WarmShowers at its best with Darren and Cyndi

Darren and Cyndi live in an amazing house that used to be a Police Station, Fire Station, Law Courts, Council Offices and they bought it cheap and turned it into a cafe and their home. The judges seat is where they serve from and the witness box holds the coffee machine. They were super friendly and we had a great time there camped on their lawn, barbecued in the old police station, Leo got to pretend to drive an old council vehicle, and we got brilliant sandwiches and coffee for breakfast. Good to talk to, nice people with an interesting plan.

The Sherwood forest gathering

Leo wandering in the shallow tidal channel
While camping on the shore of Lake Quillan we met Dagmar and Scott who invited us to a gathering of friends in the quirkily named Sherwood Forest on the Long Beach peninsula. It involved a detour but was SO worth it. Communal cooking, campfires, music, fireworks for July 4th and lots of child friendly activities.. sandpit, swings, pirate ship.....and a brilliant tidal beach sheltered from the customary winds of this area.

Food was announced with the ring of a bell and the pizza oven was put to good use. There were rope swings in the forest and the chickens and dogs proved a real hit with Leo, as did all the friendly people.

Jelly fish collecting

We love Leo's desire to collect stuff he finds, but old washed up Jelly Fish weren't exactly our favourite thing. He kept asking us to hold them!

Yuck!

Big trees and big foot

Everywhere we go there are big trees.

And big foot

The coast

 Wild, windswept beaches with huge numbers of driftwood logs. Amazingly beautiful and atmospheric.

Leo loved it

The Spruce Railroad Trail

This was fun. A railroad trail at each end with a single track path for 4 miles in the middle. Great swimming, lots of pushing and 'a really great path papa' according to Leo who sat in the back helping by doing his 'push' face.

A return WarmShowers

In summer 2014 we hosted Eric, an American guy who stayed with us for a few days and entertained Leo quite successfully. When we knew we were flying to Seattle we realised that Eric might know stuff about getting to the ferry from the airport so we got in touch. Amazingly he offered to pick us up from the airport and host us for a couple of nights so that we could get over our jetlag.

When we arrived, his wife Loretta and his daughters Sophie, Lucy and Maria made us feel very welcome despite us throwing the girls out of their she-shed in the basement. We recovered, had a trip to REI and then rather wonderfully Eric rode us into Settle down the amazing network of trails that linked Bellevue with the city centre. We had a great day especially because most of the journey was downhill although I suspect Eric had a harder time getting home.