Sunset on Ruby BeachSunset on Ruby Beach
Today we drove to the ferry, took the ferry to anacortes, drove to….crap, I can’t remember where we drove to, and then we caught another ferry across the sound, to Kingston. From there we drove across to Port Townsend. Really cute town that Lillis enjoyed. Highlight of that stop? Lunch at The Fountain Cafe. Amazing food. I had the wild boar sloppy Joe. Lillis had some sort of fancy salmon burger that actually had the texture of a regular burger. We both had clam chowder and split an app of baked Brie and roared garlic over some perfectly toasty bread. It was Lil’s first clam chowder. She told me she never thought it sounded good before. I know she likes chowder so I deduced that clams had never sounded good before. Afterwards Lillis looked through all the little waterfront shops while I mostly just worked on digesting all the food we’d just eaten. We continued on around the north end of the Olympic Peninsula, driving past beautiful blue glacial lakes and through a temperate rain forest, past Forks (which had an impressive array of places selling Twilight crap to tweens) and on to Ruby beach (pictured here) just in time for q beautiful sunset. It is a beautiful, rugged beach. Then, an hour later we were at Lake Quinault lodge where we shared a nice dungeness crab dip along with a really great halibut covered in some sort of spicy blueberry based sauce and served over a crunchy risotto. I then checked baseball scores in front of a roaring fire, while Lil continued her amazing progress on Atlas Shrugged. When she gets motivated, she can tear through a book like locusts in a field. It’s amazing how fast she can read. Finally off to out really lovely room overlooking the lake in a lodge built in 1926. Tomorrow? Less driving and more hiking!
Oh, speaking of hiking. I’m relatively proud (since Lil is just in average shape for her and I am slovenly having not exercised in months) that we were able to hike 7.4 miles up and down Mt Constitution (on Orcas Island) in less than 3 hours, climbing to a total elevation gain of 2400 feet. It was NOT easy, but we were rewarded with a spectacular vista from which to eat the blueberries and strawberries Lillis had gotten us at the farmers market.
>
