Shi Shi Beach

Memorial-day weekend Bob, Joy, John, Jenny and I hit up the Olympic Peninsula for some beach camping.

Three months later, I uploaded the pictures:

It's a short hike, but when we got there a ranger hassled us about not having a bear barrel. (He also carded us because we brought wine.) John volunteered to go back to town and get one as long as someone came with him, so we did the hike three times that day. We're basically world-experts on the Shi Shi Beach trail now. (It's pronounced shy shy.)

So that was an important lesson, bring something to keep out bears, like this fine TrueValue paint bucket, pictured here.

I think the bucket would have slowed the bear down by maybe two minutes, but it seemed to make the ranger happy.

The other thing we learned was that Bob hasn't figured out s'mores yet:Hang in there, buddy!

On our way out we went to Cape Flattery, one of the Northwesternmost points of the continental U.S. It's about a 10-minute "hike," and very pretty. If you're in the neighborhood, definitely check it out.