After a great time in Oregon, we drove north into Washington along the Pacific coast (well, the first two pictures are actually along the Columbia River, north of Astoria).
Our two stops were both in the Olympic National Park.
First, we visited Ruby Beach. Despite being clear almost every other place in Washington that day, it was foggy/ misty at the beach, which made it a little more magical.
Those kids are really sweet together.
The next stop was the Hoh Rainforest. We were pretty excited about checking out a temperate rainforest (rather than tropical ones, like in Hawaii). It's quite a long drive into Olympic to get to it and it ended up being sunny, instead of rainy, misty or foggy. While I am a big fan of sunny days, it seemed less magical to walk through the forest of moss and ferns with bright sun shining. Still, it was pretty cool!
We talked about how many of the little mossy spots on fallen logs looked like fairy places. Look at the dainty flowers.
After driving through Forks (yes, from Twilight fame), we ended in Port Angeles. We had two nights there before taking the ferry to Vancouver Island. We had a little, well-needed downtime that first morning and got going mid-day to some local spots in the Sequim area.
Purple Haze Lavender Farm was the first stop.
After being mesmerized by the beautiful fields of lavender as we drove up, we spotted the cutest sight, a family of quails. It looked like there was a momma, dad and about a dozen babies. So cute! They scurried into the field of lavender when they saw us get out of the car, but they were adorable while we could watch them!
Isn't the farm beautiful?
First we toured the gardens. So many pretty flowers!
And then the kids ran and played among the lavender beds while Eric and I watched and enjoyed the smell.
Eventually we checked out the store, and we all got lavender ice cream that we ate on the back porch of the store. It was good ice cream! Mine was lavender and lemon. Mmmm!
We could have spent the whole afternoon there with the kids playing and Eric and I enjoying the view.
Look how pretty the Venza is among the lavender!
After, we drove a few miles west to the Dungeness National Wildlife Preserve. It is a long sand spit (I got excited because there's a sand spit in Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Ashlynn was able to make a connection). Before getting to the five plus mile long sand spit (one of the longest in the world, apparently) that has a lighthouse at its end, there is a lovely walk through a forest.
The spit has the Strait of Juan de Fuca on one side and peaceful Dungeness Bay and Dungeness Harbor on the other. It is covered in weathered and sun bleached driftwood and is a wildlife preserve so there were some restricted parts.
The snowy Olympic mountains in the background.
Again, the kids had such a great time talking and playing as they walked. Eric and I were able to walk alone and talk.
We enjoyed our first few days in Washington and look forward to coming back through (Seattle) on our way back from Canada.
