Today we drove along Highway 101 in and out of Olympic National Park. Our first stop was Ruby Beach – which is north of the Kalaloch Campground where we were staying. We timed it perfectly and arrived at Ruby Beach right at low tide, around 8:00 am. We walked out to the north end of the beach where there were some exposed rocks and saw so many tidepool creatures right there on one huge rock. We saw orange and purple sea stars, green sea urchins, and I think we even saw an anemone (I’ll need to look it up to be sure). We hiked back up to the RV and then drove to the Hoh Rain Forest for a little hiking before leaving the park. There’s also a visitor center there where we wanted to stamp our passports. We hiked parts of the three trails behind the visitor center at Hoh and learned about the temperate rain forest there, then made our way back to Highway 101 to continue to Port Angeles. We stopped at Crescent Lake for a bit and enjoyed the architecture and surroundings of Crescent Lake Inn on the way to Port Angeles. There, we stopped at the main visitor center to watch the film about the park.
(Click on any image in the gallery to scroll through the images full screen)
As we left the park, we headed south to the Southworth Ferry so we could cross the Puget Sound into West Seattle. The ferry in an RV was a neat experience. I was impressed with how efficiently they loaded the ferry and how it wasn’t a big deal at all to drive an RV onto it. Once we were parked securely on the ferry, we got out and went up to the passenger level and outside. We went out to both the front and rear decks to check out the views. On the rear deck, we saw some porpoises playing just off the side of the ferry. In 15-minutes or so, it was time to go back down to the RV, depart the ferry, and make our way through West Seattle.
I have a friend whom I’ve never met in-person who lives in West Seattle. We met online about 10 years ago while we were designing and building our modern homes at the same time. We compared notes and research about green and modern home design. We’ve stayed in touch on social media all this time, so when I realized we’d be nearby, I contacted her to see about meeting up. She and her husband graciously arranged for us to park on a flat side street to spend the night, and gave us a tour of their beautiful home. What we weren’t expecting was for them to take us out on the town in Seattle! They offered to be our personal tour guides for the evening and drove us in 2 separate cars all over the city. We first stopped at a pub and tried some local beer. We were going to eat there, but none of us really liked what was on the menu, so then we went to another bar/grill type of place. This one was near the famous market. We parked there and walked through the market, past the “gum wall” and to the pub. We walked along the waterfront overlook and took in the view. At the pub, the kids were pleased to find a homemade mac n cheese, Caesar salad, and pizza on the menu. I had the pizza and shared with hubby and our son. Hubby had wings, and our daughter had the mac n cheese. After we finished eating, our hosts drove us to the Space Needle parking lot so that we could get some quick pictures, then back to West Seattle for some waterfront views looking back at the city.
It was such a great night and we all had such a good time. The kids really love cities and they were impressed with Seattle. We thanked our hosts and went back to the RV to sleep. How many people can say they slept in their RV on a neighborhood side street in Seattle? To top it all off, we found out that the spot where we were parked was just a few houses down from Eddie Vedder’s house (the singer from the 90’s grunge band, Pearl Jam). How cool is that?
