Cushman

A couple posts back, I mentioned this magical place my family would occasionally (almost yearly) vacation where we'd regularly see adorable raccoons out and about.  We would stay at my dad's cousin's cabin on Lake Cushman, nestled in the Olympic National Forest in Washington State.  Growing up, this was my favorite vacation spot.

The four of us usually drove up to stay for a few days, sometimes a week.  The cabin sleeps 10 (three rooms with doubles or queens, one room with two sets of bunk beds), so we usually invited our cousins to join us since they lived reasonably close.  I loved being there with just my parents and sister, but I loved even more having my cousins join us.  Our days were filled with hikes at Staircase Park, lounging on the cabin's dock, playing in the water until we were shivering uncontrollably, playing board games, and gazing at the millions of stars.  I remember trying to count all of the stars in the sky one night, and I gave up after maybe 30 because it was hard to tell which ones I counted and which ones I hadn't yet.  It was too tedious a task, and kids just don't have that kind of patience!

My cousin Amy and I loved to use the paddle boat to putz around the lake.  Usually we stayed in our little cove, but occasionally we ventured over to boat ramp at the park down the shore.  One time we tried to paddle our way across the lake.  I don't think we even made it half way before we got too tired and turned around to start the long journey back.  In retrospect, that was not the best idea we've ever had considering there are often motorboats on the lake, pulling people on skis and tubes behind them.  Being a small, slow, human-powered vessel can be dangerous around fast powerful boats like that.  It must've been a weekday that we attempted our crossing since there was hardly anyone on the water.

I regularly reminisce about all the fun times my family has had at the cabin and to this day it is still one of my favorite vacation spots.  It had been several years since I'd last been up there, so I was thrilled when my parents suggested we go this past July.  Unfortunately, it was only my parents, me and Nick; my sister and her husband weren't able to join us this time.  Sadly the paddle boat was stolen and never recovered, so we didn't get to use it.  But it was still a great time with lots of relaxation.  We did all the usual activities, from hiking to relaxing on the water to playing games.

We had some beautiful sunsets during our stay at the lake.

These clouds started out yellow, faded to gray, then
became a brilliant orange which turned magenta
before completely fading to darkness.

These birds liked to just sit on docks along the water and soak up sun with
their mouths hanging open.

 

This woodpecker was quite busy.  Wish I had a better telephoto lens to get
closer to the little guy.

We floated on the lake a lot.

Look at the color of the water!  For scale, the boulder right in front of the
little waterfall on the left is probably 10 feet wide.

The Big Dipper

The Moon with Venus (I think...?), shortly after sunset

This is one of my favorite photos.  It was my first time seeing the Milky Way
(smudgy strip of stars toward the left) AND I think I captured a shooting
star (streak that goes from nothing to fat to nothing, in the upper middle)

The Milky Way again, for good measure.