The Jacksons' Actions: Northwest trip

Day 7 -- July 14:
Last night was the first time on this trip that we've been cold. I had to change into long pants and we both wore sweaters. :) We took a nice walk through the town, had fish and chips for dinner, and a blizzard for dessert. Best of all - our room was on ground level!

Since we only had today to see Olympic National Park we studied out the options and picked three parts that we wanted to visit. Our first stop of the day was at Hurricane Ridge. It was the highest spot in the park. We went on a walk and saw more wild flowers and twice saw some black-tailed deer. Once a mama and baby.

We took a short cut down from the ridge to Lake Crescent. It was a beautiful drive! Lake Crescent is a glacial lake that is over 600 feet deep. The water was so clear and blue.

We parked there at the ranger's station and took a hike to Marymere Falls. It was such a lovely spot, walking/hiking through a rain forest and ending at a high waterfall.

The whole experience was wonderful, until I slipped going back down and twisted my right knee - it hurt bad!! Fortunately, after sitting quietly for a few minutes the pain went away and I was able to finish the walk with no problems. When we got back to the car we made an ice pack and I tied it around my knee with one of Kent's shirts. It worked - I had no further problems with my knee. A tender mercy if there ever was one!!

This was our lunch stop

After lunch we made one last stop in the Park. We went to the Hoh Rain Forest. We spent a few hours there wandering. Wow!!

These roots, above and below, are growing over a fallen tree. It is called a nurse log and provides nutrients and a base for other trees and plants to take root. When the nurse log eventually decays away, the roots of the remaining trees are still curved as though the log were still there.

This place was so lush, green, and covered with ferns and moss. I was just blown away. And it was so quiet.

These small trees . . .

. . . are growing on top of this log.

Kent is standing between two fallen trees. These things are HUGE!

Best day ever. And to top it off we spent the night in Forks, Washington. If you are a "Twilight" fan you'll understand. :) We didn't actually get into any of the Twilight stuff but signs around for "tours" and other things. We did have some of the best pizza I've ever had that night and our accomodations were some of the nicest. It was a suite and we had our own little patio and a back yard. Delightful!

Day 8 - July 15:

We were slow and lazy this morning and didn't leave Forks until about 10 a.m. Our goal was to drive to Astoria, Oregon. We made a few stops along the way to see the sights. Our first stop was Ruby Beach, which is still part of Olympic Park. It was overwhelming. We rolled up our pants and took off our shoes to walk in the water. It was very cold! It turned out I didn't roll my pants up high enough so I rode the rest of the day with wet pant legs. It was great! We had so much fun there in the tide pools etc.

I LOVE the ocean. I love the smell, the sound, the taste [of the mist, not the actual water!], everything about it.

We made some other stops - one for lunch - but didn't visit anymore beaches because it would have required me to climb down - trying not to aggravate my knee anymore than I have to. We did take a walk through some spruce trees that had burls growing on them. Burls are tumors but they don't hurt the tree.