Fort Stevens Yurt Adventure

Last year we went for a day trip to Fort Stevens to meet up with Erin and Payton who were staying there for the week. We had so much fun in that one day we decided that this year, we'd join for an extended stay. We booked our yurt to join them for four days, Thurs-Sun. We had so much fun in these four days this year, we are definitely extending it even longer next year.

Fort Stevens is about 2 1/2 hours from us, on the Oregon coast and Oregon/Washington border. For the history buffs reading this, Fort Stevens was once a military base built in the 1860's and active until the 1940's. It was even fired on by Japanese submarines in 1942. Lots of history around this place and so much to offer. It is part of the National Registry of Historic Places and this is what it offers now.

Our first day was us getting settled in and setting up "camp" in our yurt next to Erin and Payton's. Yurts are basically a stationary tent with electricity. Pretty cool.

We headed to the beach after settling in so Hunter Marie could get her sand fix on. She could spend all day jumping and rolling down the sand dunes. She is completely in love with sand, it's kind of ridiculous, but she has so much fun, we all deal with the sand in the butt afterwards. I didn't get any good shots of her on that outing  I was too busy taking care of Leo who was not digging the beach at all. It wasn't until Grandpa gave him his hoodie that he ventured out on the sand. And when he did, we all could not stop laughing, he was like yoda crossing the desert.

You can kinda see Hunter in the background of this picture already near the top of the dunes with Brandon.

On this beach is the Wreck of Peter Iredale, a ship that wrecked in 1906 and you can still see what remains of it today. This is a fun shot of the wreck, looking over a sand dune. You can still see the full shape of the ship with the tide being out.

After the beach adventure we HAD to take some camp showers to get the sand out of certain places. Then it was campfire time! Aunt Erin taught Hunter how to make her first S'mores.

She ended up being a little put off by the "golden" cooked marshmallow and went for an uncooked marshmallow between two graham crackers... it was a start.

All the adults discovered how incredibly delicious a S'mores is with a Reese's Peanut Butter cup instead of Nestle's chocolate bar. I will never have them without a Reese's, simply AMAZING!

After the kids were in bed we enjoyed time around the fire. The local wildlife even wanted to join us. If you look closely in this blurry shot, you can see a deer in the background! We had a lot of fun shooing off the raccoons and squirrels who felt entitled to our stuff.

On Friday we played around the yurt site before we set out for a day in Astoria to ride the choo-choo.

The choo choo in Astoria is celebrating it's 100th anniversary. It's actually a trolley car that only started running in Astoria in 1999, but the car itself is 100 years old. Either way, it offered a really fun view of Astoria and the waterfront. Leo was so excited waiting for the train even with the crazy winds.

And while on the train/trolley, he was completely fascinated by it and the view!

Unfortunately Hunter was bored within minutes, daydreaming of rolling around in the sand some more.

She had her fun the next day at the beach, but not until after the adults had a fun morning of kayaking! It was the parks first weekend of kayaking for the season so they were offering a free session so we signed up for that. Bright and early at 8am, Me, Brandon, Erin and Payton biked over to Coffenbury Lake while Grandpa stayed to hang out with the kids. Grandpa kayaks often so he was kind enough to sit this out for us to go. It was my first time and I fell in love with it. It was a cold start but turned into a gorgeous morning.

Coffenbury Lake

Then it was off to check out Fort Stevens for a little bit and then head to the beach on our way back. We jumped on our bikes and enjoyed the sunshine.

The Fort is amazing, lots of history and the area is beautiful. We took a ride in a 1950's army truck to get a good look at the whole place. Below are just a few of the pictures of the place. 

The Plotting Room

The Rifle Range

Searchlight Generator building

View of the bay

One teeny section of the fort

It was an awesome four day weekend trip that ended too soon. I can't wait to do it all again next year! This time we'll be inviting some more family to join us, we'll take over the yurt village!