Twin Sisters

On the "way home" from Walla Walla on April 4th, we went to the Twin Sisters--a true Columbia River gem tucked away along the river near the Oregon border. We first fell in love with the place in all its scrubby, windswept glory six years ago, and it never gets old. The day was waning and we had already gone to three parks, gone on a hike, and run several miles back in Walla Walla. But we were only a couple of miles away from the sisters, so we went for it, disregarding how tired we were after our 7 previous hours out and about. Amber fell asleep in the car on the way to the Twin Sisters. Noble Jeff (who, incidentally, was feeling his seven-mile trail run from earlier that day) sat in the car with the snoozing Amber while Jay, Rose, and I went forth to play.

It was nature exploration extravaganza, part two--the late afternoon edition.

Looking down at the parking area from up high on the trail. The short trail goes up, up, and over, descending into a sandy valley behind the Twin Sisters. 

 Running up and down steep sand dune hills--always a favorite.

Jumping down the steep sand hills--another fave. 

 The sand is so soft!

Jay declined participation in our toe-photo. He said "that's a girl picture." 

Rose built a model of the Twin Sisters out of sand, then began looking for two rocks to put on top of it.

 After watching the kids play in the sand for a while, I realized that I hadn't explored past the sandy area in years! So I put on my shoes and went for a walk. I went up the other side of the sand-bowl, and the place was bigger than I remembered. That tiny black speck in the middle of the sand on the left of this picture is Jay.

 Full-zoom shot from on high. I had to scramble on hands and knees to get up the steep sandy rim, but when I made it to the top onto a grassy plateau, the view was amazing. 

It does not look that big unless you have a person to show the scale! 

Zoomed in--those basalt pillars sure look nifty. 

 View from up top--I tried to get a bit of the rocky ledge to show the dimension of the place, because at first glance it just looks like a slight grassy hill over to the pillars. It's actually a ruggedly steep long climb!

Rose scrambled up to join me--she's the pink and blue speck, dead center. Jay is the black speck waaay back in the sand. 

 I had to coach her through the sandy scramble--she kept sliding back down. Our Keens were packed with sand after this climb.

 Victory! Top 'o the world! You can't even see the sheer dropoff right behind her in this picture. I've never seen this place so green in six years. All that green grass blends together.

Rose-pose. She found the rocks for her Twin Sisters sculpture and carefully carried them back down to the sand. 

 At last Jay decided to give the scramble a try. Rose probably told him how awesome it was when she descended.

 Jay victorious!

 We wanted to stay and explore these big rocks, but our realtor called and asked to show our house that evening, so we had to skedaddle home.

 Rose's finished magnum opus.

We arrived home a scant 20 minutes before the realtor was due. Jeff and I dropped the kids off at Grampa Dan's house and dashed up the street home to do a whirlwind hide-the-stuff cleanup. Jeff took the basement, and I took the upstairs, and we met in the kitchen. We crammed the dirty dishes into the warming drawer under the oven and sprinted out of there, slowing to a walk when we hit the street. We walked hand in hand back to the kids, laughing to ourselves over our latest inside joke: "as long as they don't look in the warming drawer!" That day had a little bit of everything.