Jakob all by himself...

....Not exactly.

 He is together with hundreds other scouts, but without mom and dad (!) for a whole week. 

Jakob loves scouting, so he decided to spend a week at the scout camp, over night!

A completely new experience, not just for him... 

The question is: Do we still know how to entertain ourself without Jakob? Ha, ha (Yes, we do!)

Vacation at the West Coast!

We spent 10 wonderful days in the northern part of the West Coast: in the States of Washington and Oregon. What a beauty!!! 

Every single day was a highlight and every view was just breath taking!

Beginning with Seattle, where we visited our friends, who showed us the best sites of the city, a jazz club and good restaurants included. 

Of course, the best view over the city offers the Space Needle, number one on Jakob's list. 

Next to it, EMP ("the Museum of Rock"), which he just loved! 

The city has it all: location at the water, mountain views, great contemporary architecture, museums, excellent restaurants ( we especially enjoyed the fresh seafood and oysters!) and a good music scene!

We even made it to a jazz club. 

Not to forget: a nirvana for coffee drinkers! Washington and Oregon are a paradise for coffee and wine drinkers (and organic food fans!!).

From Seattle we took a ferry to the Olympic Peninsula to hike two days in the Olympic National Park and see the wild beaches. 

At the highest points of the Hurricane Ridge there was even snow. 

I also was very impressed by the rain forest (never have been in one before). Some of the trees were 70-100 meter.

But absolutely amazing were the huge tree trunks laying on the beaches of the Olympic Peninsula! Even in front of our lodge!

We left Washington and drove along the Oregon coast. Gorgeous!! 

We even saw sea lions on one of the rocky beaches. And we were able to see the caves where they live. Not a very good smell there...

We also liked the Oregon Aquarium, especially the sea otters. The world under the water must be so colorful!!

My favorite part of Oregon were the Pacific and the beaches, which you can walk for miles.

On our way back to Washington we crossed the wine country and saw the wineries where all the good wine comes from.

One of the absolute high lights was the hike at the Mount St. Helens volcano.

It's not possible to look directly in the crater, but you can hike around with a view of the volcano. And see what happened to the whole area during the last eruption. So scary! 

Our trip ended where in began: in Seattle with our friends. 

One more delicious dinner, one more stroll through the city Olaf and I, for sure, could live in... Who knows...