Circumnavigation

After an exhausting work-week of staying up late, getting up early, and getting very little accomplished in between, Jamie and I got up at 5 yesterday to prove that we are young and invincible. After packing the car with field guides, lunch, blanket, music, money and all other things we could potentially need, we set of down the road toward 101 North. We stopped at the elbow of the Hood Canal to check it out at low(ish) tide and I fumed about not having binoculars (will borrow some soon from work).

Our journey yesterday took us around the entire Olympic Peninsula: through several reservations, in and out of logging country, in and out of the national forest, in and out of the national park, by tons of state parks, through stands of Douglas Fir, through stands of Sitka Spruce, along the Sound, along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and along the Pacific Ocean. We stopped at LaPush, near the upper corner, and hiked a little less than a mile and a half through some amazing forest to the Pacific. Played in the water, checked out the erosion on the beach, and looked up some interesting plants that we had found on the hike.

The journey was an interesting and dynamic one. Once we woke up after several hours, we continued some of the conversations we have been having throughout the week. Unfortunately, the ceiling was quite low, lifting at points when we were most distressed to show us some snowy mountain, only to settle back down. I am working on the “journey” and not the end result, so it was a good way to force me to watch the patterns in the forest that we were in, as opposed to continually looking in the distance for something cooler than what we were passing.

A little over twelve hours after we left we returned. I promptly settled down with some music and then a book…and then before 9, fell asleep. Today we are planning to go into Seattle. Of course it is raining, but we’ll find adventures I’m sure.