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Once again it was Les’ idea. (A recurring theme). I don’t remember what started the discussion. Possibly reminiscing about Italy. But the subject of another car trip came up.
Les had driven up the Washington coast before and wanted to again. I had never done it so I was interested. Marion and I had driven up the California and Oregon coasts on our honeymoon but we had never gotten north of Portland. On top of that, he suggested we take the ferry to Victoria, British Columbia. That was the clincher. That sounded cool.
So we scheduled a long weekend, packed a few things into Les’ Volvo, and headed out on a Thursday. We had no real plan other than to follow Highway 101 up the coast and stop when it got to be night time.
Thursday:
We headed north up I-5, then headed west to Aberdeen and the coast. We had no plans to stop in Aberdeen but as we drove through town we noticed a large wooden structure off to our right. We couldn’t tell what it was but it seemed out of place so we went to check it out.
It turned out to be an old baseball stadium. Well, stadium is a bit of a stretch, but it was a great old structure. All wood, covered bleachers on two sides, with posts holding up the roof. If had a great ‘old-timey’ feel. In fact it was more than that. The place had apparently been built during the Aberdeen heyday when timber was king and there was some kind of factory league playing in town. It was an impressive structure but had clearly been on the decline for some time. It had such a faded glory feel. And in that way mirrored the town which was also clearly past its prime.
But the sense that those players were still there was palpable. A real “Field of Dreams” feeling that the ghosts came out and played on a Saturday afternoon. There was a little league game going on but all I could see in my mind was players in old-time uniforms and those old barely-bigger-than-your-hand leather gloves. And a big crowd out to cheer for the hometown team. I’ve never felt such a strong sense of ‘if these walls could talk’ before or since.
Unfortunately it was late in the day and too dark for our cameras so we have no pictures of it, which is too bad. But so far anyway, I don’t have any problem remembering it and picturing it in my mind.
It was getting late so we continued on to the coast at Ocean Shores where we ate clam fritters for dinner. We ended up at the Pacific Shores Resort. The term ‘resort’ in the northwest is typically used when there’s something else to do there besides sleep. Maybe boats or horses or a beach. But typically not in the sense of ‘upscale’ as you might find at a ‘resort’ in Hawaii. I don’t remember what made this place a ‘resort’ but I do remember distinctly it wasn’t the quality of the rooms.
Friday:
Friday we continued up the coast. We stopped for a late breakfast at the Green Lantern — a café/tavern. Even in the morning there were already men there getting started with their drinking. They definitely had a ‘lumberjack’ feel to them. It was fairly easy to tell that times were tough in the timber industry from what we had already seen on the drive, but this was the clincher.
The tavern had a long shuffleboard table. Like the real thing with the big sticks but on a long tabletop (maybe 10 ft?) with smaller disks. We took the opportunity to get a game or two in. I had never done it before and didn’t particularly excel. But it was fun. We then bid the sad unemployed lumberjacks goodbye and continued north.
Hwy 101 heads inland a bit at this point and skirts the edge of the Olympic National Forest. Near Lake Quinalt we saw a sign for the ‘Tallest Spruce Tree” which was enough to cause us to detour. According to Google, Lake Quinalt is the “Valley of the Rain Forest Giants”. The tallest spruce (thanks once again to Google) is 58 feet, 11 inches in circumference, with a diameter of 18 feet, 9 inches and is 191 feet tall, which no matter how you slice it, is pretty big. I have no recollection of this tree nor did we take any pictures. But Les assures me it’s the reason we detoured to Lake Quinalt.
What I do remember about Lake Quinalt is that once we turned off we ventured well into the forest. There was a sign indicating the road was closed and Les, demonstrating a trait I would come to know well over the years, decided he needed to see if it was really true. So down a gravel road into the Olympic Forest we went. And sure enough, at some point well into the forest, the road was washed out and we could go no farther. This is where Les came to learn a valuable lesson about traveling with me, which is don’t venture off into the wilderness without a ready food supply. I have this metabolism and blood sugar algorithm that operates on the principle that everything is fine until it isn’t. That is, suddenly, I drop off the proverbial blood sugar cliff. When that happens I become very grumpy and unable to make simple decisions. We weren’t anywhere near a food supply when this happened.
But, we were in the rain forest and at the end of the road, so we got out to have a look around and take a few pictures. Somewhere along the way, maybe even at this point, we decided that what we needed were pictures of the Volvo in various settings. Well, I should say Les had the idea (it was his car) and I suspect if I had more to eat, there would have been less of that going on. But the ‘Volvo goes hiking’ series continued from this trip into others until the Volvo had to be abandoned as our vehicle of choice.
There wasn’t much to do but turn back, so we ventured back down the same road, which was much less interesting the second time around, and back to the highway and got me some food. Things improved at that point.
We continued north and came upon a turn off to the Hoh rain forest. We were not aware there was a rain forest in Washington but later discovered that the western side of the Olympic peninsula gets upwards of 150 inches of rain a year. It’s a ‘temperate rain forest’ meaning you don’t have to go to Costa Rica to see it. As I recall it was not raining that day, which had to be somewhat unusual. But I’m sure a sign for ‘rain forest’ was intriguing and that’s why we pulled off to see it.
We went for a brief hike. I don’t recall the forest looking any different than any other northwest forest I’d been to but I’m sure someone with a bit more background in plant biology than I have would have been impressed. My plant biology experience pretty much extends to the difference between trees, bushes and other plants. Well, and I can distinguish a conifer from a deciduous tree and I’m pretty good at identifying a fern.. But that’s about it. The forest certainly didn’t look like it suffered from a lack of rainfall but then again pretty much no forest west of the Cascades does.
From there, farther north again, passing through the town of Forks, which at the time we didn’t realize was a hotbed of vampires and werewolves but since the release of the ‘Twilight’ series, it seems we were lucky to get out of there alive. I don’t remember it at all. What I do remember is we turned left there and headed to the coast at La Push where we took a short hike out to 2nd Beach as the sun was going down. The beach was beautiful. And even better, the tide was very low, exposing lots of rocks covered with colorful starfish. The sun was setting behind a row of rocks and sea stacks and it was quite amazing. We took lots of pictures. I employed a new tripod I had just gotten. Years later the legs on it still grated going in and out from sand acquired from 2nd Beach.
I don’t remember how long the trail was to the beach but it was at least a mile or two. And now that the sun had gone down, not too surprisingly it was getting dark. We hadn’t brought any flashlights with us and there was pretty much no moon that night (just a thin sliver). We made it back to the car before things became pitch black, but I remember being fascinated watching as images faded out before us. First the color would disappear. Then it became difficult to discern shapes. Living in the ‘burbs you never really get out where it’s truly dark so I hadn’t really experienced this before.
We continued on to Port Angeles where we found a hotel near the ferry to Victoria so we’d be ready to get in line first thing in the morning.
Saturday:
Saturday we got up in plenty of time to catch the ferry. We parked the car in line and went off to find breakfast. I seem to recall having to hurry back to load up the car. That sounds like us. The ferry to Victoria was a very pretty ride. And my first ferry ride on the Washington State ferry system. Somewhere along the way we decided that ferry rides were so cool that we should maximize the number of ferries we took to get home.
We arrived in Victoria and had a look around. Victoria is a very beautiful city with a nice harbor. We had a look at the Parliament building and the Empress Hotel (although we did not stop in for tea) and took a brief tour around town. It was my first trip to Victoria and I remember I found it very pleasant.
We headed north. I don’t think we had any specific plan, other than to see as much of Vancouver Island as we could before we had to leave the next day. I don’t remember much about the drive north, other than we came across a building made out of bottles (and only because we have a picture of it). But I do remember finding it enjoyable enough that we planned to come back on another trip and explore the island more fully (which we did in 1995).
North of Nanaimo, we saw a sign for Cathedral Grove and Englishman River Falls. That was enough to cause us to turn off. Les remembers Cathedral Grove but I don’t. Even looking at pictures of it on the web. But it seems nice. It’s a small stand of particularly large trees. Per Les it was the sort of thing that made us think that there were going to be lots of big trees on the Island. A notion that was brutally dispelled on subsequent trips — in as much as it seemed to be the goal of the Islanders to cut down every tree on the island — except perhaps for Cathedral Grove.
We continued on to Englishman River Falls Provincial Park and spent a good chunk of the afternoon there. The falls are quite large. Wide more than tall, but very impressive. And lots of rocks to climb across and around while dodging the water. We had a great time.
We ended up at a hotel in Nanaimo that I can’t remember at all. In fact I can’t picture Nanaimo in my mind let alone a hotel there. That’s what happens when you don’t take any pictures.
Sunday:
Sunday morning we drove back down to Victoria to catch the ferry to Anacortes. Actually Sidney, where the ferry terminal is. The ferry takes about 3 hours and winds its way through the main San Juan islands, stopping at Friday Harbor and I think a few other islands on the way. The scenery was fantastic and I remember thinking that much like in Venice, you get an awfully good tour just riding public transit.
We could have taken the highway from Anacortes to I-5 to head south but in the ongoing effort to maximize the number of ferry rides, instead we headed due south to Whidbey Island.
We stopped at Deception Pass State Park and went out for a hike along the dunes. The weather had definitely gotten more breezy and chilly and there was a reasonable amount of fog. The seagulls appeared to be grounded and were all lined up along the shoreline as if waiting for clearance from the tower.
We still had a ways to go to get home so we didn’t stay long. We continued down to the end of the island at Clinton where we got in line for the Mukiteo ferry. I can’t remember if we were too far back in line to make the ferry that was leaving or if it had just left or if there just weren’t that many that day but I do remember we had quite a long wait. This is when the rule was established that a Frisbee should be in the car at all times. A nugget of wisdom that has since been passed on to the next generation.
From there it was just a straight shot back home down I-5. In what was to become a theme, we covered a lot of miles in a short period of time but still felt like we didn’t see nearly as much as we wanted to. The seed was planted for more trips to Vancouver Island.
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