lol

This is Lee setting out in the kayak.  I amazed myself by kayaking around the entire swimming area twice!  And I even swam, but I confess I am in way worse shape than I believed and had to holler for Trinity to come rescue me on the paddle board. haha

Trinity leaving Logan in the dust....errrr....water. 

So she could catch up with her dad!

These two absolutely spectacular kids had a blast flipping off the swimming platform!  Is there anything these guys can't do??  

After a delicious family dinner of carne asada tacos, Sabrina and I headed out to capture some photos.  It was just about sunset and originally we were going to walk to Wynoochee Falls, but we didn't have time.  So we had to settle for some beautiful photos!

And I even got a deer!  Although the shot ain't the greatest.

But the day sure was!!!

xoxo

Nikon D3300

Boat Trip in Grays Harbor Washington Part II

On my last post, we were out on the beautiful Pacific Ocean and Grays Harbor in Washington State.  Such an amazing place with tons of marine mammals, birds, ships, and beautiful views!  You can Revisit Part I by clicking that link!

In the meantime, here's a little video I created (my first really) to memorialize the wonderful trip and the amazing time we had watching the birds out in the open ocean.  I promise there is no annoying music. 

We had so much fun sitting there watching all the birds come in and fight for the fish.  Sabrina and I were just snapping away the entire time!  Let me tell you, it is HARD to take video on a boat in the ocean, even though it was a relatively calm day!

And now for the pictures:

Look at all the fish!  Anyone know what kind?

Pelicans coming for a landing in black and white

There were so many birds out there!  I love this shot which is a good illustration of pelican pouches in various states.

And in this guys pouch, you can actually see the outline of the fish he's swallowing!

I'm kind of fascinated with pelicans.  They are so prehistoric looking!  If you look carefully, you can see the head of a fish that the guy in the front is scooping up. 

And then off they flew!

But soon it was time to go back into the harbor before we ran out of gas.  Lee wanted to take me under the bridge we drove over, which can only be done when the tide is high, which is evidenced in the next picture by the waves breaking. 

And under we go!  This bridge is actually pretty close to Sabrina and Lee's house.  And it's right next to Brady's Oysters, where we usually stop for some delectable ocean delights. Last year, we witnessed a bad accident, so it's no longer Angela's favorite highway, that's for sure.  

After we had cruised around under the bridge, we headed back to the marina.  But first, I had a question.  Periodically there are these towers in the water.  They are a single pole with a ladder going up to a basket on the top.  I wanted to know what they were for.  

I guess I really had two questions because I also wanted to know if I could climb up one.  I was DYING to climb up one.  Verna seconded my idea enthusiastically.  Lee?  Not so enthusiastic.  

Last time I was in Washington Lee got pulled over because us ladies were sitting in lawn chairs in the back of the truck while we were riding on the beach.  He was really not excited to get in trouble again.  But how could he resist us???

And in a MASTERFUL show of boat piloting...errrr...driving....errr whatever, he pulled that boat next to the ladder and up we climbed!  Verna went first while Sabrina and I made sure the boat didn't rub the ladder.  And then up I went!

Thank you Sabrina for the lovely shot of my ass, and Angela for the screen grab and threat to put it on Facebook!  Beat you to it!!

Let me tell you, those rungs HURT and they were covered with bird poop.  But it was WORTH IT!  Verna and I were KING OF THE WORLD!  I believe Sabrina has a photo of us, but I don't have it yet.  We wanted Lee to pull the boat away so you could see how high up we were and how far out in the water we were, but he was a bit nervous.  

And then we saw the Coast Guard helicopter take off and we thought we were flat busted!  Verna shimmied down the ladder, but then became a bit indecisive about how exactly to get back on the boat.  So of course she had one hand and foot on the ladder, one hand and foot on the boat... Lee was getting a little nervous about that helicopter and let his attention waver for a second and Verna looked like a big X!  We thought she was going to fall in for sure, but Lee corrected quickly.  

A little too much, to be honest, because then she got squished between the boat and the ladder!  I was so worried, but I honestly couldn't help laughing somewhat hysterically!  It was like a freaking cartoon!

But soon she was safely on the boat, so I went down the ladder as fast as I could and jumped on board so Lee could put some space between us and the tower before we got arrested. 

Luckily, the Coast Guard was otherwise occupied, picking up a boarding party off of one of the huge ships. 

It was really cool to see them winching men up one after the other. 

But we soon saw another menacing sight...a Coast Guard ship heading our way! And yes, that little tower to your right of the boat is very similar to what we climbed up. 

But they were just going back to base and we all breathed another sigh of relief!  And then we headed back in as well. 

I love this sequence of this pelican landing on the breakwater.  

Not just for the graceful beauty of these birds...

 But also because there was one pelican who didn't want any more birds landing!

 It's the old man pelican equivalent to "Get off my lawn!!"  Haha!

 Pelican says "I do what I want!"

Cormorants!  And I believe you can see the crest on the double-crested cormorant on the bottom left!

And on these guys too! Kind of. 

 Another great shot of a pelican flying low above the water. 

When we got back to shore and Verna told Angela about our adventure, she let Verna have it!

 Apparently Verna doesn't know how to swim!!!!!  OMG!  I totally would have dived in to save her. 

What a lovely day!  We finished up by stopping at Brady's Oysters where my big brother bought me some oysters, clams, and an adorable mug which proudly adorns my desk at work. 

This is a tower like the one we climbed, but this one is closer inland to Brady's oysters.  

So much FUN!

xoxo

Nikon D3300