NP #11 - Day 6 - August 14, 2014

Day 6: August 14, 2014:

We had breakfast in our cabin then got on the road again, heading just a little bit more west on Hwy 101.  We drove through Forks, WA and went down to see Ruby Beach.  We got out and walked around but there was fog everywhere and couldn’t see a thing. 

 I was finally disappointed.  I am guessing that it would have been a spectacular view but it was completely fogged out.  There were, however, thousands of these little blue critters on the beach.  They are somehow related to jelly fish but I don’t know what they are called.

Our next stop was in the Lake Quinault area.  We drove back on the South Shore Road to see the Merriman Falls, which were really not so dramatic, relatively speaking.   

I was wishing we hadn’t taken this road but it ended up being worth it because we came across the “Moss-sqash”, a sasquash made out of wood and covered in moss.  

 And we also came across a .3 mi hike down to the largest spruce tree in the world.  We parked in a parking lot across from the trailhead, ate PB&Js and Cheetos, and hiked back to see the tree.  It really was big and over 1,000 years old.

Around 11:30 we got back on the road and finally started officially heading to Cannon Beach!!

We stopped at yet another Dairy Queen and got gas in Raymond, WA, then crossed over the Astoria-Megler bridge and FINALLY entered Oregon.   

We had a perfect view of the Astoria Column as we crossed over the bridge.  We were scheduled to arrive at Cannon Beach at 3:30 and check-in wasn’t until 4:00 so we stopped at the Fred Meyer in Astoria to get groceries and new sunglasses.

We arrived at the Ecola Creek Lodge (aka the Bunny Motel) at a few minutes past 4:00 and checked into “room” #2.  The room was basically the size of a small house and only touching another person’s room on one wall.  We had a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, one with a king bed and one with a double and a twin, and a bathroom.  The king bedroom even had a sink in it.  Considering it wasn’t Haystack Haven, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting.  Everyone seemed pleased.

We completely unpacked the minivan, at which point I found my sunglasses hidden in the center consol. – I’d taken the price tag off of my new, hold-me-over sunglasses about 10 minutes prior.  After we got settled in, the kids attempted to feed the one or two remaining bunnies that roamed around, then we walked into town. 

Our first stop was Bruce’s candy store – they were in the middle of making peanut butter chocolate taffy.  I think Grant could have stared at the machine for hours. Then we walked down to Gepetto’s (the toy store) for just a few minutes before walking over to the Lumberyard for a very good dinner. After dinner we walked over to the other candy store in town, the Picnic Basket, and got ice cream. 

After a nice walk back to the room, we tucked in early.  I for one, finally relaxed for the first time on this trip when we stepped into Bruce’s.  It’s so good to be back.

NP #11 - Day 5 - August 13, 2014

Day 5: August 13, 2014:

We were up early again today, got ready and had breakfast in the lobby of the motel.  Nick had bad oatmeal and the kids and I ate waffles that we made in a waffle iron.  Breakfast was so-so but the room was $120 a night so it was okay.  We got on the road and somewhere between the Pacific Crest Trail and the Days Inn, I lost my favorite sunglasses ever, my Costas.  I’m very upset about this but on this particular day it made no difference as it was raining and completely gray.

We drove to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center via Port Angeles, WA and hiked the Hurricane Hill Trail, 3.2 mi, round trip with 700 ft of elevation change.  It was pretty darn tough at the end but it would have been spectacular views except we couldn’t see a thing because it was raining and completely fogged over. 

 Still, the trail was fun and the kids were awesome.  We saw several chipmunks along the way and lots of dear on the way back.   

By the time we returned, around 11am, the visitor center was open so we got the passbooks stamped, bought magnets and hat pins and ate lunch at the center.  Ryan and I got hot dogs, Grant a hamburger and Nick a turkey wrap.

The next stop was going to be the Madison Falls trail in the Elwha area of the park, but when we got there the trail was closed for construction.  We moved on to Lake Crescent, parked the car and hiked back to the Merrymere falls (1.5 mi round trip).  They were beautiful, starting out very skinny at the top and getting progressively wider.  

After returning to the car, we continued West on Hwy 101 to Sol Duc and checked into our cabin at 3pm.   

Despite the rain, we took the 1.8 mi round trip hike back to the Sol Duc falls and they were spectacular – very different than the Merrymere falls.  They split into 3 different parts and even the kids loved it, despite much complaining prior to the beginning of the hike.  

We got back to our cabin at 5:00, changed into our suits and finally got into the hot springs pools.  There were four pools in total, one of which was closed off.  Of the remaining three, two were hot springs fed and one was a regular 77 degree chlorine pool – freezing.  The two hot springs pools were packed with people of all types.  It was like sitting with a bunch of half-naked people at a UN meeting, complete with the Grandma to my left who clearly just said “screw it” and sat in her black Platex bra.  

I didn’t care for the experience much but the kids liked it a lot.  We all showered up in cabin 101, directly to the right of the lodge, and ate dinner in the lodge.  It was sufficient.  

After that it was to bed.  Grant and I were out by 8:00 and Ryan (who was just about to finish Harry Potter 3) and Nick (reading “A Pirate Looks at Fifty”) by 9:00.  What could have been a rained out, miserable day, turned out okay.

NP #10 - Day 4 August 12, 2014

Day 4: August 12, 2014:

We were up at 6:00, well, all of us except Ryan who was woken at 7:00.  Grant went out and fed the bunnies again, we all ate some breakfast and we packed up.  A little after 7:00 the kids walked down to The Eatery (the restaurant on the resort) and each of them ordered a Tootsie’s famous cinnamon roll.   

They were amazing but full of raisins so more amazing for grownups.  But still, we can say we’ve had them.

It had rained the night before and drizzled the whole way in to the park.  At around 8:30 we started out on the Thunder Knob trail (3.6 mi round trip) to a stunning overlook of Diablo Lake.  The trail was spectacular – the very first of it involved crossing two small streams via log bridges.   

We took turns being the hiking leader and the sweep and the kids were, once again, complain-free.   

We then drove all the way east on Hwy 20 out the other side of the park and stopped at the Washington Pass Overlook where we stopped for a picnic and went on ¼ overlook hike out to a stunning view of the mountains.

At around 12:30 we left the picnic area and headed a few miles back west to the Rainy Lake Trail.  I was a little bit concerned that we were running out of time and wasn’t sure we should take the hike.  I also thought it was one mile, round trip and it turns out, it was 1 mile, one way.  But we went ahead and did it and the payoff was huge – my favorite part of the trip so far – a miniature Crater Lake with a  ~250 ft (just guessing) water fall feeding into it that wasn’t even mentioned on the map – don’t even know if it has a name.

We got back in the car at 1:30 or so, and crossed the street to a PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) trailhead and just ran up and down a portion of it so that we could say we’ve run the PCT!!

At 2:00 we hit the road to Sequim, Washington, a small town outside of Olympic National Park. I originally thought we would drive back through Seattle, which had me a little bit worried about the traffic again, but my phone directed us straight west towards Anacortez, then south through Whidbey Island and took the ferry over to Port Townsend.  The ferry ride was about $20 and took 30 minutes.  It was well worth the extra time but it did get us into Sequim quite late.   

(We did stop at a DQ just east of Burlington on Hwy 20 for treats.  I still don’t know the name of the town but it was very cute.)

We first stopped at the Black Bear Diner in Sequim for dinner a little after 7pm and after being told there was a 20 minute wait, I felt this strange need to go check into the Days Inn (4/10 of a mi from the diner).  Earlier in the trip I couldn’t find my email reservation confirmation and for some reason had a bad feeling about things.  Turns out they did not have our reservation but informed me that they were the only place in town that still had rooms so luck was once again on our side – it really had been the entire trip.

Ryan and I got our room key then returned to the diner and had a great dinner.  (Nick and I had eaten at a Black Bear Diner in Sonoma, CA earlier this year and had liked it and knew the kids would love it too.)

Back at the motel at 8:30, we changed into swim suits and walked down to the indoor pool/spa.  The spa was closed so Nick and I stayed out and planned our next day in Olympic while the kids swam.  Despite advising Grant not to go underwater due to a swimmers’ ear infection, he did anyway.  We’ll see…

We finally got to bed around 10pm – it was a VERY long day.

NP #10 - Day 3 - August 11, 2014

Day 3: August 11, 2014

We had a quick breakfast in our cabin, then got the obligatory pictures under the national park sign,

 

then hit the road to Seattle, just in time to mesh up with rush hour traffic.  We parked a little northwest of the Space Needle, and walked down to it through much of the Seattle fair park area – very neat.  We paid about $84 for four tickets to go up the Space Needle, road the elevator up and spent a total of about 10-15 minutes tops. The kids liked it and it was a clear day but it’s certainly JUST a bucket list thing.  We actually spent more time in the gift shop than we did at the top of the Needle.  

 

After the needle, we walked over to some sort of indoor food court and all four ordered different food but it was quite relaxing.  We got back in the car and after another small traffic jam heading east to get on to Interstate 5, we headed north then west to North Cascades National Park.  The drive was fairly uneventful.  The kids watched The Little Rascals movie for I think the second time that day and third time in total, including the plane ride out.   The only humorous part of the drive can best be shown with the following pictures:

 

We arrived at the Skagit River Resort exactly at 3:00, check-in time, and the temp was 93 degrees – surprisingly hot!  We checked it and got to pick out our own coffee beans to grind at the cabin.  We were also directed to three different trash cans on the facilities, all of which were full of “bunny bread”.  The kids could go get all they wanted to feed the bunnies that roamed all over the resort. 

We checked into cabin #5 and it was awesome – a full house with kitchen, bath with tub, a living room and two bedrooms.  The only thing noticeably missing was air conditioning! 

At 3:30 we headed into the park and at 4:00ish, we arrived at the Newhalem Visitor’s Center.  This park was quite different from Rainier in that it seems that very few people frequent it.  It’s actually a no-fee park.   

We bought the kids’ magnets and hat pins and got the passbooks stamped then the park ranger gave us some good suggestions as to how to spend our time there.  From the Visitor’s Center back door, we took a 1.9 mi loop hike down to the Skagit River (the River Loop Trail)   

The water was freezing at the river but the kids and I got our feet it and I walked about 1/3 of the way out into the river.  It was fun.  

We hiked back up to the car then headed a little further east on Hwy 20 over to the Gorge Falls and to another set of falls just east of Gorge Falls (mile marker 124.5).  They were both amazing.

 At a little before 6pm, the kids, which generally have been phenomenal on this trip, were starting to lose it with each other.  We left the park and ate at the Buffalo Run restaurant just outside of the park in the town of Marblemount.  The restaurant had this need outdoor garden seating area that was beautiful.  We had a good dinner then went back to our cabin.  

At the resort is an “obstacle course” that we ran through and the kids played on the playground and feed the bunnies, which was just adorable and reminded me of when they were very little, feeding the bunnies in Oregon those first few years.

We took showers then went to bed and boy was it hot.  The one fan in the entire cabin went to the adults in the room with the queen bed which put the kids in bed together, which didn’t last long.  Eventually, as usual, it was time for musical beds which eventually put Grant in bed with me and I’m surprised that I’m not covered in bruises. 

But all-in-all, another great day.