Post-Bar Vacation – Olympic Peninsula, WA – Day 1

The first few days of my vacation were actually in Washington state. Since my cruise was gonna take off from Seattle, I figured this would be a perfect time to visit N, a friend of mine from law school who has since relocated to Seattle. I told him I’d come visit. See, I keep my promises.

So we decided in our 3 days we would go to the Olympic Peninsula, which is in the Northwestern most part of Washington. It also houses the only deciduous rain forest in the US (and possibly the world, although I am not sure on that one…)

We were gonna do some long hikes, potentially going on a 2-3 day backpacking trip, but alas, that was not to be. See, N sprained his ankle the day before I got to Seattle. So we modified our trip.


First was kayaking in Freshwater Bay. We had a guide to take us all around the bay, looking at start fish, sea anemones, kelp, fish and even a harbor seal. Our guide was quite funny, the water was wonderfully calm, and the trip was awesome. We even got to paddle into a cave or two.



Later that day, we drove up Hurricane Ridge. The last time I was on Hurricane Ridge, it was March, the whole area was covered in about 8+ feet of snow and it was scary foggy for most of the ridge. But the snow was all gone (well duh, it was late August.) And the view was BEAUTIFUL. I could see a ton of the Olympic Mountains, as well as all the way out to the ocean.

It was so nice up there, but man, the car ride was twisty and rather narrow. You basically ride the breaks all the way down the hill. Gotta love a rental car, where you can burn the brakes and not worry about it. :-)

That evening, we cooked hot dogs and corn on the cob over a camp fire at our camp site in Heart O’the Hills (what a great name, huh?) The site was fab, all woodsy and camp-like. It was like “real” camping, except we got to drive there, and not hike in. Oh, and some kids playing war “shot” me, and then declared me dead. Lovely.