Rolling Along With The Reynolds

Jim and Cindy's Adventure Blog traveling all over the USA

Travel Blog

Oh Canada! 

Oh Canada!
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Took the early morning Ferry from Port Angeles, Washington over to the beautifully flowered city of Victoria in British Columbia Canada for a full 9 hour walking day in the downtown area.
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Government street, lined with alfresco dining and many interesting shops, started our day. Then visited Chinatown and walked through the mazes of alleys(so fun!), and dined on the Wharf front.
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Took a beeline over to Fisherman’s Wharf in the cutest (and easiest on the feet) way possible; an adorable water taxi with a jovial skipper. Jim struck up a conversation with a local houseboat owner couple, giving us a glimpse of what downtown waterfront living is really like.
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Walked onwards to Ogden Point, home of the cruise ship terminals and Coast Guard. At the trailhead of Breakwater pier (an astounding 1100 feet long!), we stopped at the sundial to mark the time with our shadows and met another lovely couple from Alberta, who were vacationing to celebrate his birthday in Victoria.
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Grabbed a soda from the local grocery market, which was kinda fun to peruse food brands and prices. Not the first time Jim’s walking stick has initiated interest with its growing collection of soft metal souvenir walking trail pins, we conversed with yet another cool couple from Kentucky who were in town for the upcoming weekend’s car show of pre-1952 Ford cars- “Northwest Deuce Days”. Question answered as to why there were so many of these antique cars coming over on the Ferry!
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Moved on to stroll thru the BC museum and had just enough time afterwards to snag a T-shirt and postcards before jumping back on the Ferry for the 90 minute trek back to the States.
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What a full day!
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P.s. Jim even stopped to smell the roses! 🌹❤️

 

Whales and Sails.

          Port Townsend boasts a maritime working waterfront, a Victorian heritage, and a vibrant connection with all things maritime, including the impressive Northwest Maritime Center. Jim stopped to chat to a pleasant young man who no doubt had a passion for keeping the history and craft of wooden sailboat alive.
         The main street was loaded with history and artsy flair. We enjoyed dining in a full-blown 1950’s soda fountain/diner that featured authentic (and working!) machinery including a jukebox. Fizzy cokes (loaded with extra phosphate soda for bubbly fun) and burgers served with a smile. Walking off lunch, we strolled through town to do a bit of ‘book-sniffing’ at a bookstore lined from floor to ceiling with books galore, a funky vintage store that I would’ve gone crazy with purchases had I the room to store them back in the RV, ha, and a cool toy shoppe.
         The main excursion on today’s agenda was a four-hour Whale Watching cruise. Leaving out of the historic Port Hudson (where, by the way, we made note for future visits that a campground was literally right on the water), the boat taking us and 48 other souls was impressive on its own. The ‘Chilkat Express’, to quote their brochure, ” is a very special boat for a very special tour. No other passenger vessel on the west coast can trael at 40 kts/45 mph to points north in the San Juan Islands or west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca to view whales and be back in four and a half hours. The vessel is a hybrid, combining the stability of a multi hulled catamaran and the speed of a hydrofoil which rides on underwater wings. This combination is known as a foilcat. To say that driving her is more like flying an airplane is not an understatement“.  Spotted Orca whales!!! Bonus to see a pod hunt down a seal. They all took turns slapping their flukes on him to stun him, then took turns sharing a meal. Nature in action right before our eyes. Wow. This particular pod was transient Orca’s, known as Biggs Orcas, and harbor seals are their favorite meal.
          Not yet ready to leave this charming town and head back to our home base in Sequim, we drove around the town and visited Fort Worden State Park and went to the very tip out at the Point Wilson Lighthouse. Bonus here to see both deer and Elk grazing so peacefully on the campus of the Fort, as well as in blooming gardens of residential yards.
         What a Day!  Tomorrow we don’t stop – we head out on a ferry for a day trip to Canada!

 

Orcas and Port Townsend pics – Album #39

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Jaunt on the Route Less Traveled

Impressive Vistas. Rugged Coastlines. Driving the Washington State Route 112 is spectacular along this 61-mile National Scenic Byway that takes you on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula coastline. The Strait connects the Pacific Ocean with Puget Sound. 22 miles to the North across the water, you can see Canada’s Vancouver Island.  The coastal communities are interesting and each one unique; Joyce, Clallam Bay, Sekiu, Neah Bay/Cape Flattery (home of the Makah Reservation). 
Pictured above is the Trailhead; a beautifully lush cedar-planked boardwalk leading to a magnificent view of the Tahoosh Island Lighthouse. We spotted Puffins, and other shorebirds making nests on the cliffside while seals were happily swimming in the rough waters below. Brightly colored orange starfish were seen too hanging onto the sides of rocks right at the pounding waterline. A Paradise.
      

Cape Flattery pics (Album 37)

Took a short detour down to Shi Shi Beach

Still within the Makah Reservation, we drove south along the coastline to stop off at Hobuck Beach and Shi Shi Beach to get up close to the water and discovered all kinds of life teeming in the tide pools. The rock shapes created by the tides were artistically beautiful unto themselves.  I could’ve stayed and play all day here.   

Pics of the Tide Pool Beaches (part of album 37)

Lake Crescent

For a different route coming home, we decided to take Hwy 113 and loop around the 101 to hug the southern shores of Lake Crescent. That was a hard decision to make, as the trip westward was so scenic, but this route certainly did not disappoint either. 

This lake is 12 miles long, and the deep, clear, turquoise waters are no lie. Stunning! We stopped at the Marymere Falls trail, and saw the quaint national park lodge/cabin that was built in 1916, highlighted by grazing deer out in the wildflower pasture.

To wrap up the full day, we landed in Port Angeles to have dinner and view an amazing sunset, admiring the skies and the ships cruising along in the Strait.

Full Album of the Day in the NW point of WA (album 37)

 

Sequim (pronounced “Skwim”)

     This town was our first stop on the official Olympic Peninsula. This place was on the top of the list for the most anticipated location throughout our journey. There’s just so much to do; it’s captivating! The diversity of opportunities to explore the natural beauty of the OP is abundant. From snow-capped peaks of pristine mountains, the surreal experience of hiking in the Rainforests, to Ocean beaches, to the water itself and all it’s sea life we had a blast. We stayed in Sequim for 6 days, (“Rainbow’s End RV Park“) and literally wanted to extend to several more, but we ran up against the annual Lavender Festival which had the town booked for months prior. Sequim was named “2017 Best Northwestern Small Town” by USA Today and we certainly agree.  Due to the “rain shadow” caused by the Olympic Mountains, Sequim is one of the driest places in Western Washington. It averages just 16 inches of annual rainfall (as opposed to the rainforests in Forks and Quinault with TEN FEET of annual rain!)

      (4 of 6 of these Days will be covered separately with their own blog entries)
      Day 1: a visit to Dungeness Spit.   
      Day 2: a very scenic drive along the Juan De Fuca Hwy 112 over to the northwestern most point in the contiguous US, Cape Flattery. Neah Bay, the Makah Indian Tribe, Shi Shi Beach, and Lake Crescent.
      Day 3:  Ventured into the Olympic National Park on the Hurricane Ridge.
      Day 4:  Port Townsend – explored the maritime town and took a hydrofoil boat out to Watch Whales!
      Day 5:  a full day to have fun at several Lavender Farms.
      Day 6:  a very full day taking the Ferry over and back from Port Angeles to Victoria British Columbia on Vancouver Island in CANADA.

Pictures of Dungeness Spit (album 36)

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Dungeness Spit & Lighthouse

         On Friday afternoon, Caleb arrived to Sequim to join us for the weekend. Since sunset doesn’t occur until 9 PM or so, we had plenty of time to hop in the car and drive the 3 miles over to the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a beautiful place and sanctuary to shorebirds, marine life and mammals. Many trails offer walks into the woods to spot black-tailed deer, or choose the wetter option which we did  by taking the trails leading to the beaches. A bit underprepared, the winds coming off the water of the Strait of Juan de Fuca kept us from hiking too far down the Spit. This spit is the longest naturally occurring sand spit in North America at 5.5 miles long. Had we been better prepared and it been earlier in the day, we may have done the 11 mile round trip hike out to the Lighthouse, which was built in 1857 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  A very cool place to play on the beach; one side being the choppy/windy seaside, the other being a calm marshy bay, delineated by a natural log jam pile that many have built shelter forts from logs to get out of the winds. 

Lavender Farm pics (album 36)

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Purple everywhere!

        Sequim is known as the “Lavender Capital of North America”.  We were just a week early and missed out on the annual Lavender Festival held the third weekend in July. Yet the joy of strolling through field after field of purple scent was celebratory enough. There are over 25 Farms scattered throughout the countryside, all easily spotted when driving down the road by purple flags on the fences. Most of the farms also have orchards of other fruits and berries: strawberries, raspberries, loganberries, boysenberries, blackberries to name a few.
      We visited one of the U-picks, where they hand you a small sickle and send you out to collect your very own bouquet.  Interestingly, there are over 100 cultivars of lavender plants – some are short and bushy with loads of blooms, others are longer stemmed, and the colors run from faded pastel purple (almost white) to electrically charged neon purple.  It was fun to select a wide assortment to bring back and scent the RV for days.  Visit http://www.sequimlavender.org for more about each Farm and Shop.

Lavender Farm pics (album 36)

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A Maritime City

        Gig Harbor is a beautifully quaint seafaring town, located on the southwestern side of Puget Sound. History is rich here due to it being a major fishing port. Caleb was able to enjoy the town as well, taking a few days off from work and then spending the weekend with us.
          The drive over from Auburn was surprisingly un-stressful, again I was anticipating white knuckle highway driving. But folks over this way have a very laid back spirit, and drivers are patient and accommodating to RV-ers.  The campground “Gig Harbor RV Resort” was peaceful and beautiful with many trees, and were amazed with the numerous oddly fascinating Monkey Puzzle bushes. 

          Quoting the town’s official website,”

We are a place steeped in history, with the sx̌ʷəbabš, or Swift Water People finding this a safe harbor. Croatian settlers launched our commercial fishing business, which remains to this day. Scandinavian settlers brought businesses to our town, and immigrants from across the nation settled here in Gig Harbor.

We remain a place where our connection to the water provides a living for generations of families.

Today, the water is not just a place of work, it is a place of recreation. Our canoe and kayak racing team are national champions. Locals enjoy a more leisurely pace – whether by paddle, by motor, by sail, or by land — and visitors get a warm welcome at our locally-owned inns, hotels and vacation rentals.

Walk along the waterfront, dine, shop and even enjoy a local beer or cocktail.

Gig Harbor is a place with captivating beauty, everywhere you look, there are scenes of uncommon splendor, watercraft of all shapes and sizes, historic homes and businesses, open views across the harbor, and those amazing moments when Rainier towers in the distance.

Gig Harbor is a place deeply connected. A stroll through town will bring you past historic net sheds, a stunning museum, and the area’s largest collection of independent businesses and restaurants. People gather here for festivals, concerts, gallery strolls, or family nights out. We are a place where our past inspires our future, knowing we can preserve what is great about this place while continuing to make our town, and all that it means to us, even better.

Gig Harbor (picture album 35)