Peter and Mandy: First Plane Ride, First Ferry Ride and First Stamp in the Passport! Part 2

Monday, August 1, 2011

First Plane Ride, First Ferry Ride and First Stamp in the Passport! Part 2

Saturday morning we hopped back in the car and did A LOT of driving. We drove to Olympic National Park. Walked on a few trails and said hello to the deer. There were two baby deer grazing next to us and one walked directly in front of me. From here we climbed back in the car and drove FOREVER (3 hours one way) to get to the Hoh Rainforest. After being cooped up in a car for so long, we took two of the hiking trails-mainly because I didn't want to get back into the car and neither did Connor.

The view from one of the look out points

A deer along the road

An absolutely amazing view-and not a cloud in sight either.

A family portrait

Baby deer at play

Sometimes I think snow is very strange-this was in the parkinglot

Some snow covered paths, while two feet away were totally green paths.
The trees in the back were burnt in a 2004 fire.

Walking to the car

The Hoh Rainforest

I loved all the moss everywhere and how it just hangs on the trees

More moss

I thought the broken trees were pretty fascinating too

A little river

Another family portrait

We eventually got back in the car and drove back to Grandpa's house. For dinner we enjoyed some yummy deep fat fried calamari and fish (yes I ate both and liked them both-I even told them I like Calamari ahead of time so they made it for me).

Dinner was very good!

Sunday morning we decided we needed a bit of a break. We were all tired of driving so we hung out and took it easy for the most part. It was a really hot day (up until this point their area had 79 minutes of the year of temperatures above 80 degrees. So unfortunately all I brought with me were long sleeved shirts and sweaters. We had to make a quick trip to Walmart to buy t-shirts and then I was much happier. (I only packed cool weather clothes because we were told that the weather was pretty cold there, and the days that I was able to see the weather forecast said highs would be low to mid 60's, hence long sleeves and sweaters sounded like a smart plan.)

In the morning we went to see the house that Grandpa is building. It's beautiful! It looks amazing on the outside, has floor in some of the areas and the kitchen was being put together, but that was about all that was done. Looks like it is going to be a great house. We're invited back when it's done as he will have plenty of space and extra rooms for us to use. (While staying at Grandpa's house he gave us his room and he stayed at the new house on an air mattress.) After seeing the new house we drove out to the famous spit and saw bald eagle nests.

Then we headed home and took a walk to go feed a goat named Crocket. It was a long walk and it was super hot outside, I was oh so glad to have a short sleeved shirt. We fed Crocket a little bit of lettuce and then continued on a trail to this cute bridge. This is where Amy and Anthony were married last year so they call it the marriage bridge. It was pretty. On the way back to the house we stopped and fed Crocket some more. Crocket's owner even brought him out to where we were so Connor could get a closer look.