Flowers, Vampires, & the Olympics

Spring is in full swing in the Pacific NW!  We are enjoying warmer weather but also appreciate the occasional cooler day knowing that summer will bring triple digits in the Columbia basin.  April started with a visit from my 86+ year old mother and a trip to the Skagit Valley, about an hour north of Seattle, to see the tulips. 
http://tulipfestival.org/ 

Timing a visit to see the tulip fields in their peak is always tricky since blooming is at the mercy of Mother Nature.  But we hit it just right and were blessed with two beautiful days of spring weather and amazing fields of tulips!

After a couple days viewing tulips we went down to greater Seattle for a visit with “the kids.”  Amy and Shane had planned a fun weekend visit with Grandma.  The highlight event was a visit to Chihuly Gardens and Glass.  Dale Chihuly is a NW boy and we all take pride in his international success as a glass artist, teacher and mentor. 

 
The CGG  is conveniently located immediately adjacent to the Space Needle and well worth a visit if you find yourself in Seattle.  FYI, if you are in Tacoma, WA plan a visit to the Museum of Glass, which also features glass by Chihuly and other 20^th & 21^st Century glass artists, as well as demonstrations of glass blowing.
http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/
http://museumofglass.org/ 

Leaving greater Seattle, we traveled to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula and took the Blackball Ferry across the Straight of Juan de Fuca to beautiful Victoria, British Columbia Canada.  https://www.cohoferry.com/main/   Victoria is a lovely city and makes a great first impression when arriving by ferry and coming into the Inner Harbor.  Your first views are of the Empress Hotel, currently under exterior renovation and also of the Parliament buildings.  Though out on the reaches of Vancouver Island, the city of Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, and is also known as the most “English” of all Canada’s cities.

 Although the weather changed to a gentle NW drizzle, we enjoyed a day at beautiful Butchart Gardens.  Mom had always wanted to visit and I think she was pleased.  The 55-acre gardens are beautifully cared for and the spring flowers were in their glory.  Once a limestone quarry, the sunken gardens are now a lovely floral display thanks to the vision and efforts of Mrs. Jennie Butchart back in the early 20^th C when she started growing roses and sweet peas on the grounds.  Still family owned, the Gardens are now designated as a National Historic Site of Canada and worth a visit.  We also enjoyed a proper English afternoon tea at the restaurant, formerly the Butchart family’s dining room.  The two days in Victoria were a fast visit but we all enjoyed it.

Returning home from our flower tour with Mom we enjoyed some quiet time and short day trips for the remainder of her visit.  She particularly enjoyed going to 14 Hands wine tasting room, nestled on the outskirts of Prosser at the base of the Horse Heaven Hills.  The facility is a testament to the homesteading history of the region as well as the Columbia Valley vineyards and wine industry. 

Mom’s visit to WA was sixteen days and I think she was more than ready to head home.  We kept her much more busy than her life in Colorado.  She was a trooper and we hope she was happy with the trip.

Mid-May had us back in Port Townsend where it is always a pleasure to spend a few days.  We were a bit caught off-guard by the cooler weather but our timing was perfect for seeing the rhododendrons at the peak of their bloom!  Bob’s been doing a lot of hard manual labor on our building lot, trying to clear some of the undergrowth and smaller trees.  Kala Point (our development) has very stringent covenants regarding owners clearing their land and he will certainly comply.  In a way it seems like a waste of time because we know the undergrowth will grow back but for the time being it gave us a sense of the “lay of the land” and allowed us to think more seriously about building or selling.  Lots of decisions to be made!

Maybe that realization is my insight into retirement for today . . . most of us think of retirement as “the end” but the only thing that ended was Bob going to work every day.  We have lots of life ahead of us, and along with that many decisions to make and considerations to help guide us through this phase of our lives.

Leaving Port Townsend we took a long weekend to explore the beautiful Olympic Peninsula.  Most of the Peninsula is within the bounds of Olympic National Park, established in 1938.  What lands are not in the Park are largely either National Forest or were ceded to the federal government through treaties in 1855 with at least eight Native American tribes.

Our first stop was a drive to Hurricane Ridge, aptly named.  The views of the high peaks of the Olympics are stunning (on a clear day) but we had mixed weather (fairly normal) and could not see 7865” Mt. Olympus.  The mountain is one of the most glaciated peaks in the US, and Hurricane Ridge averages 400+ inches of snow a year.

After leaving the Ridge, we traveled around beautiful Lake Crescent and up to Sol Duc Hot Springs.  Blog followers know we love hot springs and we were pleased to learn this one is back in operation.  Years ago the NPS closed the springs due to a number of health violations and it appears the new management is on track toward improving the springs and resort.  After relaxing in the springs we took the short hike up to Sol Duc Falls.  Earlier in the day we had walked through the Ancient Groves, always a humbling experience.

Highway 101 skirts the bounds of Olympic National Park, traveling through National Forests, private land, and tribal reservations.  Logging operations continue to be a mainstay of the region but tourism, particularly sport fishing, also plays a big role in the economy.  The town of Forks and the surrounding forests were the filming locations of the Twilight movie series.  I’d say vampire sightings and references have surpassed Sasquatch!  The local restaurants and motels offer Twilight burgers, Bella’s suites, and all sorts of vampire merchandise.  The whole Twilight genre escaped us as we have not read the novels nor seen the movies . . . maybe we need to order those up on Netflix!

The day we were at Forks was a clear sunny day so we headed out to the beaches at La Push to watch the sunset.  La Push is the cultural, administrative, and ancestral center of the Quileute tribe. The Quileute River drains into the Pacific at First Beach and offers great views of the Pacific Ocean. The following morning we went out to Rialto beach, which is on the north side of the Quileute River.  The WA coastline is very dramatic, offering views of sea stacks and rocks offshore, and the shore is lined with a barrier of washed up trees (yes, entire trees) and smaller logs.  Mother Nature’s forces are amazing!

If you have never been to Hoh Rain Forest, you must visit!  It is a fascinating eco system, a thick forest of coniferous and deciduous trees and receives about 140 - 170 inches of rain annually.  That’s up to 14 feet of rain!  Located within Olympic National Park, Hoh is about an hour from Forks east of Hwy. 101.  Sorry to say, we skipped going to Hoh on this trip having been several times but also because we knew we were going to be exploring the rainforest around Lake Quinault.

Because the WA coastline is protected by being within Olympic National Park, there are few places where Hwy. 101 actually follow the shore.  But one of those places is Kalaloch, where the forest meets the beach.  Kalaloch is a Quinault word meaning “good place to land” and it is a good place for a long beach walk.  The oceanside resort offers a lodge and cabins, and amenities.  Be sure to notice the “driftwood” lined beach!

Our destination was beautiful Lake Quinault and we enjoyed exploring both shores of the mountain lake.  But staying at the historic Lodge was a special experience.  The grounds are lovely, with beautiful views of the Lake.  The lodge’s rooms are basic but very comfortable, and it was such a nice change of pace to not have TV in the room!  We enjoyed sitting on the lodge deck and in the comfortable lobby before dining in the old-world elegance of the Roosevelt room.  After dinner we visited with an elderly couple on their “bucket list” trip of returning to the Olympic Peninsula; he had grown up in Forks and La Push, and hadn’t been back in decades.  It was such an interesting conversation and always fun to meet new people!

Our Olympic Peninsula journey ended with a morning drive down through the beach towns of Moclips, Pacific Beach, Seabrook, Copalis, and Ocean Shores.  These towns are on the southwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula.  Point Brown forms the northern boundary of Gray’s Harbor, known as a birdwatcher’s paradise and also famed for abundant Pacific coastal shellfish.  The area is an interesting mix of fresh water sporting activities and miles of beaches.

Photo from Gray's Harbor Tourism

Bob has been retired for a year now!  It’s been a busy, fun-filled, travel-filled year and yes, there have been a couple bumps along the way but so far we still enjoy each other and seeing new places and meeting new people!  That’s been our mantra for retirement and life going forward.  Thanks for following our journey!