in a perfect world of yancies

08 September 2015

Marmots and More!

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More fun and more marmots this year as we did another week of marmot monitoring in Olympic National Park. Such a cool program.

Many of the specifics about the survey areas, campsite, etc., are the same as last year, so feel free to take a look at that post. If you do, please join me in being amazed at how much Franklin has grown! Totally legitimate big kid now!


Tuesday
We set out first thing. Well, at noon, when we were finally packed. But we were ready to monitor some marmots!
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Found a nice campsite.
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Turned out it rained that night. Actually it rained almost every night... But our tent kept us nice and dry, so it all worked out.


Wednesday
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Did the training Wednesday. We'd seen most of it before, but it's a nice reminder.

And speaking of nice, they even did their best to get a shirt small enough for Franklin:
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Not quite his size, but a nice gesture.

Now just to be clear, we took a ton of photos and videos. There are a lot in this post, but if you want a too see even more, or see them all together without all these words, here you go:

Also all in one Flickr album.

Pretty chilly the first couple of days, but we stayed warm:
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Decided that cooking dinner outside in the rain was okay once but not twice, so went into Port Angeles for dinner:
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And picked up some reading (and coloring) material:
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Thursday
Rainy and cold at our campsite. But up on Hurricane Ridge?
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Yep.

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A friendly ranger suggested driving over to the Sol Duc area. And we were happy to run into one of Franklin's classmates there!
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Also saw some absolutely amazing salmon trying to work their way up the river:
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These photos and videos aren't half as amazing as seeing it live, but at least a nice reminder...

You can read a little more about the Sol Duc Salmon Cascades here.

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The ranger also suggested taking a look at the Elwah Restoration. That link has great stuff by the way, including background info, interactive graphics, and live webcams.

Anyway, it was amazing to see the changes at the site of the former Glines Canyon Dam and former Lake Mills:
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Couldn't stay away from our rainy campsite forever. Luckily Franklin was great about the whole experience:
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I mean really, his willingness to happily eat his dinner while standing in the rain made the whole thing pretty fun:
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Friday
Finally the weather turned and we could look for marmots:
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Found one pretty easily too, right off of the Wolf Creek Trail:
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See him?

How about here:
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So cool to hike with this guy:
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And we were happy to see that a dry campsite can be fun too!
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Saturday
Did some serious off trail hiking near Steeple Rock. Franklin was awesome.
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No marmots, but plenty of fun and beautiful scenery.

But what about Klahhane Ridge, you ask? How about four marmots sitting out in the sun! Woo!
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Sunday
One last morning in camp:
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Can you spot the ball he'd just thrown?

Not a bad way to end a trip:
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Well, that's all. Hooray for Emily, hooray for Franklin, and hooray for the Olympic marmot!

03 August 2015

I Don't Care if I Never Get Back

We had an awesome time at the Mariners game last weekend with Franklin and eight of his friends from daycare.
Tod 2 Mariners Game
(Click the arrow to see all the photos. Or take a look at the full album here.)

Took a lot of planning, but I'm so glad it all worked out!

We even got to see a strange and rare triple play. And the Mariners won with a walk-off home run in the tenth inning by Franklin (!) Gutiérrez.

Game highlights here:


Speaking of highlights, this summer has been so full I just can't keep up on the blog... but here are some places to look for more photos:

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yancy9a/

Emily's Instagram: https://instagram.com/emily.dominick

Yancy's Instagram: https://instagram.com/yancy9/

Can't resist re-posting a little from there. Awesome running into Franklin's friend Beckham at the wading pool:

Best place to run into friends! #splash #ilovesummer

A video posted by Yancy Hughes Dominick (@yancy9) on



And here's something I haven't posted anywhere else yet:
Pizza Lollipop!
Post haircut treat... pizza-flavored lollipop! (!?!?)

22 July 2015

Summer Cycling

Not sure if you noticed this photo, but the West Seattle 4th of July Children's Parade really changed Franklin's life. He's had a bike for a few months now, but was never especially interested in it... until his friend Pax rode the same kind of bike in the parade. Now this is an almost daily site in our Alaska Junction neighborhood:


In fact, here he is getting started later in the day on July 4th:

Happy 4th of July, happy bike ride!

A video posted by Yancy Hughes Dominick (@yancy9) on



It's a balance bike, apparently the new cool way to learn to ride. And he really is learning—here he is just one week after the 4th, touring through the West Seattle Summerfest:


All right reader, ride on!

22 June 2015

Great Start to Our Summer

Hot Dogs!
Hooray—it's summer! That means time for camping, hiking... and enough free time to write a blog post!

It's been a while, so let me just say that there's a lot we're skipping: Emily got a new job! Woo! And we've had all kinds of sports fun: mini-golf, another Sounders game, even a super fun Mariners game with some of Franklin's friends from school.

But now... camping! Made sure the new tent was ready to go:
Well, the new tent works! Mt. Rainier here we come! #firstcampingtripoftheyear #firstweekendofsummer #thisthingbarelyfitsinourlivingroom

Stayed in Ohanapecosh, in Mt. Rainier National Park. Great area, beautiful river, and all kinds of trails:
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On the Ohanapecosh Hot Springs Trail.

Set up camp in the Ohanapecosh campground:
Ohanapecosh Campsite

I loved how excited Franklin was about going, and about being there. "Dad, I love camping!" :)

Also made a point of telling his teachers and friends at school.

You know what, speaking of his school, let me also just mention that his school is the subject of a documentary that's raising money for editing, etc. (trailer here: https://youtu.be/6K3H2VqQKcc). Somehow that story made it to an ABC News blog post, and then from there it was off. The Today Show even came to the school to film a segment! Very cool.

Anyway...

Did the 3-mile loop hike up to Silver Falls:
Silver Falls Selfie
I just want to add that according to my pedometer I walked like eight miles on Saturday, and Franklin must have walked close to five. Quite a kid.

He was pretty ready to get back to camp, though, and can you blame him?
Roasting Hot Dogs
(Veggie dogs, because my ethics class has pretty much ruined meat for me...)

Roasting Giant Marshmallows

Next day we enjoyed a beautiful hike on the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail:
Under Trees, Grove of the Patriarchs Trail

Fun bridge too:
Bridge, Grove of the Patriarchs Trail
Closeup here: https://flic.kr/p/uKrLbU.

Speaking of, there are even more pictures from the weekend trip in this album: https://flic.kr/s/aHskeH6A5i. And all kinds of pictures of things I've skipped online. Other stuff on the Flickr feed: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yancy9a/.
And of course there's also Emily's Instagram feed: https://instagram.com/emily.dominick, and Yancy's Instagram feed: https://instagram.com/yancy9/

Meanwhile, Franklin's almost too busy to photograph:
Fast Franklin & Twin Douglas Firs

Though he liked the way the steps made a little stage, so he had us sit down and tell stories for Emily:
Story Time by the Twin Douglas Firs
(Yes, if you're wondering, Franklin wore the same outfit both days...)

Beautiful Light on the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail

Little rest before we check out the views of the mountaintop and wildflowers at Paradise:
Sleeping

Okay, on to the flowers and peaks:
Mt. Rainier June 2015 2

We didn't see any elk on this trip, but Franklin picked out this stuffed animal at the gift shop:
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"Dad, I love my elk!"

One last hike, the Nisqually Vista Loop . Like I said, we didn't see any elk, but we did share the trail with this cutie for a minute or two:
Marmot!
The excellently named hoary marmot.

Emily & Mt. Rainier

All right reader, hope your summer's off to a great start too!
Franklin & Emily on the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail