Washington 2012 (Day 4: 7/3/12): Port Townsend

We intentionally made our base in Port Angeles with an itinerary of day trips so we could flex with the weather. This day still had scattered showers in the forecast, so we decided to do our Port Townsend day trip which gave us the ability to duck into a shop or museum or restaurant if a significant amount of rain was falling.

Port Townsend is 50 miles east of Port Angeles and was a bustling seaport town in the late 19th century until  an extension of the Northern Pacific Railroad failed to connect it to Tacoma (and Fargo!). The town went into a period of decline until the 1970s when it started attracting hippies and then artists. Today it has its arts community and restored Victorian main street and residences. Ilene had found a historical fiction book, Empire Builders by Linda Chaikin, which was set around the railroad speculation and bust.

After getting additional information at the visitor center, we went to the Jefferson County Museum to learn more about the town's history. The main street area along the harbor had featured shops, saloons, and brothels. "Shanghaiing" was regularly and legally practiced.

Meanwhile, the business owners and other well to do residents lived up on a bluff overlooking the harbor. We toured one of those homes, across the street from the one shown in the picture. Many are now Bed and Breakfasts.

After a morning of travel and museum-ing, we were hungry and dropped into the El Sarape restaurant for a nice lunch. More explorations of shops on main street followed. The most interesting was probably Maestrale Imports which specializes in southeast Asia items for the home. Ilene picked up a recommendation for the Undertown Cafe where we got some nurishment at coffee time when the sky was giving up some raindrops.

Americano with biscotti...

Mocha with cherry cream cheese scone... (if you count carefully, you can identify 4 layers of clothing)

We left town about 4:30 and stopped at Eaglemount Winery and to try some wine and hard cider. I purchased a bottle of semi-sweet hard cider and some goat cheese for my pre-bed snacks the rest of the week. Back in Port Angeles, we stopped at the grocery store and McDonalds to piece together a supper eaten in our hotel room. We went to bed early since we had an early morning start coming up.

Washington 2012 (Day 3: 7/2/12): Sunrise and Patriarchs

Shortly after we had gone to bed, the skies cleared and Mt Ranier was bathed in light from the near full moon, accompanied by a starry host. That was the report of a staffer who had worked the night shift and something missed by those of us who went to bed early. The clear skies were still there in the morning and we were able to take in the mountain in its majesty.

After breakfast and loading the car, we headed east with Reflection Lake as our first stop. This is another popular photo op since in the morning, the mountain reflects perfectly in the still blue lake waters. This is hinted at with the little bit of open water present on July 2nd. We were alone at the pull out and in spite of not seeing the full reflection, enjoyed the sights and sounds of the place for a number of minutes.

Beyond the lake, the road took us along Stevens Canyon. The high steep sides with waterfalls gushing down the sides reminded me of the fjords of Norway. This gem is not given enough press in what to see in the park. At the end of the canyon, we reach our morning hike: the Grove of the Patriarchs where numerous trees had avoided volcanic activity and loggers for hundreds of years. While not as spectacular as redwoods National Park, this grove was worth seeing.

Back in the car, we headed north and then west back towards the mountain to a place called Sunrise which, at 6600 feet, is the highest one can get in the park by car. The road had just opened for the season a few days earlier and of course there was snow at the visitor's center and over the hiking trails.

We could still see the mountain.

While the trails were snow covered, there was a service road by the visitor's center which had been cleared.

In the few foot or two along the roadside which had melted, there were a variety of wild flowers blooming and making their reproductive run. 

After leaving sunrise, we began our trek to the Olympic peninsula. The route took us west along the north side of Mt Ranier and then skirting the southern ends of the city of Tacoma and by the state capital at Olympia. We then picked up the iconic US 101 and headed north along a fork of Puget sound called Hood Canal. Even though it has "canal" in its name, the feature is natural. It is the eastern border of the Olympic Peninsula

US 101 then turned west and soon we reached our based for the rest of the week: The Olympic Lodge in Port Angeles, WA. While not mentioned in Frommers, the motel was highly rated in Travelocity reviews. We had supper at a restaurant called The Bushwacker. We inquired about some of the Washington wines on the menu and the bar tender was gracious in providing an impromptu tasting session. I settled on a Shiraz to have with my prime rib stroganoff. We stopped by a Safeway to stock up the room fridge for breakfast and to get some hiking snacks.

Washington 2012 (Day 2: 7/1/12): When Clouds Hide the Mountain, Seek Waterfalls

Our bodies were still on Central Daylight Time, so it was easy to get up early and hit the road for the three hour drive to Mt Ranier. It was a grey day with low clouds and a few spits of rain. I had some urgency to get to our destination in the national park called "Paradise" as it was very popular due to its great view of the mountain and the trailheads that would lead through meadows with blooming wildflowers just like on the cover of the Frommer's Washington guide. Parking would be scarce.

We arrived and instead of seeing this

we saw this

And instead of meadows with blooming flowers, there was still some snow on the ground (yes, that's a 10 foot high snow drift).

The snow at 5400 feet on July 1st was the real surprise. I suspect I got duped by having Colorado and Montana in mind for expectations where I would expect snow above 10,000 feet this time of year, but not at 5400 feet. The Rockies are quite a ways inland whereas Mt Ranier is close to the coast and Paradise receives ON AVERAGE over 53 feet of snow each year and has had up to 95 feet in a year. It takes a while to melt all that snow, especially when it keeps falling so late into the spring.

We got some lunch at the Paradise visitor's center while rethinking our day. The snow line was at about 5000 feet and we had passed a number of trails to waterfalls and geothermal features on the way up, so decided to take those in and hope for clearer skies the next day.

Longmire is the name of the original park development...a privately owned mineral and hot springs resort purchased to be a national park in 1899. This gas station and other early buildings now form a park museum. A short trail went by some of the springs and facilities of that early development.

 Carter Falls...

Narada Falls....

Christine Falls...

And this fellow took a moment to pose for us on the road.

Once back at Paradise, we checked into our room in the historic Paradise Inn and had supper in the dining room. We were heading to bed at our usual 11:00 PM CDT bedtime / 9:00 PM PDT.

Washington 2012 (Day 1: 6/30/12) : An early Start, A Dear Neighbor

Lights came on and people were stirring at 3:00 AM. Our oldest daughter had left a week before for training and then a month in China at English language camps. On this Saturday, it was our other daughter who needed to be at church by 4:00 AM to catch a bus for New Orleans for a church youth conference and then on to Texas for a week with a friend's family. This gave mom and dad two weeks without kids. We opted to travel to Washington state for one of the weeks.

After dropping Lily at church, we came home to grab our bags and then leave for the airport at 5:00 AM to catch a 6:20 Delta flight to Salt Lake City. It was pretty easy to sleep on that flight. We grabbed a second breakfast at McDonald's at the SLC airport before catching our flight on to Portland, OR. By 11:00 AM we had our rental car and had driven across the Columbia River into Vancouver, WA. There we spent the rest of the day with a dear neighbor who had moved to Vancouver to be closer to family. We enjoyed lunch and dinner and much conversation with Louise before driving a few miles to our LaQuinta Inn for the night.

The itinerary for the rest of the week was centered on two places we didn't get to in our 2010 trip to Oregon - Mt Ranier and the Olympic Peninsula. We figure we have at least two more western Washington trips to take. Our main planning resources were Frommer's Washington, the state tourism guide, and the web. I really like Frommers and have used their books to plan a number of our trips. We also got some input from people who had lived in the region and who are currently living there.

Reservations were made in April after several iterations on itinerary. Round trip airfare with checked bags was $20 plus about 80,000 frequent flyer miles. We had two free hotel nights at LaQuinta in the Portland area. One after our visit with Louise and the other the night before flying home.