So there we were, just hanging out in cool temps of the Washington coast when we thought "Hey, instead of relaxing on this beautiful sandy beach in a cute little tourist town, let's spend 12 hours driving around the Olympic Peninsula."
Okay, so maybe we didn't voice the 12 hours part but we knew it would be an all day trip.
We left a couple of hours after the crack of dawn in the morning and drug our tired selves into the Pub after the sky was black...so normal.
The day promised to be sunny but our early morning was as misty and eerily cool as one could ask for starting an adventure.
But you can't start a day with plans that include hunting down the Tree of Life, exploring a rain forest, finding the world's largest Picea sitchensis, avoiding vampires and searching for the Devil's punchbowl without a good breakfast.
Fortunately for us, my food enthusiast husband found an incredible place snuggled into the trees with the most delectable seafood fare and service to match.
If the rest of the day failed to delight, breakfast still made it a winner.
Our first stop was to locate the world's largest Picea sitchensis, commonly known as the Sitka Spruce.
And boy is it big.
Me, feeling very small and getting a kink in my neck from looking up.
How big is this mighty giant you ask?
And now you know.
The next stop was to seek out the Tree of Life along the shoreline. My eldest son got me hooked on quests from Triple Aught Designs, which is how I discovered this fabulous detour. So far the quests we've chosen have been easy to get to but we're in the warm up phase.
Still, even the easy ones include some pretty great finds I wouldn't know about otherwise.
Up close and personal between the tree's roots reminds me of a tiny lost world.
The next stop on our list was the Hoh Rainforest situated in the Olympic National Forest. I didn't realize until this day there actually were rainforests in the US. Five of them to be precise.
I admit to be excited about this.
Sadly, this part of the trip didn't turn out well for us. Due to our meandering schedule, it was already mid to late morning when we arrived to find a two hour wait just to get to to the parking lot. Neither one of us have that much patience so we turned around and headed out to see if vampires are real.
While not fans ourselves, the Twilight series exploded the popularity of Forks, Washington so it was a curiosity need to stop in and see if it was still the Twilight capital of the US. After all, we were in the neighborhood.
While there are still some Twilight related items to be seen in the town, it's not as devoted as I've heard it once was. More disappointingly, there was not a single, sparkly vampire to seen anywhere.
With the rainforest a bust we just had to wander more into the forest along lonely dirt trails (like we need an excuse to do this), one of which led us to a favorite locals cooling spot called the Devil's Punchbowl. An easy 2.4 mile round trip hike led us first to a cool old railroad tunnel...
...and then to a rather small inlet, which is the punchbowl.
All along the shoreline people were jumping into and playing in the water. The place was packed. For good reason too, the coast may have held comfortable temperatures but the forest was hot.
The rest of the afternoon was spent driving to Port Angeles, then following the road along the interior of the peninsula until finally arriving home.
Long, hot and so much fun. I'd call that a successful day.
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