Hi Baldy

A rainy start to the day as I checked out of the Olympic Lodge and headed for Dungeness Spit; the longest natural sand spit in the world no less! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeness_Spit)

My Olympic National Parks ticket was good for entry here so another $3 saved. The spit is home to numerous birds and seals but owing to its length they can be well spread out. There is a lighthouse at the far end but at 5.1 miles away it was too much for my short stay. There is a huge amount of driftwood all along the spit which show the signs of years of battering by the sea.

Beach and Mountains

As I approached the beach, through some woods with Douglas Firs I saw lots of small birds and a Douglas Squirrel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Squirrel

The highlight of the walk was in a tree  just by the start of the beach, a Bald Eagle in plain view. Took some photos before it flew off along the coast.

Bald Eagle

I spent a couple of hours exploring the spit and saw various gulls cormorants and a Great Blue Heron but no more eagles.

Sanderling

Carried on my journey and stopped off at Sequim, a small pleasant town in the rain shadow of the mountains. The lack of rain was such a problem for the early settlers that the successful irrigation of the plains is still celebrated each May with the town irrigation festival. http://www.irrigationfestival.com/
Had lunch of peppered steak soup and cinnamon rolls in the Sunshine Cafe then back on the highway to Kingston for the ferry.

The guide books warned of delays on a Sunday afternoon, as the Seattleites head back to the city after a weekend away. Queued for about 40 minutes but got on the 16:40 sailing on the good ship Walla Walla, Nice calm sea again and could see the mountains behind and the Seattle skyline ahead.
Arrived at Comfort Inn at about 18:00 and checked in.

Mountains & the Sea

A sunny morning started the day so I went for my plan of going up to Hurricane Ridge. This is over a mile high and gives great views into the Olympic mountains and across to Vancouver Island. The weather forecast was for the better conditions to be in the morning with cloud and possible showers in the afternoon.
The drive up is a constant climb, along increasingly windy roads. My ticket from the Ranger at Hoh Rain Forest was good for entry here so no additional entry fees required. Once at the visitor centre (at about 9:40) asked for information about the trails and was told that the road goes further on to a trail that leads to the summit of Hurricane Hill at a height of 5,757 feet. The climb up is steep in places but a tarmac trail makes it straight forward. Strolled up taking pictures of the view and close up shots of plants along the way.

Once at the top the views were impressive in all directions.There was a lot of snow on the high peaks and also in the sheltered slopes below the summit. As it was quite early in the day there weren’t many people about and I had the summit to my self for a while. Well almost to myself, perched happily on a rock was a large Olympic Marmot (only found in these mountains). I called him Malcolm.

Once on the way down again wildlife seemed everywhere, despite the increased number of hikers. A chipmunk went for me at one point and Ravens and a Golden Eagle flew around the rocks.
The weather was starting of close in so back to the information centre (which unlike the one at Hoh had a cafe) for Chicken Caesar salad (good to eat something green at last) and drive back to Port Angeles (17 miles) to refuel the car.
I refuelled at a Safeway station as they had a ‘pay at pump’ system; ah this will make it easy I thought. Unfortunately, when entering my credit card it asked for my home zip code! The attendant in the kiosk was very helpful and carried out the transaction in the ‘normal’ way. Incidentally, the cost was $2.95 per (US) gallon.
To finish the day I went down to the waterfront to get some pictures and instead of ferries and boats I saw a Great Northern Diver (Loon) in the harbour. These are incredibly rare in the UK but here it was just swimming and diving in the harbour.

Once finished a guy approached me for a chat and casually said I should be careful taking pictures around ports and transport links. He seemed happy I was not a threat and we proceeded to have a very intersting chat about the area and comparisons with Europe.  He finished up by recommending a drive out onto the spit protecting the harbour which I did for a few more photos (but not of the Coast Guard boats) before returning to the hotel at the end of a very interesting day.

A rainy day in the rain forest

Another day with heavy overcast conditions. One of my options whilst on the Olympic peninsula is to go high up Hurricane Ridge but with such low cloud I decided to go for the other option which was the Hoh Rain Forest.(http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/visiting-the-hoh.htm) This is a rare habitat of temperate rain forest. It was quite a 57 mile drive through very tall trees and around lakes to get to Forks (apparently famous for the Twilight books and movies but hat was news to me!) to call into the visitor centre then another 20 or so miles into the rain forest. Rain fell on and off all day, but then it is a rain forest!
There is an entry fee of $15 for the whole park and this is paid to a park ranger in a small cabin by the road as you approach the start of the trails - and yes, they do wear hats like Mr Ranger in Yogi Bear.  There is a small visitor centre at the car park and once there I took the longer River Hoh trail to get to a waterfall (Mineral Creek Falls) at about 3 miles distance. The trail went through a Tolkienesque landscape of enormous pines (mostly Sitka and Douglas Fir), moss hanging from branches and lichens like cabbages! The trail was fairly flat and well maintained but the wilderness didn't seem far away. Once at the waterfall I took plenty of pictures as I tried to capture the blurred motion of the water. Light levels were pretty low so that helped to prolong the shutter speeds.

Mineral Creek Falls

The sheer scale and enclosing nature of the forest made it hard to capture the forest on camera. There was no easy way to capture the scale and grandeur of it all.

Hoh Rain Forest

The only wildlife I saw was an huge Elk stag (across the river), a Chipmunk on an old tree trunk and a Banana Slug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_slug).

Chipmunk

On the journey back I stopped off to look at Crescent Lake, very scenic and crystal clear water.

Go (North) West Young (ish) Man

Feeling quite peckish this morning as I was awake early and hadn’t eaten much at all yesterday. A short walk from the hotle is Denny's so I strolled there and tried:
FOSTER FRENCH TOAST SKILLET, Two thick slices of our fabulous French toast topped with fresh banana slices and covered in a sweet caramel sauce, served with two eggs, bacon strip & sausage. This is one of their lighter breakfasts but it took a bit of doing to finish it all.
After breakfast packed up and checked out. Then on the road to Washington Arboretum Park, a 20 minute drive North past the main centre of Seattle. On the way just on the railing at the side of the road was an Osprey! Just perched there as all the traffic rushed by. I took as much of a look as possible without causing an accident.
The Arboretum reminded me of a botanical garden in the UK. There were plenty of speciality species from countries around the Pacific but from areas where the climate is similar to ours. It was too early for much autumn (sorry, fall) colour (sorry, color) but pleasant enough for an hours stroll. Finished up here and headed to Edmonds to catch the ferry across the sound to Kingston. The weather had brightened up considrrably so took a stroll around Main street of this small town. A lot of boutique shops and places to eat. My Denny’s breakfast was keeping me going so just bought a Blueberry muffin for the boat trip and had a cup of tea (well a cup of hot water and a teabag).  Joined the queue for the ferry (pay as you enter, $14.85) and just got onto the 13:40 sailing; there were just three cars behind me, out of about two hundred on the ferry.

The crossing took just 30 minutes and was very smooth, both the sea state and the loading and unloading. The crossing is heavily used by commuters so has to work efficiently. The gradual climb out of Kingston was a bit slow as all the traffic headed away but it gave me a great chance to see just how easy hill starts are in an automatic car. On the way past the volunteer centre I saw a great notice which read ”Volunteer required - to do many things”!
Then out into the country to Port Angeles, an easy drive through the forests of mostly Pines to arrive at the Olympic lodge http://www.olympiclodge.com/. First appearances look very nice and a second look didn’t disappoint. (I must check how much I have paid to stay here).  Still I have prepaid so I’ll just have to enjoy it!  I have three nights here so time to unpack my luggage fully and have a good shake down of all my kit. Once in the room (arrived at about 4 P.M.) got the laptop out and arranged my next accommodation, from Sunday night.
As I slept through most of yesterday I didn’t get a chance to see any of Seattle away from the airport so must spend sometime there. I have booked a motel (with free parking) just to the North of the downtown area from Sunday to Wednesday. This should give me time to explore many of the sights Seattle has to offer. I must do this so that I can share notes with Sarah Oliver who has given me so much good information and lent several really useful guide books.
Once settled in went for a walk towards the main area of Port Angeles to find somewhere to eat. There seemed to be every fast food establishment you could think of (all with drive through) and after about an hours walk I went into a Wendy’s close to the hotel. The sun was just setting when I finished but there was no really good picture to capture ( I had my compact IXUS 60 with me) so just headed back to base.

Cars and Planes

Headed back to the airport at 10:20 to have some breakfast and pick up the car. All my paperwork seemed to be in order and I was told by Sandy that there was a deal on that  meant I could upgrade to the next size car for half the normal price, to which I agreed.   So that would be a mid size rather than compact. However once I got to the parking area there were no midsize cars available so the attendant gave me a full size; so I have a Dodge Charger for three weeks and it is bright red! http://www.dodge.com/en/2010/charger/  It is a bigger car than I expected but not huge like a Hummer so should be a comfortable ride down the west coast.
As I drove out of the airport I passed through the security gate where the officer was a bit bemused by my UK driver’s licence but was happy to reconcile the details with my passport and I was off onto the Highway.
The Museum of Flight, at the original Boeing Aircraft headquarters, is only a few miles away so headed there to try out the car and my Garmin GPS. Parked up near to a Grumman F14  Tomcat and went in ($15).  A good museum with plenty of exhibits from the history of flight. See http://www.museumofflight.org/ for details. Highlights include the only Concorde on the West Coast of America, the first 737 and 747 and the plane used by John F Kennedy as ‘Air Force One’.  The first and last of these can be walked through.

The weather had improved considerably now but by 4 P.M. I was starting to feel the jetlag kicking in so headed back to the hotel for 40 winks, which turned into more like 80 winks so just had an easy evening.

Technorati Tags: USA,museum,car

Good Moring America

Well it was an early morning as the 8 hour time difference made me wake up at about 4 A.M. Snoozed on until about 7:30 then up and started to sort out some unpacking and check various technical bits such as laptop and chargers for phone and camera.
There is no breakfast provided at the Red Roof Inn, but they do have free coffee so took advantage of that, ate a Nature Valley Crunchy Bar and thought about plans for the day. The main task is to get back to the airport to pick up the hire car at about 11:30. Unfortunately it is raining so I will probably look at staying indoors for entertainment – The nearby Museum of Flight looks interesting. http://www.museumofflight.org/  I don’t think there is much point going up the Space Needle today!

and we’re off!

Booked taxi from Ronia cabs to get to Heathrow T1. Arrived in good time so at bag drop (already checked in online) at 09:40. All done, through passport control and security and looked for a bite to eat. The ideal solution was coffee and porridge with honey from Prêt a Manger; it was good porridge too.
Flight 729 from US Airways (Airbus A330) took off a little late at 1 P.M. but as the Captain said, in his thorough chat to the plane, ‘we are taking off to the West so should get a clear shot outta here’.  There had been some rain whilst waiting to board but this cleared and so I got good views of the M25, the reservoirs and the Savill Garden Building with its distinctive wooden roof. Soon after that however we headed into clouds and didn’t see much sign of land until our descent into Philadelphia. During the flight I made good use of the in flight entertainment via the personal screens. I squeezed in three films; Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, typical Tim Burton style and imagination with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and a host of British actors playing characters or voices  (Barbara Windsor – Dormouse, Christopher Lee – Jabberwocky, Timothy Spall, Paul Whitehouse and Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum). Also, watched Pixar’s UP and the remake of Clash of the Titans which has a cheeky reference to the original Ray Harryhausen original.
Once at Philly it took 45 minutes to get through US immigration owing to the large numbers arriving together;. At least my bag was waiting for me at the reclaim once I got through. Dumped the bag straight back into the internal transfers area and checked in for the domestic flight to Seattle. This was another Airbus (A320) but did not have any in flight entertainment so stuck to reading, watching the Northern states pass underneath and eat the Turkey Pita I had bought at Philadelphia.  There were drinks provided on the flight but I think the two cups of coffee made any attempts to snooze nigh on impossible.
Landed at 9 P.M. local time and collected bag ( no passport control of course) then got the free shuttle to my accommodation for the next two nights, the Red Roof Inn. This is very close to the airport so an easy transfer, minimal unpacking and sleep in the enormous king size bed.