Olympic National Park Part II

The apartment we rented in Port Angeles was definitely the nicest place we stayed on the trip. In addition to the usual bedroom, living room, and bathroom, it had a full kitchen, steam room, and hot tub. We picked up a bunch of groceries on our way into town and Salpa made pasta with sausage and a cream sauce for dinner (yum!). We celebrated our birthday at midnight with a dense brownie that sadly looked much better than it tasted. When you go grocery shopping when you're starving, you buy all the things.

We had saved the next day for hikes around Lake Crescent and a trip to the Sol Duc Hot Springs. We had learned the previous day that options for food are scarce in the park, so we decided to make sandwiches to bring with us. Without giving it any thought, I put the sandwiches in the fridge while we finished getting ready. When we were about ready to leave, I started putting ice cubes in plastic bags to put in the cooler bag I had brought with me. Luca and Salpa, who had apparently been trying to figure out what the heck I was doing in Italian, finally asked me what the ice was for. I replied, "the sandwiches" with a bit of a "duh" tone. They exchanged a "she's crazy" look. Then I remembered the differences in meat/dairy refrigeration needs in Europe. Apparently they go hiking in the Alps for days without refrigerating meats.

Our first stop of the day was a hike to Marymere Falls on Lake Crescent. The trail from the lake to the falls was a mile at the most, but it was a pretty walk with moss covered trees. When we got back to Lake Crescent, we retrieved our sandwiches from the cooler and found a dock to eat our lunch on. Growing up in Michigan, I'm more than used to lakes, but most of our lakes include jet skis, speedboats, and pontoons. There were hardly any other people around, let alone motor watercraft. Later that afternoon we headed to Sol Duc Hot Springs. Sol Duc Hot Springs has three different mineral hot springs that are temperature controlled, but uses water from melted snow that mixes with volcanic rocks. I would definitely recommend it for a relaxing afternoon, especially after a couple of days hiking in the park. Port Angeles isn't a big town, so we spent our birthday evening back at our apartment making dinner, drinking champagne, and watching Prisoners in the hot tub, because it wouldn't be a birthday with Luca if I wasn't coerced into watching a scary move ;]

Lake Crescent

Marymere Falls 

We spent our last morning in the park on Hurricane Ridge, which was less than a mile from our apartment. We were expecting that we would be able to do a mini hike, but when we got to the visitor center at the top, we realized that the mountains were still really snow-covered. We had all dressed for weather at the bottom of the mountains, but the views were pretty spectacular, so we didn't mind the cold.

Hurricane Ridge

We headed for Seattle after Hurricane Ridge, with a quick stop for lunch in Sequim, one of the towns that the main character in The Boys in the Boat lives. The quickest way to get to Seattle from the Olympic Peninsula is to take the ferry from Bainbridge Island. The only ferries I've ever been on either don't take cars (the ferry to Mackinac Island) or seemed a lot more like a ship to me than a ferry (the ferry/boat/ship from Helsinki to Tallinn). I definitely felt very Meredith Grey-like as the ferry got closer to our next and final stop on the trip.