Where’s Nico?

Man – “Hard Rain” is such a great song! The truth is, we haven’t had any huge rainstorms on our trip, but we are up in Washington state now, where we’ve seen the drizzles and mists that you’d expect, and that was good enough for me to use one of my favorite Dylan tunes for a blog post title.

“A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” is from Dylan’s breakout sophomore album, “The Freewheeling Bob Dylan” which is right up there with “Blood on the Tracks” as my favorite Dylan albums. There are no shortage of great covers of Bob Dylan songs, and I’ve always loved the Edie Brickell version of this song, which showed up in the movie “Born on the Fourth of July”.

Okay, okay! Enough about Bobby D! I know I already spilled the beans and mentioned we are in Washington state, but to be a bit more specific… Where’s Nico?

Olympic National Park!

Last we spoke, we were enjoying Mount Hood. We had more fun there after the last post we did – we’re getting to the season for fresh berries up here, and we ended up picking enough huckleberries to make some yummy pancakes and a fantastic pie. But aside from that, we were able to enjoy blackberries, salmon berries, thimbleberries and other just as snacks right along the trail (we also had some Oregon grapes, but beware! Those suckers are bitter!).

We also saw a ton of amazing wildflowers, including Trillium, which are kind of hard to find.

We got in a few more nice hikes in the area, too. This was our third time in Mount Hood, and each trip here has been special.

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After a couple of weeks in Mount Hood, we headed up to Olympic National Park in Washington state. While Kristen and I came up here in 2023, this was first trip to Washington for Nico – the twenty first state that he’s visited in his less than three years on this earth!

In Washington, we headed directly for South Beach Campground in Olympic – it was a bit of a risk, as the campground is first come/first served, and there weren’t necessarily a ton of other great options for us if the campground was full. We came up here on a Tuesday, in hopes that there my be more openings mid-week, and we got lucky. In the end, here’s our front yard:

It has made for some pretty incredible sunsets when the skies are clear out here.

In that last pic, you can see Kristen breaking out the binoculars to check out the waters. We’ve seen a bunch of orcas and sea otters off the coast.

Pretty much every day out here, we’ve done some exploring up and down the beach. Not just South Beach by our campground, but also at Ruby Beach and Kalaloch. We’ve found tons of sand dollars (including one that was still alive, which we promptly scooted back into the ocean – that lucky guy is pictured below) and a few rays and tons of Dungeness crab, along with cool rocks and driftwood.

The beach walks have really been beautiful.

And as always, Nico added new members to his fan club.

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ANA (Ask Nico Anything!)

Nico, what destinations are at the top of your bucket list?

Dis tuff to anser. As yung dog, I never been to gee-o-grappy class so I don’t rely no wot iz out dere. But I do noh what I lik. I like klimeen on rocs, and run on sand, and eat the fuuds. I luv to be wid mama and papa and wen dey skratch Nico belly. I luv to see friens and make new friens. I luv Kanscity, which where Nico frum, but I like moor wen we ecsplor new place togeth – especial bekus mama and papa and Nico spen hole days togethr wen we are on the rode, and Nico luv dat.

Describe your ideal day

Did you see the part abow ask Nico anyting? Well dis is not kwestin – it jus a sentince. But Nico iz no grammer notsi. Nico ideel day involv lots of persons paying lots of attent to Nico, as it shud be. Nico luvs to get belly skritchez and to be hand fed the meets, espeshally bacon, which iz Nico fav. He luv to lay in mama or papa lap wile dey do croswurd puzle togeth. He also luuks forwar to call on fone every day wid Nico’s grandma and grandpa, and sumtime call wid his BCRB (Bryce Canyon Ranger Bro) Bob and even his weerd cuzin Marilyn.

Nico, where do these questions even come from? Are people actually sending these questions in for you to answer or does your mom and dad just make them up as if others are actually interested?

Well, dat acchully two kwestins. But seens second kwestin about my ideel day was not a kwestin, I will allow eet. I preddy sure papa and mama rite the kwestins. But if you hav a kwestin for Nico, you can put it in koments or text or emale papa and he probebly wil uze it.

– Ken, 8/9/2025