Gramma Camp On Whidbey Island

When Jill went back to work on Tuesday we picked up the grand kids and headed to Whidbey Island for a few days.

It was close to noon by the time we got through city freeway traffic and across the sound on the ferry.  The rest of the day was pretty lazy, with everyone resting up after all those home improvement projects. 

When it got warm, Tom and I sat in the shade by the lagoon and read.  the kids disappeared into their bunks for screen time. 

 Later in the afternoon I did manage to wander  over to the beach via the public access before gearing up to cook dinner for the bunch of us. 

 Wednesday morning, after a late start, Tom and I spent most of the rest of the morning cleaning up the long neglected front garden.  We know now what can survive in the sand without much water. 

 In the afternoon I took a walk over on the beach.  The sand bar in the channel was full of gulls and terns.  Every evening about 6:00 to 7:00 they all rise up noisily for, as Irene puts it "time to go fishin' for their dinner". 

 When the tide refilled the lagoon, the kids took their kayaks out for a paddle.

 On the evening of the first day we had collected pieces of bark and driftwood off the beach for our craft project. On Wednesday evening we began creating our wreaths. 

 We ran out of glue for the glue gun, so we put the project on hold for the next day.  I had time to enjoy the sunset. 

 Irene came with me to the beach to check on her fort, Fort Hail. 

 She wanted to show off her feather fan assembled with the glue gun from feathers the kids had collected beach combing while we were doing yard work.

 Back over at the lagoon the sky was going pink. 

 We started slowly again Thursday. Tom made a trip to the craft store for more glue sticks and then we all ended up on the beach.  Isaac caught more "friends" to go with their collection of hermit crabs and shore crabs, which were living in a bucket of sea water. 

 The tide was out in Useless Bay. 

 Tom and Irene looked for sand dollars. 

 The kids enjoyed their captured "friends". 

 Isaac has a feather fan too. 

 Back at the cabin it was time to finish our craft projects. 

 kids can always fill the down time with the left over materials.  Isaac made a race track for Hot Wheels cars. 

 Irene's creation was elaborate and lovely. 

 I made two ↑ ↓

 The collection.

 One of them has already found a home. 

 We were going home in the evening on Thursday so the kids wanted to make the most of their last day. They had a time line - showers beginning at 4:30.  They got out the inflatables and floated in the bay. 

 Then it was time to release their friends back to the sea.  They did it ceremoniously, one at a time, naming each one.  As Irene put it, "They were being released from the bucket where we had imprisoned them."

We were away by 6:00 to get dinner on the way and to get them home to their mother, who had missed them. They were reluctant to leave, which is a good thing.  That means they will be ever so happy to return when it's time again for some Island Time.