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We got into Seattle yesterday afternoon after catching the bainbridge ferry (just in time I might add – I’m a helluva driver) and getting a great view of the whole city with a few warm sun rays breaking through the clouds to highlight the skyline. We checked into our schnazzy little room at the Westin, showered up and headed out to dinner and drinks in Pike’s. Etta’s for dinner was one of our best yet and then we went over to Campagnie cafe where we met up with an old middle school classmate of mine, Lisa, and her husband Ashley. The next morning, this morning, we spent entirely at the Pike’s Place Market. Pictures below is Lillis eating a pastry at a fancy little French bakery and ordering her coffee at the original Starbucks. Lillis was excited bc the market was basically 10’s of thousands of square feet of flowers, organic fruits and veggies, fish, coffee, and artisinal cheeses. We actually got to see cheese being made and ate some curd. I’m halfway to catching up with miss muffet. Then, on to the airport where I learned I had driven 980 3/4 miles over the past 6 days. Lillis drove the other 1/4 mile :). Now, onward and upward. Atlanta by 10:30, in bed by midnight.

Funny, a few years back that meant something totally different to me. Anyway, we did three hikes yesterday, all in rain forests and mostly in rain, but we saw some lush flora and some really nice falls (water, not Lillis). Then we headed on over to sunset at Rialto Beach and then dinner before bedding down at our beachside cabin in La Push. Gorgeous view there. We got up this morning at a little before 6 to check out the tide pools at sunrise. We got to Rialto by 6:20 and then set out 1.5 miles up the beach to Hole in the Wall beach. It had a massive arch and some amazing tide pools with anemones and starfish, crabs and mussels. We then took off (stopping for breakfast at the Hungy Bear Cafe – which had a fabulous offering of homemade sausage and ridiculously large pancakes) for Hurricane Ridge and another 3 mile hike (this one on a steep grade). On that hike in what I will generously describe as less than excellent conditions we saw a black bear (about 15 feet away from us) and got up close an personal with a black tail deer, several pheasants of some kind, and a couple of ground squirrels. We followed that up with lunch at a nice diner in Port Angeles (dungeness crab melt was excellent) and now on to catch the Bainbridge ferry to Seattle. I should mention that Lillis was scared to death of encountering a mountain lion and expressed her relief when we encountered an older couple on the trail as she was certain that the mountain lion might eat them instead.

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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.

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