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Washington 2010

Joe, Lisa, Nick, Regina and Steven.  August 7 through August 15.

This is another great tripped that Lisa planned and booked, adding to Vermont and Ireland. Done so well on such short notice. Lisa is our expert travel agent.  Thank you, Lisa.  We got on the house on time for our 7:30 AM flight. We had take two cars to the airport because we didn’t have enough trunk space for the luggage. It was an easy flight to Seattle nonstop, cloudy and drizzly when we got there. We took the rental car straight to the Comfort Suites in downtown.  Lisa and Nick both used their iPhones for direction. It took a couple tries but we got there. We heard jet fighters It turned out that there is a air show Saturday and Sunday. Since we were in the center of town we walked down to Puget Sound. We saw a wedding party talking pictures. We walked along the wharf over to the marketplace.  Connolly Reading terminal the bigger and different levels for fresh flowers sold the original Starbucks. There were many different nationalities of people and newspapers as the picture shows. Using the iPhone we found a nice restaurant and headed back to the hotel on foot again. We walked under the monorail. The site of the World’s Fair is right down the street, so we always passed it and the needle.

Seattle  Saturday August 7

Sunday August 8  Still cloudy and drizzling at the air show on Washington Lake. They closed off Interstate 90 for the air show. We had lunch in a restaurant overlooking a real working fishing dock. It had a lot of great fresh seafood. Then we went to Discovery Park and the sun came out and what a glorious sight to see the Olympic Mountains across Puget Sound. It was a great hike and I enjoyed getting out of the city a bit. We had dinner at it Asian restaurant again found on the iPhone.

Olympic National Park  Monday, August 9, 2010.  We took the ferry across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island and drove to Port Angeles. We had lunch downtown and it started raining again.  Regina bought a raincoat. Lunched in this little hole in the wall place which was pretty quaint. Checked into the hotel and then took a ride up to Hurricane Ridge. It was so foggy on the way up and the way down. At the top was a beautiful site as you see in the pictures.   Park Map Viewer

August 10, 2010. Tuesday. We drove through the park past Crescent Lake and talk a hike to the  Marymere Falls. Then we drove through the Olympic National Forest. We could see fresh logging in the hills surrounded by areas of regrowth. Then we drew to the Macaw Indian Reservation and hiked out to Cape Flattery, the most northeastern point in the continental USA. Every time we approached the coast from this point on it was covered in fog for a half a mile before the coastline. Before getting to the coast was clear and sunny. Had dinner in a little local restaurant with the local people town of Clallam Bay. It overlooked the water. Then we headed to Forks. I learned about the TV show Twilight. There were many teenagers there in black, some touring the town in black vans. The kids went for a swim. It was pretty cool at night so I didn’t bother.

August 11, 2010, Wednesday. The next morning we drove to the Quileute Indian reservation also part of Olympic National Park, on the Pacific coast. We were making an attempt to see the ocean under sunny skies. It was a sunny beautiful morning but again the fog was rolling in off the ocean and you could hardly see past your nose. The air was quite cool. We ate at a restaurant run by the Indians. Then we drove south and stopped at Ruby Beach. Still no sun at the beach, but very beautiful. The next stop was Lake Quinault. There was a beautiful lodge on the lake. We made the dinner reservations and took a hike up into the hills and back. The lodge was much like the lodges we have been on our other trips out West. The restaurant was in the Lodge. Fresh berry deserts! That night we were supposed to drive to Portland Oregon but it was so far away and we had stayed so late, that after some discussion I pleaded to stay at Olympia, the state capitol, which was a short drive. We found a nice hotel there on the water again, thanks to the iPhones. We got there pretty late. I took a swim in the indoor pool.

Lake Quinault

Mt. Rainer National Park Park Map Viewer

August 12, 2010, Thursday.. Breakfast was included, but we also went to a great coffee shop down the street.  Then we drove to Mount Rainier.  The mountain was a very impressive site when it came into view. We stayed in the chalet in Ashford a mile out of the park. Rustic and large with a beautiful deck overlooking the woods. The smell of pine filled the air. After “checking in” we took the 45 minute drive to Paradise. It was very crowed especially compared to the coastline. Entry to the park that weekend was going to be for free and the Park Ranger warned us it was going to be even more crowded. It was good that we went on this hike on Thursday before the crowds came. The hike strenuous and we had to march through snow. I marveled at the icy blue glaciers on the mountain and the waterfall. You could see amount St. Helen in the South and the big crater in its mountain from where it blew its top in 1980. We rewarded are selves with dinner at the Lodge where we had parked. We went back to the chalet for the night. There was no telephone or Internet connection. Really felt to be in the wilderness. Nick had trouble sleeping and played games on his phone.

August 13, 2010 Friday. We drove past Paradise to go hike to Bench Lake. We stopped and took some pictures of Mt. Rainier in Reflection Lakes.  On the way back to our “chalet” we stopped at Longmire Museum and walk the Trail of the Shadows. This is where the ranger warned us of the coming crowds.  I don’t remember where we ate dinner that night.

August 14, 2010, Saturday. Took that long drive again up to paradise and past paradise. Our plan was to drive to Sunrise on the way out of the park before we headed back to Seattle. We stopped and did a nice hike at the Grove of the patriarchs, aptly named after the giant trees found there. We were disappointed to find that the entrance to Sunrise closed because of so many people as the Ranger had warned. Mount Rainier is a stones throw from Seattle, which we didn’t realized until we returned to Seattle with the sky clear and the mountain looming in the distance. We were disappointed as we drove toward Seattle, which was the only point in time we had to deal with a little grumpiness. We stopped at a Dairy Queen and refreshed ourselves. The next debate was where to go, so we decided after a little rancorous debate on the Lake Washington Locks   then to Golden Gardens Park on Puget Sound. It had a real holiday atmosphere with all the locals taking in the sun and warmth that you don’t usually find there. It was tough finding a parking space. Then we headed back into town and found a nice restaurant which was nearly open-air. Then back to the Hilton hotel next to the airport to catch our flight out the next day.

 

 

 

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