tukatz

We had never spent much time on the Olympic Peninsula and there were places we had never seen, so we did a three day tour.



Our first night was in Port Townsend. On the way there we stopped at the Aero Museum - a collection of older small airplanes housed indoors. It's a great little museum.



Note the wicker seats. We stayed in the Waterstreet Hotel; a funky old place where we had stayed previously. Dinner was at the Silverwater Cafe where we had eaten before. It is VERY good.

The next morning we drove to Sequim and had a late breakfast with friends. For you Washington people - if Sequim is pronounced Skwim why is Sekiu not pronounced Skew?

We continued on to Hurricane Ridge - one of the places we had never been before. The weather was spectacular and the view is stunning.



Our second night out was at Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort and frankly it was a big disappointment. What else can you say about a place that spendy that continues to use towels that are stained or threadbare? We had a very pleasant soak in the hot pool but dinner and breakfast in the restaurant were dreadful. Mel's Trip Advisor review is NOT going to be very flattering. I did get a shot of Maria outside the cabins.



Our final night out was to be as Lake Quinault Lodge. We hustled down there and had a quick lunch, then drove to the National Park Ranger Station on North Shore Road. We arrived in time to go on a nature walk with the ranger in the rain forest. Very interesting! Ground cover in a temperate rain forest is so dense that seeds and cones that fall to the forest floor can't get to soil. They only germinate when they fall onto a stump or downed log that has moss on it. These are called nurse stumps and nurse logs. The new tree must then extend its roots down into the soil or it will not survive. Eventually the nurse rots away and leaves a cavity under the tree that formed on it.





Some of the trees have parasitic growths on them called Conchs. They 'bore' into the tree and will eventually cause it to rot from the inside.





There are a variety of ferns including this one that is very dense and low-growing.



One of the denizens of the rain forest is the Douglas Squirrel. He is smaller then the gray squirrels many of us see in our gardens and is brown. He loves Spruce cones and goes up in the trees to cut them loose. Then he gathers them from the forest floor and stashes them away. When he is ready for a meal he holds the cone upright in his front paws and, using those marvelous front teeth, he peels away a scale from the cone and eats the seed and spits out the scale. When he is finished he leaves behind a pile of cone scales and the central part of the cone that looks like a tiny corn cob.

After the walk we returned to Lake Quinault Lodge and went for a swim in their indoor pool before having a very nice dinner in their restaurant. All in all it was a very pleasant way to spend three days and see some wonderful scenery.

NC14GT

Very cool! Finally a place you can go without wildfires.
We were there in '89 and stayed in Forks which was called 'Lumber Capital of the World' back then, and also in Bremerton after seeing the Olympic National Park during it's 50th anniversary. Such a wonderful area. Thanks for sharing and bringing back some memories. Not sure if we will ever get out that way again. It's possible since we have family in Portland, OR but it's still a long trek.

tukatz

Long trek is right. A few years back I drove my S2000 back to DC and my wife flew back. We visited Gettysburg, family in Annapolis, drove down the Natchez Trace Parkway and visited family in the Dallas area. My wife flew home from there and I drove the rest of the way back. I was on the road a month and covered 8,000 miles, and the S2000 was not as comfortable a cruiser as the Mustang that replaced it.

NC14GT

It's interesting to see how similar our interests are. We had the roadster thing going for quite awhile too. Only ours was an '02 Z3.
You have us beat by about 2,000 miles though. We put on only 6,000 miles on our trip to CA and OR back in the day. Certainly agree that the Mustang is so much nicer. Probably 90% of our 25,000 miles on the GT are highway vacation miles with more to come shortly. Here are a couple pics in Sequoia National Park.

tukatz

Thanks for posting those shots. Very cool!!! That park is on our to do list.

NC14GT

Your Mustang will easily fit under that tree. Not so sure about 'taller' vehicles.

I was going to ask about the ferries. I know we took one down from BC to Port Angeles but was there a ferry as well back to the WA mainland or is it just driving? I thought I remembered us driving back.

DarrenGT

Very cool trip. Sad to hear about the disappointing part but most of it was good by the sounds of it. You have the perfect cruising machine

tukatz

That would be the Black Ball ferry between Port Angeles and Victoria on Vancouver Island. There is also a ferry (Washington State Ferries) from Sidney on Vancouver Island (about 30 minutes north of Victoria) to Anacortes, which is about 84 miles north of Seattle. That's a beautiful trip through the San Juan Islands. The third option is Canadian ferries from Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island to Tsawassen on the Canadian mainland west of Vancouver.

NC14GT

Thank you tukatz. More memories.