We had to leave the fantastic Pike Place market to check out the Science Fiction Museum and Experience Music Project...
"Give me pizza, Splinter" (Chris thinks I'm a dork. First prize for anyone who can come up with a better Terminator or TMNT quote).
"E.T. phone home." (Beat that suckers!)
After a day at the museums we made our way back toward the bay for sights and soup!
People must really be taking this sign seriously: "Do Not Be Afraid Of Overfeeding: Seagulls Are Dainty Eaters" You could have fooled me! This is the fattest gull I've ever seen!
Ivar's Fish Bar where they recently found two underwater billboards placed in 1955 intended for submarines. Chris and I were lucky enough to take advantage of their 1955 special: a cup of chowder for 75 cents!
After Seattle we drove through the quaint town of Port Gamble to Port Angeles where we decided to take a stroll.
In Port Angeles, we found this store which is exclusively dedicated to the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer who evidently had a dream about the Twilight plot after visiting here a couple years ago. These "Dazzled By Twilight Stores" blacken the state of Washington. As much as I am for the popularization of authors through any and every medium, I'm a bit sickened by the shameless ballyhoo of Twilight. Where the hell is the J.D. Salinger superstore? Or the Cormac McCarthy megacenter? This faddish author gets her own line of mercantile but what about the Kerouacs, or the Whitmans?
Time is flying by!
The Sol Duc camp was outtasite! Every campsite was straight out of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel. We couldn't decide on just one so we moved from mossy site 29 to riverside site 11 on Saturday morning.
According to Chris, this is an especially long slug and Michigan slugs only get to be about an inch or so long.
The river view from our camp.
Moss like this covered everything around us.
A dozen foot-long salmon swam upstream through the river next to our campsite. We stood around with Bloody Marys in hand cheering them on: Go, salmon, go!!
And then, the deer. When I awoke Saturday morning and opened the curtains there was one deer resting not even 30 yards from the Dod. I did not suspect that I would be within 3 yards of a deer later in the day.
Chris had never known the feeling of being so close to a deer without the hope that he would soon feast on it. Similarly, I had never known the feeling of being so close to a deer, period. Glee is how I would describe it. They're such calm and tame creatures. You want nothing but to touch them. Or, well, eat them.
Yesterday we took a six mile hike to Lover's Lane falls. I have never seen so much greenery in my life. It's an honest-to-god rainforest. Ferns blanket the ground and moss covers the trees. Everything is wet and sweet-smelling. If trolls do exist, it is here they undoubtedly live.
Greeney, green, green!
An early moon casts over a misty mountain.
Today we dropped $8 a piece for a shower and a luxurious soak in the Sol Duc Hot Springs. Luckily for us, today marks the last day of the season so we got a discount to dip in the natural hot mineral waters of northwest Washington. The water makes your skin silky smooth and according to legend has powerful healing qualities. The only downfall - it reeks like rotten eggs due to the sulfur content.
42 degrees and in a bikini.
Today marked our first taste of the Pacific. Sprinting through the sprinkling rain we at last emerged from the trail to... a gigantic pile of driftwood with no way around but over.
The giant pile of driftwood blocking us from the ocean.
We clambered over the slippery logs and welcomed the Pacific Ocean with open arms and open lips (just to make sure it was salty).
After a couple photos and toe-dips, the skies opened up and we had to race back over the wood and up the trail to the Dod.
Tonight we are camped somewhere in Quinault/Amanda Park, Washington. Here's to less rain drops and more internet access.
Your loving, wet, blogging, happy travelers,
Nikki, Chris and the Dod
