Celebrating 9 Years of Marriage at Fort Townsend

We had planned to spend our 9 year wedding anniversary in Eastern Washington near Lake Chelan. As the time approached we looked at the weather and saw the temps would be in the high 90’s all four days we planned to be there. Although we were heading to the lake, this sounded a little miserable in a tent with no shade! So we adjusted our plans and decided to camp at Fort Townsend State Park in Port Townsend. We are no strangers to the Port Townsend area and have had many adventures there. The wooden boat festival is held there annually, fantastic beaches to beach comb, deer everywhere, ferry over to Whidbey Island and lots of historical areas to explore! I can’t think of a better way to spend our anniversary than camping!

This is a small campground but it has nice campsites with good privacy. We camped here last summer and really enjoyed the site we had. Unfortunately with booking so last minute we had to take what was available. It worked out well and we thoroughly enjoyed this lovely site for our four day stay. With the campground being so close we were able to have a lazy morning and take our time getting there. The kids always enjoy helping us get camp set up. Each trip they seem to want to help more and more!

**Odin helping me get all the beds set up.**

**This may be the best picture from the weekend!**

**Odin made this marker so we would remember which trail to take to the bathroom.**

Bikes and Scooters have become essentials for our camping trips! I don’t even know how many times we walked the loop with the kids! Haha! Odin is fairly new to riding his scooter so this was awesome practice for him! He improved so much in the short time we were there!

Odin and Aspen did such an awesome job making cedar wands for us to use as fire starters! You find some cedar and small sticks and then wrap in up in twine or yarn. Let them dry out a bit if you want. You now have yourself a nice fire starter that will smell delightful when burning and also make the fire crackle and pop! They both have told me one of their favorite parts of camping is getting to help Sam build and start the fire. It was exciting for them to use their own fire starters they worked so hard on!

The kids have a much later bedtime than normal while camping. Sam and I put them down for bed and then stay up later sitting around the campfire. We usually seem to get into really deep, good conversations. Because we were there celebrating our anniversary we got into reflecting back on our marriage over these last 9 years. Life has been exciting from day 1 and I so look forward to our future. I feel so incredibly blessed to have Sam as my partner in life. We have built a beautiful life and a marriage we are so proud of!

There are several miles of trails accessible from the campground. We have really grown to appreciate the easy trail head access. It is so nice to not have to drive to get to the trail. Whether you want a beach hike or a forest hike, there is a trail here for you! The beach trail is short and easy. You are rewarded with a beautiful beach at the end, views of the ferries crossing from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island and views of Mount Rainier!

The old growth forest here is just so beautiful to hike through. We hiked a few miles out to an old Torpedo Tower used in WW II! It was pretty cool! This area is just filled with so many historical sites!

It was pretty windy the first night we were there. So it wasn’t surprising to see a newly fallen tree on the trail!

Fort Worden State Park is about a 10 minute drive from Fort Townsend. We decided to head to the beach there and spend some time exploring the gun batteries. We also spent a day in Port Angeles (more to come on that in the next post).