Deception Pass State Park

On the second day of our trip we woke up at the hotel and started our day with breakfast from the hotel in the room. Alden was excited to get to watch some TV while he ate breakfast and everyone else got ready.  After that we loaded up in the car and headed out to Deception Pass State Park.  We headed out to west beach first to explore a little.  The first thing Alden wanted to do was throw rocks in the water, which was no surprise.  We let him do that for a little bit before starting to walk around and explore the area a little more.  We went on a short trail hike near west beach and explored the beach before heading over to north beach.  We sat down at a picnic area to eat lunch near north beach before walking a little of the beach there and then hiking up to the Deception Pass bridge.

Walking out a little on the bridge was quite an experience.  The walkway is not very wide and on one side you have cars driving past and on the other side is the edge of the bridge that drops down a long ways (as you can see in some of the pictures).  Alden was pretty good at holding hands the whole time but it still made me a little nervous.  However, the view from the bridge was beautiful.

After walking on the bridge we hiked back down and then loaded in the car so we could drive across the bridge to the north part of the park.  At this point both of our kids fell asleep in the car (no surprise with the amount of hiking we had Alden do) so we decided to just drive through the north side of the park before heading home.  The north side was also beautiful and I wouldn't mind going back to visit more later but for now we had an awesome trip with lots of fun hiking and playing.

Ours boys in the hotel room as we got ready to go.

Alden ran straight up to throw rocks in the water.

Alden looking for good rocks to throw.  Alden liked bigger rocks, even though he couldn't throw them nearly as far.

Daddy had fun skipping rocks while Alden threw them.

My cute boys together.

Finally! Our first full family picture together since Drew got back that someone else was kind enough to take.

Starting to explore the rocky beach.  Drew and I had to help Alden over or up some of the bigger rocks like this one.

Normal foggy morning on the coast but it was still pretty.

Alden and Daddy exploring the area together!

Alden kept wanting to stop and pick up rocks everywhere he went.

There was this little lake near the beach too.

This was the nice and easy trail hike that we did with Alden.  He kept wanting to stop and "read" all the signs.  It was cute to hear how he interpreted the pictures.

Alden hitting the point of wanting to be done walking...

So he got a Daddy shoulder ride...and Daddy was really confused as to why Alden wanted to hold on to his ears.  I had to explain that that was what Grandpa and Uncle Erik had taught him to do.

Climbing over logs to get back to the beach.

More throwing of rocks.

It was a really pretty beach.

So we decided to climb this giant boulder to see the view from the top.  Alden even made the climb with us.

It was beautiful up there!

This was the picnic area we used near north beach.

When we got to North Beach Drew claimed it was time for his turn with Anders. =)

I love watching Drew interact with his boys.

This was Drew helping Anders to drum or dance, whichever you want to call it.

Here is the video of it.

Behind Drew here, and in the pictures below, you can see the Deception Pass bridge that we proceeded to hike up to and walk out on.

Alden was right back to his normal activity on the beach, throwing rocks into the water.

Alden kept wanting to explore trees and logs as we started hiking up.  Alden wanted to be carried to a little bit but overall he was a good hiker for the steep but short hike.

Anders was perfectly content just being carried by Daddy.

This was the view from the bridge and the other one is just to show how narrow the walkway was and how close the cars were.

It was a very pretty view and Drew even saw a seal down in the water.

There was a very nice lady who took our picture for us on the bridge.  As you can see in the picture, Alden was holding on to me tightly.

This was the view from the north side of Deception Pass State Park.  Although we only drove through the area, it was still fun to see the sights!