PACIFIC NORTHWEST,
Washington, USA – 2001
To celebrate Daddy’s 50th
birthday, we visited several parts of the Pacific Northwest in July, 2001.
SEATTLE
After
flying out to Seattle through Boston, we arrived in the evening
and were picked up by my (great) Aunt Marion and Uncle Bob. The next day Keith
(their son) up came from California. This was my first time
meeting them all. We did a bit of shopping and then had a picnic at Beaver Lake. The picture is actually
of us looking at the lake. The next day we went on a boat tour of Lake Washington. From it we saw Bill
Gates' house among other palatial residences. In fact the majority of Bill
Gates’ house (and probably others) is underground and for a billionaire, from
the outside at least, looked surprising unassuming. Then we went out for supper
at an oriental restaurant.
SAN JUAN ISLANDS
The next day we rented a
car and drove to Anacortes where we got on a ferry that would take us to our
second stop: San Juan Island. We stayed on the
southwest coast of the island in a cabin nearly right next to the shore (we
could see orca whales and seals from our sitting room window!) There was a just
whale lookout point 30 seconds walk away. We saw our first whale as soon as we
arrived there. One morning I went out early to the lookout spot and could hear
some heavy breathing near me. A bit scared, I looked around for my stalker,
only to realize that it was actually the breathing of a single whale rolling in
the glass calm sea a little way off shore!
On our first full day we
went on a whale watching boat trip. The operators had a tip off that there were
transient orcas off of Canada. We had to take a random
route to get there to try to throw other private leisure boats from following
us. The transient orcas that we saw are generally regarded as a subspecies
because they behave so differently from normal resident orcas. They are the
meat eaters that will grab seals off of rocks but resident orcas only eat
salmon. We saw several seals just a few feet above the water and were staring,
waiting in horror fascination for their death. We didn’t actually see the kill
and seemed to ignore them, which was probably lucky for my stomach! We found
the pod of orcas (T20 and T21 and probably T18 and T19) just outside of Active Pass. It had taken us an hour
at full speed to get that far. We followed them through the pass for about an
hour before we had to return to the harbour.
Our second day was spent
sea kayaking. We were luckily in a small group (just 3 double kayaks) so when
we were paddling away and caught sight of a pod of orcas (residents this time,
and luckily for us too!) right in front of us, the guide took us out so that we
could get a better look. We were not intending to intrude into their space, but
we found them literally all around us! One huge one went even swam right under
us, which was a bit unnerving, especially when we could look through the water
and see its white markings under us!.
Apart
from the orcas, there was a great variety of wild life. We had a family of deer
that lived just behind our cabin and a raccoon that came to our cabin door when
ever we cooked and sometimes when we weren't cooking. We also saw several bald
eagles, bats, hummingbirds, seals, a fox, porpoises, brightly coloured
starfish, sea anemones and otters.
LAKE CRESCENT
Our next area to visit
was back on the mainland. We stayed in a hotel on Lake Crescent on the Olympic
Peninsula. From there we were able to try white water rafting, go on a scenic drive
to Hurricane Ridge, and we took a couple of walks through the edge of the
temperate Hoh rainforest. When we first arrived it was quite cold and dreary
but we were able to go for a short walk to the Marymere water fall. It was very
pretty and once within the trees the grey sky was hardly visible. The height of
the tall, tall trees were amazing, they could make several telephone poles.
After that we also went to Dungeness Spit where it was so cold that we didn't
stay very long, but some people were even swimming! I suppose they figured it
was summer and therefore warm?
The
next day was better weather so we decided to experience white water rafting on
the Elwah River, not too far from Lake Crescent. It was very scenic but
unfortunately there had not been the normal amount of snow during the winter
which meant there was not as much water in the stream as normal. We did get wet
and had fun though!
Because
the water that was in the river had only just come off the mountains the water
was only about 400F! Some children in the other raft who were with
us went swimming in it! These people in Washington are seriously made of
different stuff!
Later that day we went to
Hurricane Ridge still with good weather. It is rare that it is such good
weather that you can see the mountains clearly. We had a good viewing (the
panoramic view shown above). The wild flowers all along the side of the road
were amazing. There were view points and places to let cars pass over take, so
we were able to stop and get a good look at 
them. We saw miniature
tiger lilies, wild columbines, purple shooting star columbines, lupines (the
same type that I had been growing at home!) monkey flowers, delphiniums, a type
of orchid, and an unidentified purple flower.
On
our last day we went to the Sol Duc Hot Springs. But when we got there, all we
saw were tons of people squashed into some man made swimming pools apparently
heated by the springs! Luckily we had been told about some walks that went
along the river leading up to the hot springs and went above the Sol Duc Water Falls. We saw the waterfalls,
and that is as far as most people want to go. We decided to go on a further
walk through the forest. That was really pretty too because we saw several more
small waterfalls but there were almost no people. Mummy was looking for bears
and elk but she never saw one!
Later
that day we were back at Lake Crescent and we rented hydro
bikes! You pedal but instead of the chain turning the wheels it spins a
propeller. They were definitely interesting. We thought they would be fun in
Harrington Sound but then realised that they would rust immediately!! Obviously
because we were on the water I couldn't take any photos.
HOH
RAINFOREST
On
our way from Lake Crescent to Kalaloch on the Pacific Coast we stopped in the main
tourist part of the Hoh Rainforest. We went on the short touristy walk, 'Hall
of Mosses', the one that you see on all the post cards (left). But it was very
pretty and took you past all the main parts. Then we went on a longer path that
was very pretty and without the people. We saw several nurse logs. They are
fallen trees which rot into a compost of rich nutrients. New trees take root
easily on them so they end up getting seven or eight trees growing all in a
row. It looks quite weird when the nurse log rots away leaving the row of trees
with a tunnel going through their bases. They were experiencing a dry summer
(which was quite nice for us on holiday) but it meant the mosses were looking a
bit brown but there were still some green oases and it definitely had the feel
of a rainforest.
KALALOCH
After we had been to the
rainforest we carried on to Kalaloch (pronounced Claylock), our final
destination. We arrived in the evening to find we had the cabin with what must
have had the best view. Everyone who wanted to take photos took them from right
next to us. It was extremely idyllic. There was a small creek that led down to
the Pacific
Ocean in front of our cabin. Every time of the day it had a different
light on it and a different tide level, giving it a completely different
atmosphere from a couple hours earlier. Beyond the cabin could see the ocean
just beyond 
with all the huge pieces
of driftwood littered everywhere.
While
we were eating supper we saw someone with a stunt kite which looked like lots
of fun, so I had to buy one, and it was tons of fun! Unfortunately we only had
one full day in the area. Apart from flying the kite for a little while in the
afternoon, we spent the day exploring the coast. We had heard about Ruby Beach. It has several huge
stacks of rock left from former headlands. We visited several other beaches
(imaginatively called Beach 1, Beach 2 etc) on the way back to Kalaloch and
then had a good poke round the drift wood and tide pools there. We saw two
snakes amongst the wood which gave me a very good reason to try and walk
everywhere from one piece of drift wood to another! That evening, after supper,
we made a fire from collected driftwood on the beach which made a nice ending
to our holiday.
We drove
back to Seattle the next day, spent our final night back with Aunt Marion, and
then caught a flight back to Boston where we
spent half the night until we left for Bermuda. We fitted
a lot into less than two weeks!
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