I only get back to Washington about once a year to see my family and friends there. It’s always a jam-packed visit and this trip was no different, especially with my insistence on visiting La Push on the coast. We spent a week at La Push every summer growing up and they’re some of my favorite childhood memories. We spent the majority of our trips back then looking for forgotten fireworks and building forts out of the piles of driftwood on the beach. Grandpa Jack would take us out fishing in his boat during the afternoons and we’d spend the evenings by the fire roasting marshmallows.

Though I hadn’t been back in 17 years, not a lot has changed. The cabins are a bit nicer and without the graffitied loft ceilings and ember singed carpets, but the scent of moisture soaked, slightly rotting logs is the same. The rocky paths are are the same, and I still know the best places to find the star fish and sea anemones. I’m not sure there’s anywhere quite like it for me.