I had a workshop to go to last Friday. It was put on by a publisher and its partner, Microsoft...the publisher was Wiley. This was the publisher's way of selling its latest combined effort with Microsoft, so everything was paid for, including 2 nights at the Westin. What's so wonderful about the Westin? Has anyone ever slept in one of their beds? I rest my case.
The conference was in Bellevue, WA...just across a Lake Washington, East of Seattle. Before I made my decision to attend, I thought I'd probably want to leave as early as possible on Saturday to come home...um, but then I got to thinking...since I'm there, why not explore? Hmmmm...so, I googled that part of Washington and did some research. I decided I was gonna take the latest flight possible out of SEATAC in order to do as much as possible on Saturday. I also paid attention to the weather...Saturday was the first day of predicted sunshine after a week of clouds and rain. I decided to rent a car for the whole time I was there, so I could just take off. I'd never been to that part of the country by plane, much less, by car, but I figured what the heck...the worst I could do is get lost.
Making up my mind about where to go was the hardest thing, though. I finally figured it out Friday afternoon. I decided on the Straight of Juan de Fuca and Olympic Natl. Park. This meant a ferry ride from Edmonds to Kingston across Puget Sound, but it was a short ride.
So, Saturday morning began with an amazing sunrise over the Eastern coastal mountain range.
I spent the wee hours mapping out my route and I decided to write down all the turns based on mapquest...I didn't have a printer, nor did I have a map...meh.
It was early when I left and the traffic was pretty light considering the traffic on a regular weekday. I had to have some breakfast though, so a block from the hotel, I stopped at a Starbucks and fueled up. Oh and yes, there's a coffee shop on practically every corner in Bellevue as well. I think I counted a half dozen within a one-block radius.
Getting to the Edmonds/Kingston Ferry was quite easy, based on the directions and I was just a tad amazed at how quickly I figured things out. The mountains are not on the West side, they're on the East, so they're on your right, if you're heading North. The morning air over Puget Sound was really cold...about 37 degrees at the dock...brrr.
Oh, I gotta stop for a sec and mention the rental car I had. It was a Prius...ewwww! But, to tell the truth, it was perfect for the driving I was doing. It kept up with all the other cars on the road, without too much coaxing from me and after the initial electric car training I got at Enterprise, I figured things out.
Anyhoo, so disembarking at Kingston was like a lemming run in reverse. Ain't nothing like following the crowd.
Just North of Kingston is a tiny lil town that sits on a penninsula. It's called Port Gamble. The speeds all over on this isle are modest, and the only road that goes around this town, slows you down to 15mph. I took a quick peek as I passed and thought if I had some time on my way back, then I'd stop. It was pretty quaint.
I kept on going along hwy101, through heavily wooded areas and then clear-cut areas of the North side of this isle. It seems that clear cutting is the thing to do in WA. You could see the swatches of land cut-outs along the mountains, because it had snowed the evening that I had arrived. It's definitely different.
Anyhoo, I had to stop along the way and get a shot of the mountain range. These mountains are not as tall as the Rockies, but they still are impressive, since they jut up instantly right from sea level. I don't think this was Mount Olympus, but Mount Olympus stands at a whopping 7980 feet above sea level. Olympic National Park takes up a huge portion of the isle, too.
The only thing I regret about taking this journey was that I didn't think I had enough time to keep going West out to the furthest point. I would have loved to have gone as far as Neah Bay, but with a 100 mile drive total one-way, I had to be sure I had enough time to make my plane at 6:30.
So, I stopped at a Port Angeles Safeway and picked up a sub sandwich to eat at the Salt Creek Recreation Area and continued on to that destination.
The first turn I took into the recreation area, took me to a campground with day parking up along the ocean. I thought what a treat to camp by the sea. There was a trail all along this camping area that skirted the edge of the cliffs that met the ocean. Every now and then, there was a staircase that took you down to the rocks that met the waves. Honestly, I couldn't get enough of it...forget lunch, I wanted to explore. If only it was just a little later in the season. This far North along the coast means both evergreens and deciduous trees grow, but it had been a cold winter, so the trees still hadn't started to leaf yet.
The campground trail was pretty cool, winding amongst the trees and dipping down to the various staircases. A lot of people had also brought their dogs. Wish I had thought about taking some pix of the dogs...they loved being out and about just as much as their humans.
Part of that campground trail moved away from the cliff's edge at one point and went through what looked like a bomb shelter. I stopped at that point and decided I had better get back to the car to find out what time it was and maybe eat something.
...cont'...
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