This is part of our Oregon State Park challenge! Check out our progress here.

One fine autumn Thursday, we picked Will and Lucy up from school and headed out towards Fort Stevens State Park.

Thursday night, we arrived after dark, so you don’t get any photos. Friday was spent adventuring in Astoria. But first thing Saturday morning we met a client and old friend for a portrait shoot at Seafarer’s Park (where they filmed part of Free Willy). Will, Lucy, and I helped Becky out by standing in for light tests in this charming little beachfront park.

There’s one of the little guys we were here to shoot. All of them got on famously.

We had reserved one of the deluxe cabins, which meant we had bunk beds and a futon, a kitchen table, a kitchen, and our very own bathroom. Lucy quickly got a head start on her homework.

Fort Stevens has a ton of bike paths. I think Moves clocked us at 11 miles on one of the days.

Becky doesn’t currently have a bike, so we rented this purple people-eater in Astoria.

We of course visited the fort. Will has been very interested in military stuff lately, so ate up all the history and the photos of the big guns.

We managed to score seats on the back-of-the-truck tour of the fort, which was very informative, and the volunteers were super friendly and knowledgable.

We never go camping without the fairy house kit.

And we always try to go on a hike right after breakfast. This was the morning before we left, and we hiked all the way around Coffenbury Lake: 2.2 miles!

Our last morning, packing up and saying goodbye to our fine little cabin. We highly recommend these, but you have to book exactly 9 months in advance to get them. (Please note that the children did all their own posing. This series of shots was entirely their idea.)

Fort Stevens is a great place, we really enjoyed it.