China Poot Party

The Duffy family traveled to China Poot Bay upon request of the newly ten year old for a long weekend on the water. We were happy to oblige her request and celebrate all the awesomeness the Maren is. After a 20 minute water taxi ride, we arrived at the yurt on the lagoon in a quiet bay.  Quicker than you can turn ten, Maren jumped into the natural world. 

Water seemed to be the ten year old birthday theme. She immediately began collecting specimens of flounder, bullhead, sticklebacks and snails.  Then she hopped into the kayak looked back at us over here shoulder and shouted, " I'm ten! I'm a tweenager!" And she paddled away.

The birthday celebration continued with a  six pound bag of gummy bears. Sadie was happy to assist.

After roasting hotdogs on a stick ( Maren's birthday dinner request), we pigged out on homemade cupcakes.

The drizzle didn't deter the gummy bear cupcake sugar rush.

We had the bay to ourselves except for the harbor seals that fed on the pink salmon as well as the sea otters. We listened to the eagles nesting around us and even heard and saw a peregrine falcon who had a nest just above our beach camp. We watched the black bear come down to the shore each low tide and were lucky enough to see a black bear sow with two cubs.

We did short paddles around the bay in the kayaks...(The water knocks Sadie out!)

and longer day paddles over to the creek...

...and we explored smaller bays and coves in the area.

The trail to Halibut Cove was strewn with currants, blueberries and salmonberries and where there are berries, there is bear poop! We gathered bags of berries for China Poot jelly.

The girls built their own fires.

Four full days of outdoor family time. There is nothing better. The only time we spent in the yurt was to sleep.  We set up a beach camp and had a constant fire complete with chairs and good beer. We sat, caught fish, collected things on the beach, sat, napped, explored at low tide, sat and ate all our meals by the fire. Everything tastes good and we all felt very relaxed.

 We celebrated our last night by welcoming the next day with sparklers.

Maren flew her Phoenix kite and shed tears when we had to leave.

It was a wonderful getaway for our family.  A chunk of time, the great outdoors and the people you love are the perfect combination.