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.

My favorite part of this trip?  This guy!:

 Here we are approaching Astoria, where we spent the night.

Exotic meal tonight? Nope - Burger King!

More Bucketlist trip

Day 4 - July 11 continued:

So, here is a pic of the lodge we stayed in at Mt. Ranier.

Looks cool, I know. However, it cost us $190/night. It was NOT worth that much. 1.  Unless your room is on the third floor, you have to carry your stuff either up or down stairs. 2. The room was a little bigger than a closet and it was hot - with no way to cool it down. 3. The parking right next to the lodge was full so we had to park a block away. 4. The restaurant or cafeteria-type offerings were very expensive.

So, last night we drove to a little town called Packwood and bought groceries for our stay at Mt. Ranier. We actually saw a herd of elk on a lawn in the town - !!!. We then drove back to the park. We spent the evening playing Hand and Foot on the patio of the lodge. We were supposed to stay there another night. Read on to see what we did instead. :)

Day 5 - July 12:

Today was really wonderful. Kent decided that tomorrow's drive would be much more enjoyable if we stayed tonight somewhere closer to Mt. St. Helens. Fortunately, Paradise Inn allowed us to cancel our second night without cost.

Before leaving Mt. Ranier, we went on a short hike to Myrtle Falls. It was a lot of fun. About a third of the trail was still covered in snow. We slipped and slid our way along the trail and saw some beautiful scenery.

We stopped for lunch in this lovely spot. Then we played more Hand and Foot. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because Kent always beats me soundly in this game! :)

Finding another hotel room turned out to be more difficult than we had thought. We finally found one in a town called Longview. It wasn't a great place but it was big and available!!! The couple that runs it is from India and when I went into the office there were wonderful aromas. ;)

Day 6 - July 13:
Today was perfect. After checking out of our hotel we drove directly to Mt. St. Helens. What an experience that was! I remember when it erupted. We were living in Ann Arbor, MI and a few days after the explosion we had ash on our car!

We went to the Johnston observation center and watched a movie and then took pics and went on a very short walk. 

The next 2 photos show the total devastation that the eruption caused. After all these years it is still pretty stark.

These are some sights we saw on our walk

I asked the ranger if the clouds were just that - clouds - or if it was steam from the volcano. She said it was actually ash being blown by the wind up there. That wind picked up a LOT on our way back to the car. I was trying to make sandwiches while fighting the wind and grit. I was pretty grumpy by the time I finished and we got in the car to drive away. As we drove back down the mountain we had no view of the volcano. Our timing was very good.

We found a church to attend in a place called Toledo. It is quite amazing how much my attitude affected my enjoyment of the meeting. I struggled to stay awake and pay attention. Grumpiness doesn't welcome goodness. :(

I got over it as the day progressed. We finished our drive in Port Angeles.