The Olympic Peninsula and Seattle

Jacque's Mom comes to visit us!

May 11-13, 2003

After breakfast in Eugene, and a quick tour of the University of Oregon campus, we traveled some minor routes up the Willamette River valley towards Corvallis. (We have continued to avoid the Interstates when possible -- after all, every Interstate looks just about the same!) We went by Harrisburg, Oregon, and drove past Oregon State University in Corvallis. At that point we got on I-5 and drove towards Portland. During this drive, we crossed the 45th parallel -- and there was a sign announcing that we were now halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. (Interestingly, the 45th parallel cuts across the US from Salem, OR to Minneapolis, MN, not to mention Michigan and Maine, but Oregon seems to be the only state to have highway signs announcing its presence.)

We decided to camp at the Ainsworth State Park, in the Columbia River Gorge. This turned out to be a great campground in the woods, except it was in a narrow part of the gorge and, with the Interstate and railroad tracks running through the same gorge, it was a bit noisy. On Monday, we did some shopping, then just hung around the trailer and cleaned up the place for Jacque's mom's visit. On the trip to the supermarket, we saw lots of osprey around the river.

On Tuesday morning, the weather was beautiful. We picked up Mom at the Portland Airport and the air was clear enough that we got to see a few of the snow-capped volcanoes, including Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood, towering on the horizon. On the way back to Ainsworth, we stopped to look at the views and several of the waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge. We also went to the Bonneville Lock and Dam. The visit to the Visitor Center was fascinating. We got to see the fish ladders and, through windows, we saw salmon swimming upstream through them. When leaving the Visitor Center, we saw an osprey perched on top of a tree eating a fish.

Back at the trailer, we lit a campfire and ate some dinner. The evening was very lovely, despite the traffic and railroad noise.

May 14, 2003

Wednesday morning, we headed for our tour of the Olympic Peninsula, the large, mountainous piece of land that separates Seattle and the Puget Sound from the Pacific Ocean. We traveled back towards Portland, and crossed into Washington on the Interstate. Then, we crossed back into Oregon over the Columbia River and followed Route 30, because we wanted to re-cross the Columbia on the bridge at Astoria, at the very northwest corner of Oregon. The drive was a bit dreary because it was raining (something it did most of the time we were on the Olympic Peninsula), but we discovered the Josephson's Smoked Fish shop in Astoria. Of course, we had to stop and get some smoked oysters, scallops and salmon to eat. The bridge at Astoria was interesting because it was rather high and almost four miles long.

Once we crossed into Washington (again!), we took some scenic roads north, then jumped on Route 101 along the Washington coast. We passed through a number of small fishing towns and bought oysters in one of them on the side of Willapa Bay.

Our first stop on Wednesday evening was Grizzly Joe's RV park in Westport, WA, on Gray's Harbor, a large bay on the Pacific Ocean. Although we had a little trouble finding the place, once we did we were very happy. It was little more than a gravel parking lot with hookups, but it was at the very edge of Gray's Harbor. The harbor for the town of Westport was a working harbor with fishing boats of all sorts. There were also lots of seals and sea lions. We had a great time watching the seals throw fish around and the seagulls try to get them. There was one sea lion that acted like he owned the harbor and he was very noisy and bossy. Unfortunately we weren't able to get any decent pictures of the seals or sea lions -- but they were a big part of our stay there. A short walk from the RV park was a beach, where Kasie and Barney got to swim and romp to their hearts’ content. We grilled oysters and ate pasta while we watched the seals play.

Jacque's mom fit comfortably into our trailer, which we now know is large enough for three adults and two dogs with a teeny tiny amount of room to spare. Mom slept on the fold-out sofa bed; Kasie very graciously allowed Mom to share it with her.

May 15-16, 2003

On Thursday, we continued north towards the Hoh River. It was raining again, but the Washington coast was beautiful, with tall trees (where they weren't clear cut -- we were surprised again by the amount of clear cutting that was being done). We parked at a small campsite on the Hoh River for Thursday night, walked the dogs, and made some dinner in the rain. On Friday, we unhitched the trailer and drove into the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park. Olympic National Park is noted for having one of the few temperate rain forests in North America, as well as a long coast line on the Pacific and a dozen or so glaciers in the mountains.

We took two short walks in the rain forest (in the rain and cold, of course), so we could see an old-growth rain forest and compare it to one that had been changed by flooding as the course oft he Hoh river has changed over time. The rain forest was beautiful, with lots of moss and ferns. Some trees grow out of nurse trees, which are trees that have fallen down and are providing nutrients for the new trees. Unfortunately we left the camera in the trailer, so we didn't get any pictures of the rain forest or our hike. We did, however, take a picture of a postcard that we bought so that we would have a record of just how lush and mossy and ferny the rain forest really is! It was difficult to remember just how dry and desolate some of the southwestern deserts had been just a few weeks ago, and how much we were craving a few trees -- now we have trees in abundance.

After a few hours hiking in the rain, and with a small lunch-snack of cheese, crackers and sausage huddled in the relative dryness of the truck, we drove back to the campsite, packed and hitched up the trailer and continued north and west on Route 101. Friday night, we stayed at an RV park outside of Port Angeles, on the north end of the Olympic Peninsula. Mom took us to a restaurant for dinner that was right on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Some sun broke through near sunset, and we could see British Columbia to the north and snow capped mountains (the Olympics) to the south. Jacque was enjoying the oysters so much, that she had some both as her appetizer and as her entree.

May 17, 2003

On Saturday, we continued around the Olympic peninsula southeast towards Bainbridge Island. We decided to camp at Fay-Bainbridge State Park on Saturday evening. This was a beautiful park on the western side of the Puget Sound. We had great views of the Seattle skyline and the snow-capped peaks beyond Seattle. On the beach, we observed some type of shellfish that was buried in the mud (so we never actually saw the creature), but was spurting fountains of water up through the mud. We thought they might be goeduck clams -- there were a number of large clam shells lying around on the beach. We built a camp fire, cooked dinner over the fire and toasted marshmallows for s'mores.

May 18, 2003

Sunday, we took the Bainbridge Island Ferry into Seattle, truck, trailer, dogs and all! It was great fun and beautiful. For some reason that we couldn't figure out, the Coast Guard escorted our ferry across the Sound with two fast boats with big guns on their bows (most of the other ferries we saw were not escorted). In Seattle, we visited Pike Place Market and Mom bought presents for everyone and fresh oysters for Dad. We had a late lunch in a nice restaurant near the Market overlooking the Sound, Jacque got to compare king and sockeye salmon from the Copper River. Mom got to try a mojito cocktail. We then drove back to Portland and dropped Mom off at the airport for her redeye flight back to Pennsylvania. After dropping her off, we stayed the night at an RV park in Vancouver, WA, near to the Portland airport.