We began our day yesterday in Seattle on a typical rainy over cast but wonderful day in Pike’s Place Market. The night before it had  been closed so we were planning on squeezing out every drop of Seattle goodness from this brief visit. We bought all kinds of fruit including my favorite, the giant sweet Fuji apples. I have to say, Pike’s Place Market has the most amazing flowers I have ever seen. It is a feast for the eyes and the nose. It is amazing to walk through there smelling the flowers and looking at the vast variety of flowers. I would buy all of them if I could.

We took our large bounty of fresh market goods over to the Washington State Ferries on pier 52 to catch our ferry to Bainbridge across the way. So we sat in our car waiting to load eating all of our food. I was really excited because I had never been on a ferry before let alone one where you take your car on with you. It was strange driving onto a ship but very cool. Can you spot our car?

We got out and went up on top to look around and it was so beautiful. I wonder if that is what it felt like to be on the titanic. Before it crashed of course. Just getting to see the Seattle skyline and the market place from out in the water was incredible. It was an experience I was very glad to have.

Once we were in Bainbridge we had to make a long trek around the Olympic Peninsula to get to the Hoh National Rain forest. The entire peninsula felt like a rain forest to me and let me tell you, it wasn’t lacking on the forest or the rain part. The one road going around the park took us along the way through Port Angeles and Forks which are better known through the Twilight books and movies.

No I am not going to totally bash Twilight but I do have something to say. The books were not bad. I read them when they first came out as a gift in like sixth grade and I enjoyed them because they are a simply written romance book and it is a nice reprieve to read an easy book like that after reading so much classical literature that is my natural choice. The movies however I despise, a reasonable nice book has just become so gimmicky and obsessed over that it is enough to make you puke. So it made me a little sad to see such a beautiful place as the Olympic Peninsula only sought after because of these movies. There is so much beauty and extraordinary wonders there but all people think of when they here about it is this movie franchise. So my request; don’t think of the Olympic Peninsula as home to Twilight, it is home to forests and mountains that will blow your mind. Respect it for its beauty not the gimmicks surrounding it.

Well, now that that is said let me move on to the best part; Hoh National rainforest. My pictures can’t really do it justice to how haunting and dazzling this place was. It felt as if the trees where reaching out and were frozen in time letting the moss accumulate and grow dripping and stretching out towards you. In there it feels like time has reverse and you went back to the time of the dinosaurs.

We hiked along the Hall of the Mosses which took us to some mind-blowing maple trees that were just so incredible it is hard to explain. Seeing this for the first time is really extraordinary. It feels otherworldly.

After leaving the rain forest we headed down to Kalaloch beach and lodge for some dinner and a trip down to the driftwood covered beach. It was so foggy and rainy but it was still really cool to see these massive tree trunks and branches coating the beach. It too felt otherworldly like giants had dropped their Lincoln logs on the shore and left them behind to grow, shift, and drift away.

Side Note: Everything in Washington grows. EVERYTHING. Houses, streets, chimneys, logs, rocks, sand, even telephone booths. It is kind of ridiculous but really funny. I wish I could list all of the strange things that I saw that had moss or something growing on it.

We spent the night in Aberdeen and where very happy to finally be out of the car. We are so close to home 😀