Are We There Yet?

Just got back last night from our annual camping trip to Orcas Island in the San Juans. Getting there involves two hours of driving, an hour ferry ride, and what turned out to be a four hour wait for the ferry because the first one we tried for was full.

It started off pleasantly enough when Ruthie realized we were taking a ferry to our destination, and she started hollering, “WHERE’S OUR LIFE JACKETS? WHERE’S OUR LIFE JACKETS?”

Thank you, Dora. So much.

But we missed the first ferry and it was a three hour wait until the next one, which turned into a four hour wait because it was late, and you’d think with waits like that there would be something to do to pass the time – but there is really. nothing. to do. (stupid, state-run ferry). Well, there were some rugged, death defying paths down a steep embankment to the beach, but I was wearing my pretty sandals instead of my functional sandals, so there was no way I was getting down there without breaking my neck or getting the worst ‘rug burn’ on my ass that is humanly possible.

So we wandered around for a couple hours until Bryan finally decided it was worth it to pull Ruthie’s tricycle out of the car. And after dragging her around the hot pavement for an hour we decided that tricycles SUCK because you can’t get any leverage with the pedals directly on the front wheel.

Then after awhile we all smooshed into the front seat of the car to keep everyone contained without having to do any actually running, and I decided it was a good idea to hand out fruit leathers, which resulted in very sticky fingers in a very crowded and enclosed space.

Sticky hands on a son who uses your boobs as handles to pull himself up – the aftermath can be disturbing to the random passerby.

So when you add an extra three hours to your travel time that happens to extend over the dinner hour, and your husband missed his nap time, and your three year old is being extremely high maintenance with the running into traffic thing … it makes for a long day.

But we survived, albeit with a little time shaved off the end of my life.

On the way home we were hoping to catch the 1:30 ferry from Orcas Island, but it was filled up long before we even left our camp site because all the morning ferries were full and spilling over. BAH. We then had to wait for the 4:20 ferry, which was delayed on Shaw Island for an extra forty-five minutes due to a “passenger situation.”

At least on the return trip we were waiting with friends who also had toddlers, so they spent four hours filling empty water bottles with gravel, eating grass, and generally nitpicking each other – but at lease they left us out of it.

Oh, did I mention that there were NINE preschoolers and toddlers in our group? And that NONE of them had a nap because we were sitting in the dead grass waiting for the ferry all afternoon? Well, none of them except for Thomas.

It was fun to be with friends, and the group thing helped relieve the stress, and Ruthie ONLY ran away from us twice that afternoon. That’s a record for her.