Camping on the Peninsula? Sure.

Another adventure that we did while we were living in Seattle was going out onto the Olympic Peninsula to camp for a weeknd. We decided to just look around at a few things over there and then just go for it; stopping where we wanted to and staying where looked good. So Friday afternoon we took off and drove to Edmonds to take the ferry over there, but we got stuck in CRAZY traffic and had to just sit there for a long time. Finally we got on the ferry and then were able to park the car and walk around, be outside in the ocean breeze, and see the peninsula getting closer and closer with those beautiful, tall snow-capped peaks. When the ferry got there we unloaded and started driving… west. We stopped to eat at this really cute little old fashioned diner in Skagit, a tiny town that boasts a mighty fine lavender festival. We were able to see the lavenders while we were driving on the highway and it really was beautiful.

After eating there we kept driving and then decided it was about time to find a spot to settle in for the night. We had all of our camping gear so we started looking for camping sites, and found one called the Dungenous Spit. I think I had read before that it was a cool place but had no idea what it really was, so we decided to give it a shot. And luckily we got the last remaining camp site there. Which was great. We set up our tent and then walked through a cool forest path that just opened up to a view of the ocean and a cool spit with a lighthouse at the end. We hiked down to the spit and walked around for a little while, the whole time being blown away by the wind, and just looked at how pretty everything was. One of the craziest things was that it was kind of foggy and then all of a sudden we see this HUGE shadow coming towards us out of the fog; it was a cargo ship! But it looked just like a pirate ship full of ghosts out of a scary movie. We got super lucky just happening upon this spot and later found out it is one of the highlights of the peninsula! Woo hoo!

Well, we spent the night there and then the next morning we set off again. We drove through Port
Angeles and stopped for a while to go down on the docks and see the street fair they had going on. We even ate some delish gyros!

 Then we kept driving until we got to the Hoh Rainforest. Now I don’t know whose genius idea it was to camp in a RAINforest… but we did it. And although wet, it was AWESOME. Everything was so green, honestly a hue of green I didn’t think existed in nature. Like neon green. Everywhere. Trees, moss, bushes, logs, everything. We got there and set up our camp again and then went on a few hikes. We saw some GIANT trees and a lot of green, and then ended up a really cool river. We had a squirrel friend named Chip that kept us company. He stayed really close to us the entire night while we were sitting by the fire and eating our food. Funny little Chip. Well that night we did get rained on. Lots of rain. But luckily for us, we stayed pretty dry inside the tent. We woke up the next morning and everything was covered in snails and slugs though hahaha, including our tent. I was not a happy camper about that.

The drive was so pretty!

See what I mean about the neon-green?

These trees were so huge!

Trying to climb over the top...

This was our camping site! It was perfect.

This was our squirrel friend Charlie. He stayed with us all night.

 Sunday we went to a random ward and then drove on the awesome Highway 101. We passed through
Forks (everything was covered in Twilight things) and drove past La Push, an actual Indian Reservation.

 When we were driving we got to the westernmost tip of Washington and I started seeing ocean. Real ocean; not the Sound like I had seen all summer. And it looked a whole lot like Seaside, Oregon (one of my favorite places in the world) and so naturally we had to stop. We found the first beach pullout, called Ruby Beach, and drove into the parking lot and hiked down. And man, was it beautiful!!! I fell in love instantly. It was similar to Canon Beach (another favorite) in that there were these giant rocks right down in the tide, creating awesome tide pools. I saw lots of starfish, anemones, and those little butt looking things… I don’t remember what they are called haha. So we played at Ruby Beach for a while and finally, sadly, we had to leave.

I was SO excited when I saw this!! Ah!!

Tide pools

So beautiful!

Highway 101!!

The rest of the drive home was still beautiful though, and this time we drove down to where the peninsula meets the mainland and came across through Tacoma. The traffic was crazy (AGAIN) so we stopped for a while and went to a pizza place (maybe CiCi’s?) and chilled there for a minute, stuffing ourselves full to the brim. Then we went home and had to set up all of our camping gear again to let it dry out from being rained
on the whole night before, but came home happier and wetter than when we had left.

Yodel Odeling in Leavenworth

A couple of weeks ago we made our way over to Leavenworth, a town in the middle of the Cascade Range. It used to be a logging town but soon wasn't getting enough money to keep it from becoming a ghost town. So some people decided to make all of the buildings look Bavarian (which is such an obvious solution) to bring in more money for the town. Truthfully, it worked and brings millions of tourists to this town every year. Rusty and I decided to go out and do some camping over there and see what it had to offer. 

Because it is on the other side of the mountains it doesn't have the constant rain/drizzle that Seattle has. Even though Seattle hasn't been rainy lately, it was so nice to go somewhere that was actually HOT. And hot it was, getting up to  101 and 99 degrees on the days that we were there. The landscape sure was beautiful though!!

This was our campsite! Rusty and I had no idea, but these Washington people are serious about their camping. If you don't make reservations months in advance, then you are out of luck. We didn't have reservations for Leavenworth and decided to go anyways and when we got there, all of the "first come first served" campsites were full. It wouldn't have matter much but all of the surrounding National Forest had signs saying camping wasn't allowed. We weren't sure exactly what we were going to do, but we kept going. Eventually we came upon some other campsites and found ONE site open in one of them. Needless to say, we were very grateful :)

This is our campsite all set up with our hammocks, chairs and tent!

The first thing that we did on Saturday was head to a rock climbing place that ended up only being a couple of miles from our campsite. There wasn't a marked trail or anything so we just started heading up looking for the right place. As we were hiking up, Rusty saw a coyote! It had me a little freaked out but Rusty said it was fine so we kept going. By the time we finally got there the rock was so hot that even to touch it to set up the climb was too much. Remember, this was 101 degree weather. So after our long hike up we decided to just head back down and go play in the river that was on the other side of the road.

Everything in this town looked different. With the tall mountains in the back and how the buildings looked it really felt like we were in a completely different place. Even the gas stations and McDonalds looked different!

The famous beer wagon! This thing just sits in the middle of the town and has a TON of beer on it.

There were some people dressed up like Germans and playing German instruments. We sat and listened for a while!

And Then My Parents Came!

My parents came out to visit! It was so much fun seeing them and showing them around to some of our favorite places. I'm so lucky to have such great parents who we genuinely enjoy being around. One of the first things that we did was take them down to the park by our house so that Mom could see the lighthouse, she loves lighthouses! She also really wanted to see a seal, which we see a lot here, but the Sound was so choppy for the first couple of days I wondered if that would happen. (Later on it did while we were getting off the ferry! :) )

The boys wanted to make smores but for some reason they didn't want to do it at the beach or in the pit in our backyard... so they did it like the REAL men that they are.... inside over the stove.

Sweet goodness. :)

We went down to Pike's Market and showed them around. It was closing up as we got there but there were still some cool things to see! We put money in Rachel the pig, and made an epic visit to the gum wall. (Those pictures will come later).

That is the great ferris wheel that we rode! A view from one of the shops in Pike's Market.

Rusty loved this dolphin so much he wanted to ride it. But then there was gum and other gross things on it so he just stood next to him.

Standing in line waiting to ride on the ferris wheel! It was actually pretty huge, and even though it wasn't a clear day the view from the top was still great! They are enclosed and have a/c and heat... Guess what was on in July? Yup. The heat. 

Look at these two little cuties :) 

View from the top. I love Seattle.

The next day we went to the Locks in Ballard! It was a really sunny and beautiful day which was perfect. 

The Locks are actually pretty fascinating  because they let boats in from Lake Washington to the Sound (and vice versa). This is problematic because of the fresh water and salt water and also because of the different water levels. So the Locks let boats into these compartments and then either add or take out water to make it the right level. Also when going into Lake Washington fresh water is added to reduce the mixing of fresh and salt water. When leaving Lake Washington water is drained out so that a minimal amount of fresh water goes into the Sound. Pretty interesting, but it's a lot cooler to watch it happen than read about it, trust me.

The draw bridge was up so that huge ships could go through. Pretty cool, I'd never seen it up before!

There's also a fish ladder at the Locks that runs throughout the whole summer with different kinds of salmon. There was a big room with windows so that you could actually see the fish swimming upstream.

Somebody once told me that the best place in all of Seattle for fish and chips is in the parking lot by the Locks. We decided to try it out and I can honestly say that it was 100% true. It was DELICIOUS. I don't even like seafood but it was so good. This place and Ivar's Seafood Saute have made me reconsider my position on disliking seafood. 

Rusty and Dad made a friend with a cool car...