This was probably one of the most anticipated and memorable days of our trip. We’d planned on going to the Olympic Peninsula and seeing all the places that we’d dreamed about for the past 20 years.
We got up early to catch the first ferry; the first one was supposed to be at 5:30 AM, but as it turned out, it wasn’t until 7:30. So, we sat and waited until the ferry showed up.
Once onboard, we left the car and went to the topside observation deck for our 30 minute trip across the sound. We spoke to some people who had a husky dog with them but before we knew it, we needed to head back to the car to offload the ferry in Kingstown.
We disembarked the ferry and found our way tot the 101 and headed north towards Hurricane Ridge. We got into the park after picking up a Veteran’s pass and drove to the top of the ridge. It’s called Hurricane Ridge because of the hurricane force winds that the ridge can get. We spent about 45 minutes on the ridge walking around, taking in the sights, and taking some pictures, then we worked our way back down the mountain. By the time we got back to the gate, there was a line of cars going all the way back to the road that led to Port Angeles. There are only so many parking spots at the top of the ridge, so they only let in so many cars in at a time. Once the lot is full, they only let one car in for every car that goes out.
We left the Port Townsend area and drove back east towards the area of Sequim to see the lavender fields. We stopped at the B & B Family Farm to cut some fresh lavender and look around a bit. Sequim is known for the commercial farming of lavender.
After making a few purchases at the lavender farm, we went back towards Port Townsend to meet my friend, Ryan, for lunch. Ryan and I went to high school together and joined the navy about the same time. As I recall, he was in the service about two weeks before I was. We’ve seen each other a handful of times since both joining the Navy, but we’ve been able to stay in touch with one another over the years. Every time we get together, it’s like we pick up right where we left off. This is the first time we’ve been able to meet him near his home.
After lunch at Fat Smitty’s, a roadside burger joint that looks like it’s been there since the 1940’s, we decided to try and see all the other places we’ve wanted to see on the Olympic Peninsula. We left Fat Smitty’s and drove back to Port Angeles, this time passing through the town and heading towards Lake Crescent.
Directly after Crescent Lake, we were able to go over to Sol Duc Falls, another national park near the lake. This one was famous for the waterfall in the park that was about a mile and a half from the trailhead. We got into the park and found the trailhead and decided to go see the falls.
The forest was beautiful. It wasn’t like any forest I’d ever been in before. The trees were so big. It is considered a temperate rain forest, but it was dry. Some of the plants that we say in the forest in Alaska were there in Washington.
The falls were beautiful, but not the one I’d pictured in my mind’s eye. It is the start of the Sol Duc River that goes into Forks.
When we were all done at the falls and leaving the national park, I looked at the time and decided that we had just enough time to see Forks to see the sights made famous by the Twilight series. We saw the famous welcome sign that was in the movie, the high school, Bella’s truck and her house. We really wanted to go our to La Push and see First Beach, but we’d been running all day and we were short on time. We had to get back to Kingston for the last ferry of the day.
We made our way back to the Kingston ferry terminal and waited our turn to get on the last boat back to Edmonds. Once on the ferry, I took a nap in the driver’s seat, we’d been up since about 4:30 AM, and we made it back to the hotel safe and sound.
We’d done so much this day, I didn’t know if there was going to be anyway to top it.
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