Wednesday, January 6th

I'm finally catching up!

We woke up about 8:15 after only staying up til 11 or so. That night, upon request, Julie recounted for me the story of the Twilight Saga as as good substitute for our regular scary story when we sleep over. It was fitting, I suppose, since we were staying in the town where the "saga" was set - Forks, WA.

The plan for the day began with packing up, eating cereal I bought at the grocery store the night before and driving south on the Hwy 101 loop around the peninsula. Not 1 minute on the road and we stopped off at the Logging Museum that had a truck parked outside that was similar to the one the main character had in the 'saga'. She wanted a picture, and I took a picture of her taking a picture. :) Back on the road again, we stuck in an episode or three of "Our Miss Brooks", which Julie was slightly familiar with. In just under an hour we ended up at the Hoh Rain Forest - one of the world's only temperate rain forests. I had put us on a tight schedule, as we needed to get back home in time for my monthly Navy meeting. But that still gave us over an hour in the rain forest. We walked the "Hall of Mosses" trail, and it was a cathedral of green. I was overcome with how beautiful the hanging mosses and fallen trees were... I walked with my mouth agape.

We had noticed a stinky smell as we crossed the river starting the trail, and when we returned, I finally noticed what it was. On the bottom of the river I saw the jaw of a dead salmon resting near the bridge. And upon a little careful investigation, we found many more... some exposed to the air. Although sad, I've always been fascinated by the salmon life-cycle, so I was very glad to see what we did.

As we were coming down the trail to return, we saw some splashing down in the river. After a moment, Julie spotted the cause... three river otters playing together. Neither of us had seen them in the wild before, so it capped a perfect trip to the rain forest. Although known for its substantial rainfall, we happened to visit on a sunny day. The low-lying clouds were illuminated by a golden sun.

Back on the road, we stopped for gas as soon as we could (for the first time this trip) at an old-style gas pump which had to be studied before being used :) Soon after this we came to an overlook on the ocean with a giant cliff. We got pretty darn near the edge and I took a couple pictures. The drive was long, but very pretty. We circled the Olympic mountains and observed a lake... we drove for four hours after the rain forest. We headed east after Aberdeen and went up I-5 through Olympia and Tacoma and I-405 through Renton and Bellevue all the way home. We unpacked the car and freshened up before heading back to Bellevue for my Navy meeting. That was an hour and a half, and then we came home for dinner, a game of Phase 10, a game of Spite & Malice, and then we all watched "Lady on a Train" before I took Julie home. What a day, again!

Jp