Tag: inspirational painted rocks

We’re on the bottom loop of Hwy 101 in Hoquiam/Aberdeen Washington. It’s bittersweet, knowing that this stop is the last one for us on this trip in the beautiful state of Washington. Since we arrived on Friday, and Caleb only 2 hours away, we met halfway in Olympia for a yummy Mediterranean dinner with he and a few more friends. Caleb then spent Saturday and Sunday with us, yay!

 

* At the Campground, we hiked a cool trail along the Hoquiam River and discovered an old railroad track used to transport harvested timber from boats (pic above).

* Revisited the Quinault Rainforest, this time with Caleb (and hiked a few new trails). Of interest is the Lake Quinault Lodge. Built in 1894, it’s seen a few more builds over the years (the lodge itself was rebuilt due to a fire). Back in the 1920’s, there was a dance pavilion on a barge. Imagine people dancing the Charleston, the jitterbug, the black bottom and others. The Lodge welcomes folks to come on in and take a self-guided tour of the place, and it’s nice that they had a brochure noting 13 different highlights about the place and it’s history.

* Caleb drive us over to Montesano Satsop Business Park for a surreal up close view of two nuclear reactors built in the 70’s but never completed construction.

* Visited the southern beaches on the coast (Ocean Shores, Copalis, and the planned ‘Truman Show’ feel of the Seabrook community. At Ocean Shores, the wide hard packed sand is much different than the rocky islands and log jammed beaches to the north, and you can drive your car directly out onto the sand (similar to Daytona Beach FL), which is exactly what we did! The weather at the time though was super misty/foggy, which gave the scene a surreal look to it.
Also popular recreation on the beach, in better weather, includes horseback riding on the sands, and kite-sailing.
* Aberdeen is the next town over from Hoquiam, but they are so close you can’t really tell when one stops and the other begins. It’s larger in population, so it was a nice change of pace to go into the “city” and enjoy a Mexican dinner. It’s also home to the late Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain (and the town makes sure you know this with its “Welcome to Aberdeen-Come As You Are” entrance sign on the bridge). We made sure to make a quick stop at the Kurt Cobain Memorial Park –  I found a painted rock there, that had a FB group invitation on the back of it: the R.S.W.K. (Rockin’ Spokane With Kindness) group; they paint inspirational quotes on them and drop ’em in cool places around the Pacific Northwest. I have the rock tucked away and am contemplating where I’ll eventually relocate it to (it may make all the way back to Florida). Fun!