 |
| view from our room (click photo for full panorama) |
We had another full week of sunshine in Seattle last week and wanted to make the most of what we assumed would be another glorious weekend, so Cheryl and I took Friday off and drove to Port Angeles. Originally, we had a great weekend planned in Whistler, but there are an inordinate number of wildfires burning in British Columbia right now and after looking at some live video and reading some news articles (findings: the air quality in Whistler was compared to that of Beijing and the mayor of Whistler was encouraging people to stay indoors - Indoors? In Whistler??) I cancelled the hotel reservation and we decided to come to Port Angeles instead. We arrived at the Red Lion on Friday afternoon, checked into our very nice waterfront room, and strolled around the town.
 |
| Cheryl and the rocktopus |
Today we got up early and went sea kayaking. The good news: the Straight of Juan de Fuca was calm and almost glassy; the bad news: it rained almost the entire time we were on the water. Oh well, that's what wet-suits (Spanx of the sea) are for. Cheryl and I thought it was a bit of over-kill when our guide Brogan told us to suit up, but it turned out to be a good move. It rained fairly steadily, but the padding was very pleasant, as was our guide, and we saw otters (bunnies of the sea), a harbor seal (puppies of the sea), cormorants (they're just birds, I got nothin'), sea stars, and lots of bull kelp. Nice way to spend the morning.
After we kayaked, we stopped at a homey cafe for a late breakfast, and then drove to the Lake Crescent Lodge. I've passed by Lake Crescent many times but have never stopped lake-side before. It's a beautiful clear blue lake and lodge looks like a wonderful place to stay. From there we did a fairly easy hike (in the rain but sheltered by the trees) to Marymere Falls which was gorgeous.
 |
| Lake Crescent |
Back in town we did a little more perusing of the shops and then had Thai food for dinner. When I was a kid, my parents and I used to drive 90 minutes from Sacramento to Berkeley because that's what you had to do to get Thai food back in the old days. Now you can get perfectly good Thai food in industrial port towns in rural Washington. Progress, people, this is progress.
