Day Tripper

Took a day trip recently to the Olympic peninsula. It was...beautiful. In a way, it was different than what I was expecting. But 'west side' Washington fed my soul in a way that hadn't been fed in awhile. Driving along, it reminded me of the trip I made when I moved here almost exactly two years ago.

The day started with a stop at the gas station in Poulsbo. The population of Poulsbo is just shy of 10,000. For some reason, I thought it was more than that.

I bought corn nuts, water, and a map. All essential traveling elements. (Thanks, Dad, for introducing me to Corn Nuts. Thanks, K-lo, for keeping the love for them alive. Thanks, mom, for giving me an appreciation for H2O, and thank you everybody who helped me learn to love maps.)

Hood Canal floating bridge @ Termination Point

I wish I could show you - I tracked our progress with special map markers. Maybe if I ever got a scanner I could upload it. Hmmm. I brought along the camera because I wanted to show off what it could do. My friend Ridj drove so I could lean out the window and take all the pictures you are about to see.

PS before the actual picture: I am very impressed with what my little $150 camera* (blog post in the making) can do. Just watch:

Look. Not very blurry, yes? Seriously, I just pressed the button. I was trying to capture something else, and when it didn't work and I got this sign in my sights instead, I just laughed and thought, if I were driving, that's what my tire tracks would look like.  Above, see three other examples of what my camera can do at 60 mph. I'm impressed.

And then, because I wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, we stopped on the other side to take a pic or two. Look at that bridge! 

Right: Termination Point

But we weren't terminated...we veered off toward the 19. We meant to go somewhere else to see a lighthouse, but we ended up going to...drumroll...


Bucket List Item #1: Port Townsend instead.

Then we passed a tilty barn that wasn't a Pea in the Barn barn, or a Bill Peet barn...it was just...a tilty barn. And that's why I took a picture of it. I love my new camera!!



Left: Industry. Ridj is smiling because he thinks industry is the meaning of life.  I really like how the steam just rises up into the clouds in the horizon until you can't tell which is which.

Right: Dry Boats. = former industry? Future industry? Either way, coming from the desert, it is weird to see so many boats. And since there is water, it makes it weirder to see them while they're dry.

Right: Hometown Pride

Apparently being 2A high school state baseball champions was the last Big Thing to happen in town. Part of me thinks that's really cool. Also cool that the town thought it was cool enough to put up a We Are Awesome sign.

Right & Left: Downtown Port Townsend...from within the car. There are a lot of pretty, old buildings in the downtown area. It's also full of little specialty shops that are the hallmark of tourist towns. There are also some quaint houses. 







Left: Pseudo Lighthouse. That is to say, it was a house, and it was made to look like a lighthouse. Hence why I thought it actually *was* the lighthouse.

It's really pretty, and probably some rich person who loves lighthouses built it to mimic. They did a good job - it fooled me.

I was so excited!

But...it wasn't the real lighthouse. The real one is Port Wilson.  Ridj, who knows more  about the sea than I do, said we should drive around a bit. (Meaning, he wasn't fooled, but he was too polite to say that I was easily hoodwinked.) So we did. And we found the real deal.  I got close enough to touch it.

My first real lighthouse!

Left: New (functioning) lighthouse. I like the aesthetics of the old one better! As Harrison Ford/Linus Larraby said, "What kind of guy takes a job in a lighthouse?"

This is one of the prettiest things I've seen all year. I wish I'd taken a picture of the whole tree so you could see the awesome shimmery effect it had. Those regrets go right up there with no pic of Mt. Shasta and no pic of the Seahorse Tree. :( :( all the way around. But at least you could see that my camera, in some respects, acts like a DSLR. In other respects, it does not.

See my attempt to focus on the berry below. It was totally awesome and in a kind of weird way reminded me of a fat-bodied spider. Don't be grossed out, it is a friendly spider. And fat, so it won't want to bite you. But you can see that a DSLR would have been handy...

Lighthouse #2: Dungeness

Apparently this is new (ish). It was crazy - you could see over to Canada from some places. (!)


Bucket List Item #2:
Dungeness Spit

Here is my first view (on camera). Of course, again, here's where a DSLR would have come in handy. Or making a panoramic picture. The spit is approx 6 miles long. It's really truly awesome, as you will see later.

We walked down to the spit - it's about a ten minute walk. We didn't walk all the way down. The rocks were hissing at each other as they tumbled over and over, climbing each other like so many kids in one tub...


We weren't the only people there (as you can also see.) One of them took a pic of us on a huge old log.


Poor Ridj, my balance was awful so I was grabbing on to him to keep my balance.

Bucket List Item #3: Hurricane Ridge.

This is aptly named. 

Left: Here is the tunnel.

 It got crazier and crazier  as we went up the hill.
At the bottom, it was green and nice. Then:

Right: Fast-moving mist. It reminded me of Caradhras, in the Misty Mountains. Or maybe I'm getting my Middle-Earth geography mixed up. In any case, it was quite impressive. And cold.
   Then it was a mist blanket. 
And then there was snow on the side of the road.
   Then, you could see the snow line clearly. (Left)
Then, there was snow in the air.

Then, we couldn't see anything except snow if it was more than ten feet in front of us. We got out to explore. We were underprepared.

Below: Ridj is using me as a windshield. 

It was colder than cold, and the wind was swirling around us. I couldn't hear what Ridj was saying to me. We got out and then ice crystals started to pelt us from all directions at thirty miles an hour. We were outside under a minute and I definitely got windburn. Here (right) is a picture of the "view" at the top, where all the skiers were retreating. (The retreat of the skiers was definitely a sign to turn around and go back. Not being stupid, we heeded it and after our 90 second adventure, we did just that.)

 Right: Here's what I looked like immediately after. You can't really see from the picture how hard the wind was blowing. Trust me, it was hard.

The weather was definitely on the downward spiral on our way down the hill. (Below.)

 

Then we drove back through Port Angeles. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the golden elephant, but I was way too tired to even think about pulling my camera out at that point. I needed food and a bed! 

We hadn't eaten a very large lunch, and we were hungry! We both wanted to eat at a diner. We walked into one place and waited around for a couple of minutes and they didn't even try to come and seat us. So we left. Also, it wasn't *just* what I had in mind. 

Highway 101 Diner definitely was. It had the old-fashioned juke box, homemade pie, and, yeah, it was gooood. 

We both got the bbq burger. 

    Rating: 4.25 stars. Food: good. Burger was juicey...didn't taste like McDonald's. It tasted /real./ Service: she forgot my cole slaw side, but quickly remedied the situation when I reminded her. Location: Right on Hwy 101. Easy to find. 

(Ridj got the sweet potato fries and the milkshake. I ate some of his fries. And some of the milkshake.)

And then when we had stuffed ourselves, we drove all the way home.

THE END