Snail Spirals

Another weekend away, this time back in Washington State. Shaun and a couple friends did the Black Diamond Triathlon in Enumclaw. (It was too bad, Kris, that we were in Enumclaw just a month or so after you left!) Shaun did the Sprint Triathlon (shorter distances), and his friends did the Half-Ironman triathlon (longer distances).

We camped at the Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, beside the Green River, and the race start/finish was a couple miles down the road at Nolte State Park, which had Deep Lake for the swim leg of the race.

The Green River is so beautiful. On Saturday, during the long race, Emma and I went back to the campground and went for a walk along the river. I take my hat off to people who have the desire and ability to do long distance triathlons, but sitting around for 5-6 hours while they're on the course? Not so much my cup of tea. Shaun's Sprint Tri on Sunday wasn't so bad because it's only a couple hours.

There's a nice trail along the Green River at the campground, and after a little initial grumpiness and whining ("I don't want to have an adventure, Mama!") we had a really fun time.



She liked clambering around the rocks at the edge of the water, and looking for slugs in the woods.



The girl is obsessed with finding slugs. She's not into picking them up like she was when she was two years old, but she loves to hunt for them.

(As an aside, I look at those two pictures up there, and I wonder how she can possibly have gotten that tall... It's like she turned into a big girl when I wasn't looking.)



After our walk, we moseyed back to Nolte State Park to see the end of the race. Our friends did great- one won first in her age group. Emma's favorite part of the race? The oranges that were part of the participant's after-race meal. She was well-supplied by our friends.



It was a fun weekend, but a lot of driving for just a weekend.