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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Posted in Travelwith Comments Off on Sunrise at hole in the wallSunrise at hole in the wall
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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Posted in Travelwith Comments Off on Sunset on Ruby BeachSunset on Ruby Beach
We hiked to Cascade falls yesterday and had good Mexican (albeit with poor service) at Bilbo in East Sound. This morning we walked down to the shoreline where there is an abundance of starfish, mussels and crabs. There was even a seal out in the water doing some fishing. We’re heading out now to a farmers market to get some snacks for our hike up mt constitution.
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