Leaving Seattle
Jun. 13th, 2013 02:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ateolfWednesday morning we got up early to get breakfast at Macrina. We loaded up on pastries (some to take out with us). The next stop was the Olympic Peninsula. We got to the ferry area and at first I parked in the wrong place. Luckily I noticed a line forming in the "driving" area so I moved the car. The ferry ride was fun. It was too cold and windy to take being in the top/front outside for long. The views were incredible (really, the views are incredible just about all over the damn city, enhanced out in/by the open water of course). On the other side, we were out on Bainbridge Island. We got on and drove up arond the penninsula. Our first stop was in Sequim where we picked strawberries. It was fun and I'd never seen strawberries that color: bright, deep red, shining like candy. We picked a whole box of 'em. Maybe I ate too many strawberries over the next two days, but they were good. We didn't have any means of washing 'em at first so we made a pit stop at some weird wholesale grocery store and got a huge case of bottled water. This actually ended up working out great as we continued to use the water throughout the whole trip and even finished all but a few bottles. We had a little lunch in Forks (of recent Twilight fame). The sign says it's a "city" but even calling it a "town" would be generous. It's not more than a few streets of settlement in the middle of nowhere (really on the edge of nowhere, as it's right at the remote edge of the country). Anyway, it's not even quaint. It's just kinda sad and decrepit. We made our way to Soh Rainforest in Olympic State Park. We hiked a little bit around. Then we went off towards Mora on the coast and checked out Rialto Beach. It was incredible. The Pacific Ocean offered up a lot of my favorite things about this trip. The little rock islands just off the coast ("seastacks") left me in wonder every time. We were ahead of schedule so we decided to try to make it down to the next beach, or closer to it. It was getting dark on the way and we stopped off to stay at this hostel. It was in this little old house and the guy was an old hippie. Mary Beth seemed weirded out at just staying in someone she didn't know's house and it cost more than she thought it would so we went ahead with the previous plan of sleeping in the car. We continued down to Kalaloch and stopped at Ruby Beach. Dusk was fast on us but we got a dim view of the beach from the ridge the parking lot was on, through the trees. It looked real nice. We settled in to the car for a surprisingly sound night of sleep. I thought it would be hard falling asleep on those seats, but after a long and active day I was tired and just passed right out.
There was extreme grogginess upon first waking up, but I soon felt great and energized. The morning started off cold, but soon felt great. We went down to the beach and it was even more spectacular than before. The seastacks were closer. In fact, there were some on land, at least with the current tide-level. The only thing was this small stream cutting it off from our side of the beach. After a while of looking in wonder, I made a calculation that I *think* I can jump across this stream. It wasn't wide or anything. Well, I miscalculated, not by much, but I miscaulcated. One foot went in the water so that shoe was soaked. Anyway, it was worth it. I got to climb those rocks and that was some of the funnest shit ever. It was just an amazing experience hanging out on that beach. That set the tone for the rest of the morning. We drove down to a couple more beaches: beaches 4 and 1, I think. Mostly we enjoyed the incredible views. I probably climbed some more rocks. Oh fuck. I should mention that the first real rock I climbed, I bumbed my fucking thumb on it (ironically, of course: not when I was doing any major climbing, just kinda sitting there and moved my hand up) I smacked the hell out of it. It still hurts one week later. Anyway, I had a hell of a time on those beaches. After all that we lastly drove to Quinault Rainforest. Mostly drove kind of on the roads about the lake. We got out for a little bit by the lake and then it was off to Portland!
We arrived in Portland Thursday afternoon. We made good time. We got there pretty early. We checked into our hotel so we could take SHOWERS! After walking in the forest and sleeping in the car and falling in the ocean, that was much needed. I'll get to descriptions of the hotel in my next post. Cutting off here for now.
There was extreme grogginess upon first waking up, but I soon felt great and energized. The morning started off cold, but soon felt great. We went down to the beach and it was even more spectacular than before. The seastacks were closer. In fact, there were some on land, at least with the current tide-level. The only thing was this small stream cutting it off from our side of the beach. After a while of looking in wonder, I made a calculation that I *think* I can jump across this stream. It wasn't wide or anything. Well, I miscalculated, not by much, but I miscaulcated. One foot went in the water so that shoe was soaked. Anyway, it was worth it. I got to climb those rocks and that was some of the funnest shit ever. It was just an amazing experience hanging out on that beach. That set the tone for the rest of the morning. We drove down to a couple more beaches: beaches 4 and 1, I think. Mostly we enjoyed the incredible views. I probably climbed some more rocks. Oh fuck. I should mention that the first real rock I climbed, I bumbed my fucking thumb on it (ironically, of course: not when I was doing any major climbing, just kinda sitting there and moved my hand up) I smacked the hell out of it. It still hurts one week later. Anyway, I had a hell of a time on those beaches. After all that we lastly drove to Quinault Rainforest. Mostly drove kind of on the roads about the lake. We got out for a little bit by the lake and then it was off to Portland!
We arrived in Portland Thursday afternoon. We made good time. We got there pretty early. We checked into our hotel so we could take SHOWERS! After walking in the forest and sleeping in the car and falling in the ocean, that was much needed. I'll get to descriptions of the hotel in my next post. Cutting off here for now.
