Fort Vancouver

We decided to take a day trip down to Vancouver, WA to visit Fort Vancouver and the area around it.   The fort was small but still fun to visit and Alden had fun exploring and seeing all the canons that they had on display at the fort.  We also had fun walking past old barracks and along officers row.  We really enjoyed getting to walk through one of the houses on officers row that was really nice. You could walk through the Marshall house which was built for the commander of Fort Vancouver in the late 1800s.  I love walking through older houses like that and thinking how much I would love to have that much space for things like a huge library, dining room and game room but at the same time I appreciate not having to clean all that space right now.

We were a little disappointed in the experience because they advertised Civil War reenactment demonstrations happening the day we went but they advertised that from 10-3. However, it ended up that they weren't starting until 1 and so by getting there at 10 we had seen everything and were ready to move on a little before 1.  Therefore, we missed the demonstrations.  It was a little unfortunate but we still had a good day and enjoyed what we did see.

This big building was locked up but Alden had to try opening the doors to see if he could get inside.

The reconstructed fort is not very big and there are not a ton of buildings there but it does give you a good idea of what it would have been like.  It was fun seeing everything, including the walls, built out of logs and wood.

This was up at the top of the tower.  This was Alden's favorite spot because there were a bunch of cannons that he could pretend to shoot off.

Drew had fun looking around the top of the tower with Anders too.

Alden saw this canon out in the middle of the grass area at the fort and wanted to run all the way over to it so he could pretend to shoot it off.

Alden really liked the counting house at the fort where there were hands-on activities for him to look at and try out.

Alden liked spinning the tube around and seeing what he could find.

These were some of the old barracks that you could walk around.

Alden walking aorund and enjoying running around near the parade field.

This was inside the Marshall House.

I love this dining room with the chandelier and bay windows.

Drew and I both like the idea of having a parlor or game room with lots of game playing surfaces.

This was the study in the Marshall House which we sometimes think would be nice to have too.

It is a really beautiful house!

We also stopped at a point near the Columbia River before heading over to Drew's cousin's house for the evening.  It actually smelled pretty bad where we stopped so we didn't stay very long and we stayed back from the water.

We did get to see this heron fly right over the water and land near us which was neat.  Overall we had a good day and it was nice spending time together as a family.