Ft. Simcoe

On Wednesday most of our staff took a road trip up to Mt. Rainier for a hike but our family decided not to go on such a long trip for the day and instead drove just down the road a ways to Ft. Simcoe, a nearby state park.  It is a beautiful park with towering oak trees, some original buildings and some restored buildings from mid 1800's.  We packed a picnic lunch (well, Jesse packed it for us this time, bless his heart), and spread a blanket out in the shade to eat.  Afterward we walked through the park to see a little spring called Mool Mool - Jesse thought he heard that Native American tribes used to gather here at this spring since it was a convergence of trails. We walked through the buildings which have period furniture and clothes in rooms that you can view through a glass door (and, revealing my nerdy-ness, it brought back so many fond memories of the days when I participated in living history reenactments for the 1850s in high school... but I digress).  Then the girls got to play for a little bit on a playground but it was really too hot to do much of that.  

It was a really relaxing and enjoyable family day with very little work on my part which was nice.  I have been tired this week, getting to bed too late, I suppose, and up too early.  

On a side note, does anyone know what the insect pictured above, the one in the tree branch, is?  It looked like a dragonfly but with a furry body and it definitely caught a bee mid-air right above me and settled on this branch for its lunch.