Wenatchee: Mosquitoes, Wind, and Fun

I made reservations in January for our July camping trip at Lake Wenatchee.  In January it was pretty much impossible to know that come July we would be under a burn ban at the state parks. Our recent heat wave did nothing to help drought conditions and so we found ourselves at the park without the ability to have a campfire. 

Ben was questioning our parenting decisions at this point.

Even without a campfire we managed to have fun though. We'd been told that our campground had a trail that led to beach only accessible from the campground. Translation: never crowded. And it was supposed to be my kind of beach: rocks and logs to climb over and around.  We had extra time on our first night (ok, mostly because we didn't have to make a fire) so we took a walk down to do a preliminary inspection.

However, we didn't find it the first night. We found the river and lots and LOTS of MOSQUITOES.  

That is a thing. We heard and read that it was going to be a thing. And that was all true. We actually bought a device at REI in the hopes that it would help, which it did! But once you got about 20 feet away it, they attacked. We learned our lesson the first night and spent the rest of the time either near the Thermacell or covered in picaridin. 

Thursday morning we explored the campground and found a playground.  I should probably mention now that we only had two minions with us on this trip. Josh and Michael are attending summer school (nothing academic! but they had to be out of the house for some of the summer) so couldn't come. This definitely changed the dynamic some. Packing the car was definitely easier. In any case, we probably spent more time at the playground than we would have seeing as how it was interesting to 50% rather than 25% of the kids.

Covered in picaridin, we ventured out to find the beach. We were successful and not disappointed.

As we stood on the beach, however, we could see across the water to another beach. We just had to go check that one out as well. 

The other campground has a beach that can be a day use beach. It looked sandy. But, it was not. More gravelly. So the big bag of sand toys wasn't all that useful, but Jason and the boys had a great time in the water with the innertubes. 

We were also warned that it was windy at Wenatchee. And that was also true. After a while, the boys felt quite chilly from being wet in the wind, so we went to the camp store to get some ice cream. That seemed to help...their spirits, if nothing else.

Ben and I visited the first beach again in the evening to see if we still liked it better. We did.

Isaac is perfecting the monster Oreo and works on this on camping trips - usually the only time he gets to eat a lot of Oreos at once.

Two beaches, one hike, four Oreos - this kid was OUT

Funny story. It turns out that if you spray yourself with bug spray, sunblock, and then again with bug spray your skin will get very sticky. We don't normally shower when we camp (sorry TMI) but Jason and I were just too sticky at the end of this day to get in our sleeping bags. We scavenged around the van and my bags to find enough quarters to work the camp showers. Having not planned to shower, we ended up using dish soap since we had no soap with us. We had 4 1/2 minutes for both us to shower and when we got back to the tent, Isaac was out cold. 

Friday we drove to Leavenworth. We had a rafting trip scheduled for the afternoon, so we wandered around Waterfront Park, the Wenatchee River, and downtown in the morning. 

Leavenworth is lovely and I would definitely enjoy a return visit. But now it was time to head out on the water. The river trip was gorgeous. Water levels on the Icicle River were low (one of the boats got stuck), but the scenery was amazing.

This was the family rafting trip, so the water was calm enough that we could hop out of the raft at several points of the trip. I was shocked when Isaac piped up and begged to get and in the water. He told us it was cold, but got out several times during the trip.

Our awesome guide Ruth was equal parts knowledgeable, encouraging, and fun. 

I don't think the boys fully bought into the idea that this would be fun when I told them about it, but they had a blast and now Ben really wants to know when we can go back so he can try white water rafting.

No camping trip is complete without Ben foraging. This campsite had huckleberries, but sadly they weren't fully ripened. That didn't stop Ben from trying a few, of course.

Saturday morning came bright and sunny which meant that we could pack up our tent and gear without having to dry everything off. It's been OVER A YEAR. Last year everything was sopping wet every time. Packing up dry camping gear is a breeze by comparison. With the car loaded, we hiked down to the beach again.

Then we had to bid a fond farewell to Lake Wenatchee. I'm pretty sure we'll be back.