on the ferry from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island on Thursday, and drove up to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, where our journey continues...Pics at the right are from the Lake Crescent drive. No captions needed! Click on for really great enlargements.
Port Angeles was kind of a dive (sorry to offend anyone from there!), but we took Rt. 101 out to Lake Crescent, which was one of the most beautiful drives we have ever been one--bar non
e. The mountains loomed, the valleys were gorgeous, and Lake Crescent was stunning! The road hugged the south shore of the lake, and there were ample opportunities for vistas and snapshots. We stopped at just about every turnout, as the angles changed dramatically, and the views were truly breathtaking.We stopped somewhere to take a, you know, rest stop--I
think at Granny's Diner or something. It was a cute little place, full of antiques--really homey.We made it about 1/2 way up the length of the lake, and made a little excursion to see some waterfalls, but the map detailing the hike said it was about 2 hours, which we didn't have. Check out the pic of the deer outside the warden's hut!
We headed back to Port A, and decided to go out to Ediz Hook to check out the rocks. Remember, Wendy of the S'Klallam tribe told us we should go out there to look for jade, agates, jasper, etc.
The drive out to the spit took us past the Nippon Paper plant. It was kind of weird. The road goes right smack through the middle of the buildings! Then, it's a cool drive way out into the bay, and ends up at the Coast Guard station. The views from out there
were dramatic. I took more pics...some of the pics are the same as I took on the ferry from Port A to Victoria, but being on the spit, you're literally standing on this thin strip of dirt and rocks in the middle of the bay!I decided on this trip I'd try to take some unusual pics. So I took closeups, pics from ground level, closeups of rocks, trigs, grass, trees, etc. Note that I did not rearrange anything. All objects were just as I saw them.
It was very windy out on the spit, and getting a little cold. Luckily I had an LL Bean Gore-Tex jacket with me! The view looking back at the mountains was just simply amazing! The mountains are, I believe, looking south at the Olympic Range.
We were both eagerly searching for rocks: I'm a
rock-hound--I collect them from every beach, park, mountain, lake, city, etc., that we visit! I have them from Brighton, England; London, the gravel beneath the Eiffel Tower (really), the Cliffs of Dover, Chartres; outside the Taj Mahal, all the palaces in Jaipur, Rajasthan (in India), and tons of other places.I believe in the spirituality of Nature. I love the Earth! And I enjoy collecting all the varieties of rocks I can find.
Oh! On this day it was Jeff's birthday! We headed back to the hotel and were trying to decide on a place to eat where Jeff could have his Pacific Northwest Salmon, or something dramatic like that. I was just about on my last leg of energy, and getting a bit bitchy. I just wanted to make a pot of tea and rest. We scoped out the restaurants on the route back to the hotel, and couldn't really find a place where we wanted to eat.
My mom had secretly given me some cash and a card for Jeff's birthday, which I stashed aw
ay in my carry-on. We both were kind of beat, and we ended up just getting carry away (take-out) from an Italian restaurant within walking distance. We thought we'd save the "birthday dinner" money for someplace more romantic or rememberable.We sacked out, as we had to be at the docks really early the next morning
for the ferry to Victoria....
1 comment:
The Olympic Peninsula is truly one of the most magnificent places on all of the earth.
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