A perfect summer day...

This past Friday, June 26th, I met up with some members of my family to go on a fabulous summer outing! I had asked my brother a few weeks ago if he would take us to Blake Island on his boat to spend the day and cook foil dinners to eat for supper. He graciously agreed and we picked one of the few Fridays that we were all available. After many cloudy, cold, and rainy days in a row, we woke up to an incredible, sunny day on the 26th! How lucky were we?! However, in addition to it being a beautiful day, it also had one of the lowest tides on record for the season. So, after my mom, sis-in-law Rebs and her two kids, Chris and his four children, and Lia and I met up at the boat launch in Manchester, we discovered that we couldn't launch the boat because the tide was soooo low! Whoopsies. So, we ended up spending THREE HOURS at the beach by the launch before hopping in the boat and heading over. But, amazingly enough, it went really quickly for all of us. The children were absolutely fascinated by all of the sea life that were exposed due the low tide and enjoyed beach combing for hours. On the other hand, Lia, discovered a new past time of playing in the sand. We situated her between two logs on the beach and she busied herself for seriously two entire hours while pouring sand in and taking it out of a pail with a little shovel. It was unreal....especially considering the fact that she never tried to eat any of it once! What a little angel she is! At about 5 pm, the water line was finally high enough, so we launched the boat and headed over to Blake Island. We then spent three wonderful hours over there. The Puget Sound was glass, the sun was sparkling off the water, the temperature was perfect, and the beach was barely populated with campers. It was simply one of those days that I never wanted to end. After playing on the beach and eating our foil dinners and banana boats made over the fire, we sadly packed up and headed back in order to catch the 8:30 pm ferry back to West Seattle. Thank you, Tip, for a perfect summer day!

A view of the Seattle skyline and Blake Island from the boat launch.

This photo shows how low the tide was when I first arrived at the boat launch. By the time we got back at 8 pm, the water was probably 15-20 feet deep at the end of the pier.

My brother (the once-aspiring-marine-biologist-turned-dentist) combing the unusually low waters off of the dock. He found many large rock and spider crabs that drew in a local crowd and helped to pass the time.

Lia sitting in her "log chair" working on her multi-hour sand project! Very important business.

The above photos display the funniest thing that happened all day! My 2-year old nephew, Riley, found a cozy place to settle into during low tide: the muck at the edge of the water. Seeing as though it was two hours past his nap time, he laid down there and splashed in the stream that was flowing under him for quite some time before actually FALLING ASLEEP! I kid you not! The poor, little thing. However, things really got funny when the water line slowly started approaching him as the tide was rising. He actually managed to sleep through the salt water coming and going under his face for several minutes before my brother picked him up and moved him to higher and drier ground. Oh, to have the sleeping abilities of a two-year old again!

Lia, me, and the wind on the boat ride over to Blake Island.

Lia and her older cousin, Brynn, playing in the sand at Blake Island. What a beautiful day!

Some cousin fun on the left and mommy and daughter on the right before heading back home.