May 2007

We have breakfast and head to Seattle's Safeco Park for their 10:30 tour. Safeco Park is home for the Mariners. One of Joe's favorite baseball player's is Ichiro, so we're looking forward to seeing his stadium and the game tonight. The tour guide is excellent, so interesting tour.

After the tour we head down to the wharf area for lunch. We've been telling Joe about this place on the wharf where we took his sisters on their two visits to Seattle, Ivar's. They have clam chowder, fish and chips, and everyone feeds french fries ('chips') to the seagulls. We eat our lunch by the water, save about a dozen fries for the seagulls and then have fun taking turns feeding the seagulls.

After enjoying the sunshine and feedling the seagulls, we head up to Pike Place Market. We stroll among the veggies, fish, and flowers and when we get to the end, we see the original Starbucks coffee shop across the street! Being a coffee lover, I head over there to buy some coffee and a Starbucks coffee mug Christmas ornament :-) Jere insists on taking my pic with my Starbucks coffee...

We stroll through Pike Place Market again. They have so many flower vendors with fresh flowers and all of the bouquets are between $10-$20. I resist buying any and just enjoy looking at them. On the way back to the car we pass a cutout dressed like Dr McDreamy from Grey's Anatomy (which takes place at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital) and Jere & Joe talk me into posing with Dr McDreamy :-) Funny...

By then it's time to head back to Safeco Field for the Mariners vs Yankees game. We had originally planned to go tomorrow night, but tomorrow (and Sunday) are both sold out. We park the car and across the street is a huge Krispee Kreme Donut shop. We've not had dinner so we stop for a snack. They have strawberry creme donuts decorated like baseballs and Ichiro's #51 on them, so I have to have one! It was surprisingly delicious.

I bought two more for breakfast tomorrow :-)

As we have for all the games, we get there as soon as the gates open and watch batting practice. Jere and Joe hang out to catch fly balls but I went down to get an up close look at Jeter (one of the few baseball players I recognize).
Since the game is close to sold out, our seats are way, way up in the stadium. We do have a great view of the city though.

Blake Lewis from American Idol fame sings the national anthem (not very well) and we watch a good game. Mariners win 3-0. This is our 5th (and last) MLB game of the trip. The home team has won all 5 games, so we've enjoyed all of the games.

We leave the Olympic peninsula of Washington today. I've enjoyed the last few days here. It is really a beautiful area. The town, Sequim, where we're camped is attracting a lot of retirees. I can see why.

On the way to Seattle we stop near Bremerton for lunch. Jere worked on a project for the Naval base here before he retired, and he wanted to get together with one of the guys he worked with on the project. He wanted me to join them but I had no interest in their 'work talk', so Joe & I worked on homework and had lunch in the RV.

We continue on toward Seattle and we see Mt Rainier. It looks incredible against the blue sky. We set up in the KOA south of Seattle and then go for a walk to take some pictures of Mt Rainier.

We get up early to board the ferry at Port Angeles WA.

The 90 minute ferry ride takes us to Victoria, Vancouver Island (British Columbia). The weather is good, but the ferry still sways A LOT in the middle of the Strait of Juan Fuca! I get seasick very, very easily and the one Bonine that I took did not help 100%, so I was glad to arrive in Victoria. The ride into Victoria harbor is gorgeous and the town is very picturesque. Lots of nice architecture; lot of flowers; beautiful sunny day. We first visit the Parliament building (Victoria is the capital of British Columbia). The building is gorgeous inside and out, with beautiful landscaping. We get a guided tour of their rotunda and then go back outside to enjoy the sunshine.

Then Joe wants to visit a tourist trap that is heavily advertised, Miniature World :-) He enjoys it and as he points out, "it's educational". The displays each have a tidbit about the history of the event in the display.

We have some lunch at a deli and then walk around the town for the rest of the day, including the wharf area (and it's many hydroplanes) and Chinatown.

The ferry only makes one trip to/from today, so we catch the 4pm ferry back. I wasn't feeling great the whole day (very sleepy) so I was glad to be back on the ferry for the 90 minute ride back. I don't know if it was as bumpy as the trip in the morning or not; I actually fell asleep on the way back.

We get back to the RV, quick dinner, and I actually fall asleep by 7pm and don't wake til 7:30am the next morning.

Well, so much for the sunshine of yesterday, we get up this morning and we're surrounded by fog. So we pack a picnic lunch and head out to Olympic National Park. Our first stop is Hurricane Ridge, high up in the Olympic mountains. This turns out to be a great first stop because we are now above the fog and are surrounded by gorgeous scenery and blue skies!

After taking lots of pictures

and playing in the snow on top of the ridge (there's still 90" of snow on top at the visitors center),

we head out to the western edge of the park. As we arrive to Crescent Lake, it starts to turn cloudy

and by the time we get closer to the Hoh Rain Forest, it of course is raining. However, as we start out on the trail, Hall of Moss, the rain stops and we enjoy a nice walk among the moss and ferns.

We see a large herd of elk on the way out of the Hoh Rain Forest.

Our last stop in the park is on the Pacific coast, but we find out when we get to the coast, the end of the road is an indian reservation town, La Push. So we decide to stop there for dinner. We eat next to the window looking out at the marina/bay. As we're finishing up our dinner and looking at the seagulls, a bald eagle flies a few feet from us, right outside the window!

After dinner we walk around the bay and see the eagle perched on top of a pole, lots of seagulls and several sea lions. Interesting area. (the eagle is hard to see, but it's perched on top of the stand on the brown telephone poles)

On the way back we stop at a salmon hatchery and then head back to the RV.

After spending yesterday trying to catch up on chores ('trying' being a key word), we pack up this morning (again) and start our drive to Sequim Bay, Washington, along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The day starts out cloudy but by lunchtime the sun is shining and it looks like we're finally going to have a warm, sunny day. So we pull into a Wal-Mart to pick up an item or two. When I return to the truck, Jere's nowhere to be found, but Joe and I hear a hissing sound coming from the truck. Jere returns to tell us we have a nail in the truck tire and he's just made arrangements at Wal-Mart to get it fixed. So we finally have a beautiful day and we spend the next 2 hours at Wal-Mart :-(

We finally get to Sequim around dinnertime, eat dinner and then head over to the Dungeness Spit for an evening walk. It's a nice area by the ocean, with a view of a lighthouse and snow-covered Mt. Baker in the background. Jere spent much of the time on the spit watching a Navy submarine coming through the strait. He worked on projects with Navy subs for many years, so I think he has a soft spot for subs.