Westport, Humptulips, and Lake Quinault

In keeping tradition with the day trips on days off together, Samuel and I decided to head out to the coast. I haven't actually seen the Pacific Ocean itself from Washington yet. We were going to go to Victoria, but we decided we wanted to give it a little more time than just a day, and I had a meeting in the middle of our second day off. Plus, getting to Victoria is kind of a pain. It is just far enough away and costs just enough to get there that staying for only a day seems a bit like ripping yourself off.

Anyway, we decided to go to Westport, WA, which is on Grey's Harbor's South Bay. It was highly recommended by a TripAdvisor submitter as a great day trip from Seattle. I'll be honest- I'm not really sure why it was so highly recommended. I had fun, but there wasn't a lot to do. And it isn't like a day at the beach in Florida or California. Instead of sand, we have rocks. Instead of sun and warm weather, we had 65 degrees with a good steady breeze. Pretty, yes, but too cold to enjoy the beach.
Anyway, we had fun. We went to the Maritime Museum first. It wasn't that interesting to me, but would probably be really interesting to someone with connections to the Coast Guard. The coolest parts were the skeletons of sea creatures they had in little buildings outside and the replica of the gigantic light in the lighthouse. This thing was seven feet high and stunning. It is a french design that magnifies all the light into a little beam, and that is what the lighthouse shoots out. The light from it can be seen 25 miles away.  All in all, the Maritime Museum was interesting and only 5 dollars.

From there, we went out to the lighthouse. This lighthouse is the tallest in Washington State, and the 3rd tallest on the West Coast.  It was really pretty. For some reason I didn't quite understand (something about whirlpools and jettys), the coast line is expanding. When the lighthouse was built, it was something like 480 feet from the coast. Now, it is more than a mile. And some little old ladies planted trees like 50 years ago, so now there is a forest between the lighthouse and the water. Kind of funny.

We climbed to the top, which was fun. That was 5 dollars too. We got to see the light at the top and ask a lot of questions. It was pretty cool. I'd recommend going to Westport for that, if you're close.

As that was all we'd had planned in Westport and we'd only been there 2 hours, we were at a loss for what to do until our bellies started rumbling and we started smelling fish in the air. We had to eat seafood while we were by the coast, right? Right.

We found a place called The One-Eyed Crab right across from the marina. We shared some bacon wrapped oysters and a big bowl of prawns, crab legs, and clams in garlic broth. Way too expensive, but delicious! With full bellies and now at a complete loss of what to do (our GPS couldn't even help us!), we decided to head to a town we'd only seen on a map the day before.

Humptulips, Washington.

Wikipedia tells me this might be Native American for "hard to pole" which doesn't really help this place's cause for being well-named. The town is tiny- like 216 people. We saw two of them. Besides the sign, where we stopped and took pictures, there was a gas station and 3 houses. The rest of the town of Humptulips must have been in hiding that day. And with a name like Humptulips, who wouldn't hide? :)

We continued farther north to Lake Quinault. It is right on the Quinault Rain Forest border and it is super pretty. I thought I read somewhere that it is Washington's largest lake, but I can't find a source now to back that up. We saw the World's Lagest Spruce Tree, which is right next to the lake, and even dipped our feet in! It wasn't quite as cold as the Pacific, but still way too cold to go swimming in.

After sitting by the lake for a while, we decided to head home. Washington is so damn pretty! I learned today that it is the only state with all 5 temperate zones- from rain forest to desert. I can't wait to explore them all!

Next week, we're going to explore the shit out of the Olympic Peninsula and Victoria over 4 days. I'm pretty stoked!

Leavenworth

For the last three weeks, without any prodding or begging on our parts, Sam and I have managed to have our days off together. And not just one, either. BOTH days for three weeks straight! This is so unheard of! I feel almost like a regular couple, with days off together. Of course, we then are hardly seeing each other during the week, so it evens out, but it is nice to have the time with him. To celebrate, we've been taking road trips! I'm so anxious to explore more of Washington, and these little day trips are a lot of fun.

So on our first week off together, we went to Leavenworth. I'd never been, but heard it was a huge Bavarian tourist trap. Sounds perfect for a cheesy day trip, right? Right. So off we went.

I was right! It is a Bavarian tourist trap in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. It was really cute and full of fat people. There are lots of fat people in Kentucky, and no fat people in Seattle, so when I see fat people agin, I'm always weirded out that I'm still in Washington. There were also tastings like crazy, so I could see why all the fat people flock there. Apparently there are some wineries around Leavenworth with tasting rooms in the town. There were sausage tastings and cheese shops and all kinds of delicious things.

We found ourselves a little tired and thirsty at the end of the road- and coincidentally, right next to Icicle Brewing!  How perfect was that? We tried some of their beers and had a meat and cheese plate. Both things were okay. Not bad, but nothing special.

Crowds get to us pretty quickly, so we ducked into one last shop (called Made in Russia). The shop keeper was a very talkative and friendly fellow who suggested everything from good cheese to a moonshine place in Cashmere, about 6 miles away. What? A delicious excuse to leave the crowds? Away we went!

The moonshine was pretty tasty, albeit really difficult to find. Small little tasting room. We were there for probably a total of 15 minutes, which included buying a bottle of moonshine. I looked at my receipt later- the bottle itself was a little over $12. The taxes, on the other hand, were $13! The taxes were more expensive than the liquor itself! Isn't that crazy? The place was called It's Five o'Clock Somewhere, and even though they have a dumb name (that's not how time zones work, dammit!), they have some pretty tasty moonshine. If you're ever by way of Cashmere, WA, stop and check them out.



I wish I could somehow add a map of the route that we took on our trips. I think that would be a good addition.

Mt. Rainier National Park

My mom and sister came to visit me (yay!) which gave me almost a week to play tourist in my own city. This is one of my favorite things to do! The cool thing about living somewhere is that there is plenty of time to go places. The bad thing is that you're so busy with life that you don't get a chance.

 

Most of the places we went were places I had been before. Mom really wanted to do the Underground Tour, see Pike Place Market and visit either Mt. Rainier or Mt. St. Helens. Little Sister didn't really care- she was just disappointed that the American Girl Place wasn't opening until the Saturday after they left. (Fair enough. At 12, I would been really disappointed too.)

 

Mt. Rainer was one of the first places we went. I was really excited to go because I really like the mountain. I know that sounds silly. When I first moved to Seattle and I didn't know anyone or have any friends, I'd be driving to work all bummed and shit. I'd come around this corner on I-5 and if Rainier felt like it, BAM, there it would be. Put a smile on my face every damn time. So pretty and big and just a real reminder that I wasn't in Kentucky anymore. 

 The park was only about 2 hours away. From how big Mt. Rainier looks from Seattle, you'd think it was closer, but naturally, we had to go on back roads. That's okay with me because I love seeing little towns. It was 15 dollars to take a car full of people into the park, which wasn't bad. From there, we just drove around. I know, how lame. Why go to a National Park and not go hiking? Well, I can't really say I'm a hiking person. Not that I have anything against it, but I just don't do it. Not even like I wouldn't do it, because I think it would be fun. I just dont. Due to that, I have no hiking...gear or whatever. Mom and Lauryn certainly didn't either. So we just drove up as high as we could go and ate lunch outside. There was snow up there! In July! 

We tried to see Mt. St. Helens, but when we stopped at a (not very good) viewpoint, some nice couple told us they'd just tried the road and it was closed. :( Sad.

The last stop of the day was to Morton, Washington. Sam had to get pictures in front of the signs, just for novelty's sake. 

Back in Seattle, we went to Las Margaritas on 145th and Aurora (yum yum yum) and then collapsed pretty quickly into bed. Rainier was a really good day trip from Seattle. I'd love to go back and do some hiking and explore a bit more.