Lucas Camilo

Last week was Lucas’s school’s spring break.  Since we’ve been admiring the snow-capped Olympic mountains all winter – or at least on those awesome days when the clouds lift – we figured we’d head out to the peninsula to gawk at them from even closer range.  So we rented a cottage in Sequim, and last Monday took the ferry to Bainbridge and drove west.

Sequim is not a major tourist destination (and the “e” is silent, for those of you not from these parts).  But it is conveniently located right on the water and not too far from Hurricane Ridge, one of the most stunning and jagged sections of the Olympics.  And we had heard about a few accessible hikes near there, so we decided to give it a try.

It turned out to be all we had hoped for – paved trails in beautiful places – and then some. We hiked to an impressive waterfall just inside the Olympic National Park.  There was the Elwha River, which Lucas will tell you about, starting with the bald eagle that flew right over our head.  We saw deer and hiked along the bluffs over the ocean (wheel chair, suction machine, vent and all), and then found a welcoming raw-milk dairy with some newborn calves for Lucas to pet and feed.

It’s hard to describe exactly what made this trip so great.  Lucas was in a good mood.  We didn’t have to drive far, so we all weren’t exhausted from the trip.  We’ve gotten better at describing what we need.  For example, we don’t need ADA-accessible lodging (because a lot of those standards are for spaciousness and handlebars in bathrooms, which do not apply to a diaper-wearer).  With a push wheelchair we can even navigate up a couple shallow stairs, which we’re willing to do if it gets us a more spacious room.  Krista managed to describe all this to the cottage owners over the phone, and they understood enough to reserve the right space for us.

But maybe the sweetest moments were when things worked out that we hadn’t even planned on.  We took Lucas to a paved and accessible path over a  beautiful old railroad bridge, and we happened to arrive just as Sequim’s regular birding crew assembled for their weekly walk.  Since Lucas loves bird identification, we asked if we could tag along for a bit.  They were so welcoming that they insisted on getting both of us pairs of binoculars, and then proceeded to show us the merganser, the downy woodpecker, and the common thrush.  Quite a few of the birders went out of their way to try to get to know Lucas, not just pointing out birds but also asking him questions.  Lucas is still quiet around strangers, so it takes a lot of patience to get many words out of him.  But birders seem to be naturally patient people, and they did not want us to jump in and answer questions for him.  One woman, who had been observing our suctioning routine, even suggested “maybe he needs a mouth suction” when he was slow to answer her question.  Wow!

Possibly this spring break trip was so sweet because we’ve had other, more challenging experiences — new people uncomfortable with Lucas, or driving out of our way for something we were told is “easy” to get a wheelchair through, only to find a steep path with major rocks, roots, and uneven stairs.  In fact, this spring break was so smooth that there was space for us to get a bit of cabin fever mid-way through the trip and start bickering .  But hey, what’s family vacation without parents arguing about directions (or something stupid like that)?  In the end we stayed an extra night, stopping on the return trip for Lucas and Krista to connect with their Viking heritage in Poulsbo, and then had a joyous ferry trip back into Seattle, happy to have made it through Lucas’s first spring break adventure!

Oh, and here are some pictures…

It turns out that the beautiful, warm spring days we experienced last week in Seattle were just a cruel April fools joke.  Over the last few days it’s been raining a lot, but that hasn’t stopped Lucas and I from escaping for a few walks during the brief respite from downpours.

Krista is gone this weekend on a retreat so Lucas and I have spent a lot of quality time together.  As much as I enjoy reading books and playing games around the house, it is nice to get out for walks in the park, and the highlight of the weekend was bumping through the mud in Mt. Baker park on Saturday.  We couldn’t help but feel very fortunate that such natural beauty exists within a few blocks of our home.  Below are some pictures.

It will be great once Lucas masters his power chair and is able to maneuver the sidewalks on his own (he’s still practicing at school and is probably some months away from that however.)  In the meantime, I love flipping his manual wheelchair around so that he faces me when the two of us go on longer walks .  On Friday we went to the grocery store, a recent favorite of his, and spent a half hour counting apples, pears, strawberries and squash in the isles of Safeway – luckily, no one seems to mind, even when I entertain Lucas by juggling the various fruits and vegetables.  On the way home I started whistling some of Lucas’s favorite songs and then asking him to identify them.  Halfway through the first verse of Mister Rabbit he would get a big smile on his face, and when I finished he would jump ahead of me by asking “what song was that?” and then quickly answering “Mister Rabbit!”  We went through a dozen songs and he got nearly all of them.  You could chalk it up to my expert whistling but it’s mostly that he’s just a clever little dude.

Nona and Aunt Ashley made separate visits today which gave me a chance to get some stuff done while they read books.  Lucas and I are excited for Krista to get back later tonight.  As we’ve both written about before, it’s great to spend time alone with Lucas but also exhausting given how demanding his needs can be at times.  Next week is Lucas’s spring break and we’re all looking forward to taking a trip to the Olympic peninsula for a few days.  Hopefully it won’t rain the whole time!