Catching Crabs With Crew

It's August, which means it's time to go crabbing. This year we were able to take Crew crabbing for his first time. Every year we travel to the same area, Tillamook, Oregon. Devin's brother lives nearby so we stopped first at their place for a quick visit.

Then we were off to the coast.

Crabbing is usually entertainment enough but who couldn't use some catchy tunes from Crew and his harmonica.

We teamed up with my sister Cheri and part of her family. Devin and her husband always make a great team and with their daughter, Kaitlyn, Crew had a partner to be scared of the crabs with.

What's in his hand you might ask? That is the end of the pull cord that is used when starting the engine of a boat. Our engine had been stalling all morning and at one point I, the driver, couldn't get it started again. Devin tried to help me but he too couldn't get it started. Then we thought maybe Tony would have what it takes to start up our engine and it ended up being he had a little too much of it. He pulled the handle from the engine and with no way of starting the boat, we were drifting fast to nowhere. When the kids heard that our boat had broken they both burst into tears and Crew cried, "I'm too young to die!"

Crew wouldn't touch a single crabs but he did help pull up the rings.

We always stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory after crabbing. Their fresh cheese and ice cream is the BEST.

And as always, for dinner that night we feast on what we caught.

School is Now in Session

As we were getting Crew dressed for his first day of preschool I pulled out a new button up shirt for him to wear. His reply was, "Mom I don't want to wear that, it's not COOL! Can I wear my Batman shirt?" With a sigh to myself and the thought that this is the last shirt I wanted him to wear, I said, "Of course!" Anything to make him feel more comfortable and confident. Then I told him to just throw on his flip flops. But a few minutes later he came into the room carrying his black Nike sneakers (which also are not my favorite) and he said, "I'm going to wear these shoes, I need to be all black." Aaaannd even though it was over 80 degrees outside he insisted on wearing his new hoodie cause it too was "cool."

Finley gets so lonely while Crew's at school. She asks me nonstop for 3 hours if it's time to pick him up.

Mt. Whitney Summit

Mount Whitney is located in the Sierra Nevada Range in the John Muir Wilderness and Sequoia National Park east of the town Lone Pine, CA. Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet. The hike is 22 miles round trip.

We had heard about this hike a few months ago and were immediately interested in accomplishing it. So, I set out to do some research and came to find that you have to apply for a permit. Then they have a lottery to determine who gets to hike and when. They only allow 100 hikers a day on the mountain. And they were completely booked for the rest of the season. Being that we missed the deadline to apply for a permit, our only way to hike would be to call everyday and see when a cancellation opened up. So that's what I did. We had had no luck for a couple of weeks then on Thursday morning I made the call again. Finally, they had some openings for Friday and this was our chance. With little preparation we threw stuff together and drove 3 hours to get our permit and were ready to hike the next day.

This was our first view of the mountain, (the highest peak in the middle of the picture). It took my breath away when I saw it. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Most people take 2-3 days to hike this mountain and we had to knock it out in 1.

With less than 2 hours of sleep we set out to start our hike at 2:30 a.m.

The sun was beginning to rise and we were taken away by how beautiful our surroundings were. Then the altitude sickness set in. Fortunately we were able to fight through it and our bodies adjusted quickly.

Shortly after sunrise we reached trail camp. At this point we were half way to the top. Overnight campers were just waking up and getting ready to continue their hike.

The mountains in the background on the left is where we were headed.

This section of the trail is called 99 switchbacks. Talk about feeling the burn.

The 99 switchbacks were over but we still had a long way to go. The trail camp is where that little lake is in the middle.

And this was the incredible view on the other side.

We reached the summit at 11 a.m. We were beyond exhausted but the view and feeling made it all worth it. There is nothing like feeling like you are on top of the world with a view at every turn.

The backs of those mountains is where we had just come from.

Shelter at the top.

Sign in book.

After about 20 minutes at the summit we started our descent. We had to look back at every chance we got to see what we had just done. Can you see the black dot of hikers in the middle of the picture?

Also, in the middle of this picture is the shelter.

One last look at our mountain after climbing down. It was mind blowing to think that within a couple of hours we had just been up there.

We had crossed behind that entire mountain range that is in the background.

Heading back down the mountain we were able to see what we missed while hiking up in the dark. The most beautiful views I have ever seen.

We reached our car again around 4 p.m. Words can't describe the pain and exhaustion that was felt but every bit of it was worth the experience. I have a whole new respect for mountains and the beauty that is within them.