Day 31 (July 4) We meet up with some old friends

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Today being Sunday, we decided to make our first visit to the inside of a church by driving about 5 miles north to Calvary Christian Assembly for their 10:30 service. The church is pastored by Ryan & Linaya Bunbury who were once our music pastors at Capital Christian Center.  the center point of Ryan's message was that Jesus turns negative takeaways into positive triumphs. Following church we joined the rest of the family for brunch at Ryan's favorite restaurant, Portage Bay Cafe and had a wonderful time talking and sharing and catching up. After that we stopped at a nearby grocery store, got some supplies, and headed back to the hotel. We have an early day tomorrow as our Tour Operators are picking us up at 6:45 in the morning for an all day tour of Olympic National Park.

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Day 32 (July 5) A day in another national park.

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We got up early for a tour that would take us to Olympic National Park.  The van was late but we finally got on board and headed for the ferry that would take us there.  To drive to the nearest bridge would tak about an hour or more so the ferry is the best solution. It only took a few minutes to load the ferry and soon we were on our way and just about 30 minutes from the opposite shore.

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Once there we had to navigate the roads to the park which took another hour but once there we were rewarded with some beautiful scenery.  Being a holiday for most people, we actually didn't run into as much traffic as we thought.  The one jam we did hit was in crossing a floating bridge, in which opening and closing it can take 30 min or more.  On our way to the park, we got in line just as the traffic from the opposite side was passing us so the wait was only about 5 minutes.  Coming back the wait was more like 15 minutes.

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Our first stop in the park was at Hurricane Ridge.  The views from the Visitors Center were excellent but if you could walk to the top of the ridge, then you had a 360 degree view of the park.  It has valleys mountains soaring peaks still covered with snow and a billion trees in all shades of green.

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Our second stop was at Crescent Lake. a shimmering blue lake clear enough that you can see several feet down to the bottom.  We took a short hike up to Marymere Falls. The Marymere Falls Trail is a short hike through wonderful Pacific Northwest scenery, from Lake Crescent, through large towering trees, and pretty river views. It is one of the most popular trails in Olympic National Park. The trail begins by the Storm King Ranger Station and features a nice gentle rise in elevation up to the falls, and a pleasant descent. It is a family friendly outing in an old growth forest. Seeing the PNW on this trail will give you everything you need. Lush greenery and beautiful waterways. The actual waterfall is breathtaking. A lot of gusts and water droplets everywhere. Absolutely gorgeous. The beginning of the trail is relatively flat but eventually it goes into well maintained switchbacks. The switchbacks are nothing to fear, there are maybe 2 or 3 of them.

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Our next stop was at a campground near the ocean with a set of stairs taking you to the tide pools which are accessible only during low tide.  Today's visit was at high tide so we couldn't navigate as far as we would have liked.  We had a great view of Vancouver Island, a part of British Columbia and we actually were near a marker indicating that the border of our two countries lies in the middle of the channel between the two bodies of land.  There was also bunker from a former fort that had been here used to protect our borders from enemies in World War II.

 

The rest of our trip was taking the long arduous drive back to the ferry and eventually to our hotel.  We just missed the one we had planned on taking and so wait until the next one.  We finally got back to our room after 9pm.

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Day 33 (July 6) A small but important city on the coast

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Today we took a nearly 3 hr. drive to Long Beach, WA.  This a quaint small fishing town that seems to be where a lot of Washingtonian's go for vacation.  It's biggest claim to fame is not the ocean itself but it is home to the longest beach in the country! Second only to the Cranberry farms along it's length. We went to one of the farms because they had a museum that gave us a history of cranberry planting and harvesting. Then we took a walk among the fields that had been planted in the spring and were already showing the little nuggets of fruit that would be harvested sometime in October.

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After the tour, we stopped at a little place called the Crab Pot.  It's a really small diner that has a great menu of all kinds of sea food. it's worth a try if you visit.

 

Finally, before we headed back to the hotel, we made a stop at Marsh's Free Museum.  It's not really a museum although many of the things for sale there might be better off in a museum. It's really a treasure trove of a curiosity shop with antiques, curios, sea shells, gifts and more! If you go, make sure you have a couple of hours to browse.

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Day 34 (July 7) Seattle, WA to Vancouver, WA - 254 mi

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Where We Stayed: Homewood Suites by Hilton 

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We left around 10 and after stopping for gas and some breakfast, we headed to our next hotel.  Before we got there, we stopped at a place called Northwest Trek Animal Park.  Situated on the side of Mt. Rainier, it is a sanctuary for animals that can no longer survive in the wild. Instead of living in cages, the animals are allowed to roam nearly 400 + acres of land while visitors can drive through the park in a controlled environment hoping to see a few of the residents.  My sister has been to a few of these types of parks and has had pretty good luck at seeing multiple animals.  We did not have the same kind of luck this time, only seeing a small herd of buffalo and an equal amount of elk and that was it for the day.

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We left rather disappointed in the experience and headed to Vancouver, WA which is across the river from Portland, OR and we felt a bit safer since all the turmoil of late last year.

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Day 35 (July 8) A "Twilight" cafe and a movie.

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We left the hotel around 10am and then drove to a small town in Oregon called Damascus where a place called the Carver Cafe had become somewhat famous in the last ten years by being used in a movie series called Twilight.  Wifey had become a fan of the series and watches them often. This was one of her requests and I was happy to oblige. There are no pictures of the shoot and the tables have been rearranged different from the movie set, but there is a small photo on the back of the menu of the two main stars and a comment that this was the cafe used in the movie.  

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After that, we drove to a little area known as Happy Valley and went to the movies. We are both fans of the Fast & Furious series and we were not disappointed by our choice of F9.

 

Tomorrow we head to the coast one final time. 

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