Washington Coast & Olympic National Park
Like most other days, we hit the road again in the AM and left Lake Quinault. We were en route to Olympic National Park, planning on making a stop somewhere along the coast to check out a Washington beach. We arbitrarily decided to stop at Ruby Beach, one of numerous beaches we drove past.
And WOW, what a stunning scene we stepped into! Picture black sand littered with driftwood and rocks. The water was absolutely frigid, but we still waded through it to explore the shore. There were big starfish just hanging out in little tide pools amidst the rocks – I’m talking several inches long, and orangey-pink. I’ve never seen such big starfish in the wild! (Well, minus the blue sea stars in Australia).
We rolled into the town of Forks, home of ‘Twilight’ (yes, the obnoxious movie that came out recently). Apparently the story takes place here, and it’s literally the one thing keeping Forks on the map. And they totally exploit it by posting signs everywhere advertising for Twilight tours and memorabilia. This merited nothing but excessive eyerolls from us as we drove on through.
We had some nachos at a diner for lunch. Lauren and I are pretty healthy eaters, but we have a weakness for the occasional plate of nachos drenched in fake cheese. Hey, there’s some calcium in cheese! And the beans and chicken are full of protein! It can’t be all bad, right? 
The parking lot just happened to house one of those drive-thru Espresso Huts, so naturally we had to stop for our daily caffeine fix. Mmm Ghiradelli dark mocha! It suffices to say that today was not one of our healthier diet days… but that’s the essence of vacation, right?
From Forks, we followed Rt. 101 which wove in and out of Olympic National Park. The park itself is huge and comprised of several different ecosystems. By Lake Quinault is the rainforest region, which we’d largely bypassed. Crossing across the northern portion, we drove by more lakes and waterfalls that begged to be photographed. The road hugged one particular lake that was just the brightest shade of blue I’ve seen in a long time. I couldn’t take my eyes off it!
Once again by arbitrary decision, we pulled over at the sign for Marymere Falls. It was noted in one of my travel books for being particularly pretty, and included a brief hike through the woods to reach the falls. The forest is so different from what I’m used to in the Northeast. Everything seems so much greener and more lush. Tree stumps covered in moss and fungi, streams to cross over via foot bridges… it would have been quite peaceful had there not been a huge group of school kids causing a ruckus on the trail. They were running around and yelling, and Lauren kept cursing them under her breath for scaring away all the wildlife. It was pretty disrespectful, and I’m kind of surprised the group leaders didn’t do anything to keep the kids in line.
The falls were supposedly 90ft high, and gorgeous as waterfalls tend to be. It was difficult to get a decent angle of it with a fence in the way… but alas.
The highlight of our time in the Olympics was supposed to be a grand hike at Hurricane Ridge, known to yield fantastic views of the mountains. However, all of the trails were closed until summer and still covered in snow. GRR! So incredibly frustrating to trek all the way out here to these famous parks, only to be bested by weather conditions. It’s funny though because the weather itself was nothing short of glorious the entire two weeks, yet snow still lingered in mountainous regions. From my research, I’d known this would be a possibility before we even decided on dates for the trip. You just never know ahead of time for sure. *sigh*
We drove along a long, winding road uphill with fabulous views of the mountains and glaciers. It almost made it ok that we wouldn’t be able to hike for more of these views because it was already so beautiful. Still, nothing’s ever as good as being a part of it all, being so completely immersed in it that you can think of nothing but that exact moment, knowing you can’t possibly soak it all in or properly commit it to memory (or photograph).
We perused the gift shop and admired the mountainous views from the top, even wandering a ways down a snow-covered trail. I stopped not too long into a steady decline, thinking that it wouldn’t be the funnest thing ever to walk back up the slippery trial in hiking boots, leaving Lauren to have her zen-like experience solo. Even if we didn’t get to hike much, I appreciated the Winter Wonderland we had stepped into. It’s almost remarkable to see snow everywhere, knowing that with a 15-minute drive down the mountain we’d be back in 75-degree weather.
After our non-hike, it was time for Lauren to psych herself up for the drive to Olympia, which she’d been waiting to visit since her teenage years. Naturally she blasted her ‘riot grrl’ music the whole way, and I wanted to die a little. We stopped at a town called Brinnon on the Puget Sound and had dinner at a restaurant/bar. We had a lovely view of the sound from our table, which was set off to the side of the main bar area (which was full of middle aged folk). I decided to embrace the fish culture of Washington and ordered clam chowder and an oyster sandwich. Chowder’s a favorite, and this one didn’t disappoint. However, it was my first time trying oysters. I couldn’t resist the ‘unforgettable’ and ‘famous’ (and, not surprisingly, enormous) oyster sandwich listed on their menu. It was actually quite delicious, though I could only stomach half of it at the time. That thing was HUGE!
The remainder of the drive to Olympia was uneventful. We arrived at our hotel after dark and the receptionist knew who we were when we checked in (either because the place was nearly empty, or because we were the last ones to arrive for the day… or both?). Lauren and I were thrilled to be in a hotel, albeit a very modest one. We enjoyed the most comfortable beds and pillows of the trip at this place. It was the perfect time to crash from our accumulated exhaustion. Plus, I was still overstuffed from my fish dinner. In fact, I was pretty much incoherent and ended up babbling about how I was going to give birth to oyster babies and that I absolutely couldn’t move from the bed. Oh drama queens! Lauren debated staying in bed too, but in the end she mustered up the energy to leave for a night out in Olympia. She wanted to experience the music and nightlife she’d heard so much about all these years, and I don’t blame her (I mean, if the riot grrl scene was my thing). Unfortunately for her, it was literally the one night of the week the city (town?) was dead. She spent a few hours hanging out at an empty bar with the bartender and his friend, and apparently saw the booth oft-frequented by some well-known riot grrl artist, so I guess that made it worth it?
