Part III (and last) of our WA Road Trip

Well, all good things must come to an end--our road trip and my blog postings. LOL!  After leaving our campsite at Deception Pass State Park, we took a quick ferry ride over to Port Townsend at the far northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula.  Had we not had the kids with us, Dale and I probably would've spent more time in Port Townsend because it is supposed to be a very cute town, but the kids weren't really into all that, and after 2 nights of camping, all Dale and I really wanted was a shower, so we drove right through the town and onto Port Angeles where we were just staying a Super 8 for the night.  When we made it to the hotel, though, it actually wasn't ready, so the showers would have to wait a bit.  We decided to pass the time by driving up to the Hurricane Ridge viewpoint in the Olympic Nat'l Park where on a clear day, you can get a great view of the Olymic Mts.  Dale and I had been there before, but it was clouded in, which it usually is, but on this day, this is what we saw:

The Olympic Mts. in all their glory!  This should be accompanied by angels singing from the heavens.
click on the photo to see it larger--even then, it doesn't give the view any justice.

I'm very glad that our hotel room wasn't ready because we may not have gone up to Hurricane Ridge that day, and we probably would've missed this view.  It was very nice to get back to the hotel and get a shower, though. 

After that, we met up with some great friends.  Our friends, the Pearsons and their 3 children moved just outside Port Angeles about a year ago and also our dear friend, Annaliese, and her 3 kids who moved to CA a year ago came up to stay with them and then to join us on the last 3 days of our trip.  We found out just after planning our vacation, that she and the kids were coming into town right as we were leaving and then heading back to CA just as we would return.  It was the worst timing and we would've been crushed to miss each other, so we decided to have them join us and it worked out great.  That night, we had dinner with the Pearsons and the Goves.  The kids had a fabulous time hanging out on the beach at the waterfront in Port Angeles.  Here they all are looking for hermit crabs in the rocks.

For the record, one of these isn't ours.  We can only claim 9 of them, as if that isn't enough!

Chloe, Hannah and Gabby who were all born within 5 months of one another.

The next morning we drove toward Forks, WA past the beautiful Crescent Lake. Annaliese was very excited to go to Forks since that was the location of the Twilight Saga. We stopped there for an "interesting" lunch where apparently customer service is not #1 on their list. We took a little detour down to the beach at La Push, which is another key locale in the Twilight series. I was bummed to learn that the movie wasn't actually filmed in La Push, but it was a beautiful beach nonetheless.

We then drove a little further south to the Hoh Rainforest Visitor Center. I had always wanted to go there and see the Hall of Mosses--yes, there is something called the Hall of Mosses. It was a short hike, but did have amazing scenery that I don't think could be seen anywhere else. It was difficult to even attempt to capture the moss on the trees and the shapes it made, but here was one of the most impressive trees on the hike.  It was like the old grandpa tree of the trail. 

After that little detour, which took a little longer than expected, which is how it typically goes on a Lough roadtrip, we pushed on to our final destination.  This was a place in Pacific Beach along the WA coast just north of Ocean Shores.  We found a jewel of place called Seabrook Cottages where they have basically put together a little community of adorable cottages and grand homes.  Our home was so beautiful and cozy and such a relaxing place to spend our last 2 nights.  The kids were thrilled to see that they had an X-Box with some games and flat screen tvs and dvd players in all rooms.  There was also a hot tub, and we were just a short walk down to the beach. 

Here's a photo giving you an idea of the homes.  I wish that I could tell you that our home was the grey one on the corner.  Ours was the much smaller blue one to the left, but it was perfect for us and beautiful as I said.  Some were much larger and grander, but we were extremely pleased with ours.  There was a small (and very good) restaurant and market in the community, and it is still quickly growing with a pool to be opened in Sept. and a big spa and fitness center coming.  They are also continuing to build a lot of homes, which is actually the one complaint I had because right at 8:00 am, all sort of construction noise started. 

Loved these windswept trees above the beach.

Love this image of Owen chasing seagulls in the fog.

The next morning, we awoke to bright sunshine, but then by the time we managed to get around to heading down to the beach, thick fog had rolled in.  We still headed down, and I loved the effect of the fog.  Despite that, it really wasn't very cold and I was amazed at how warm the water was.  I'm sure if you went further out than a few inches over your feet, it was much colder, but normally any kind of water along the OR or WA coast is frigid no matter what time of year or how deep it is. 

The kids had a great time walking along the beach and finding shells and digging in the sand.

All the kids.  Love how they're all cooperating so well.

Hannah always modeling.

The fog did roll back out, and we had a beautiful day.  I was hoping for another beautiful sunset the last night but jsut before sunset, the fog rolled back in.  Hannah, Justin and Gabby wanted to go down to the beach one last time, so Dale and I took them down there, and they were rewarded with finding tons of whole sand dollars.  The tide had gone out and they had just all been left on shore.  They managed to find a whole one for each of the 6 kids.  It was sad to have to depart from our friends that last morning, but we had such a great time just hanging out doing a whole lotta nothing with them.  We hope that soon we can make it down to CA to visit them and in the meantime, we miss them dearly.

My dear friend and I as we say goodbye on our front porch.