Seals!

We were able to add another animal to our wildlife list today! Harbor seals! Upon getting off the ferry in Victoria we headed straight for our favorite spot. We discovered it quite by accident on our honeymoon nearly nine years ago. It is the Aylor Farm at the Eastern Sooke Provencial Park. It was a farm at some point as evidenced by the open meadow by the parking area and the fruit trees near the picnic area. But the highlight is the access it grants you to the coastal hiking trails. Once to the beach you are rewarded with a rocky shore, a cozy harbor and on a clear day like today a veiw of the Olympic Mountains and Mt Rainier.

It was here we were sitting on a rock enjoying the view when we noticed (too late to get a decent picture) that we were being watched by two harbor seals at the waters edge.

A little way up the trail we found Kreyke Point, a rocky outcrop overlooking the water that reminded us of Gros Morne in Newfoundland. There seems to be a quality about the places that we crave, geology and water, nature and time.


-- Post From Sara's iPhone

Location:Eastern Sooke, BC

A little place called Forks

After departing the Lake Quinalt area, we headed northward and followed the signs to the Upper Queets river. This took us far off the beaten track into some pretty remote country. We were rewarded by a beautiful auto trail through some truly quiet country.

After the Queets valley the road shifts toward the coast and the National Park includes some beautiful beaches covered in rounded stones and massive driftwood (full sized trees). We stopped and hiked around at several and soaked in the peaceful scenery.




As twilight set in we rolled up to the formerly backwater town of Forks. We were here back in 2002 and the glitz and glamour of book and movie exposure has meant big changes for Forks. Such as all the hotels have slogans like "Welcome to the Twilight Zone" and there's a store dedicated to selling Twilight memoribilia. In all seriousness it is still the same quiet town, complete with a herd of elk grazing on the runway of the airport.

We drove past Lake Crescent (which even in the dark is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen) and ended the day with wonderful Thai food in Port Angeles near the Downtown Inn where we will spend the night.




-- Post From Shawn's iPhone

Location:Forks, WA

Enchanted forest

I have always wanted to visit the Black Forest, to see first hand the inspiration of Faerie Tales. For me though, I will never again think of an enchanted forest without picturing the Maple Glade in the Olympic NP near Lake Quinalt.

The rain forest was different here, the giant firs and spruce were accompanied by maples which were coated with moss. The sun was shining today, making the ethereal wood even more magical, and lighting up the hanging moss. Everything was green and gold, even in February. We saw a deer grazing on the other side of a stream, and she paralleled our course for a while, always pretending to ignore our presence. It was something out of my favorite fiction. We half expected to be challenged by faerie folk riding giant dragonflies or eaten by dinosaurs.

If I ever go missing, you can find me living in the hollowed out base of the giant cedar, living off toadstools and faerie dust.

-- Post From Sara's iPhone

Location:Olympic rain forest

Wildlife

I like waking up on the West Coast. It feels like I'm sleeping in but the clock says I have the whole day ahead of me. We started driving north today, because what Olympic journey is complete without spending some time in the Olympic National Park. Last night it was raining but today the sun came out. We went hiking in the rainforest and took pictures of the light filtering through the masive trees and prehistoric ferns and moss.

We have been here before. Almost nine years ago we spent our honeymoon admiring giant firs, waterfalls, nurse logs, and wildlife. Today we felt about nine years yonger as we reminisced about that trip.

We are naturalists at heart. We name trees, identify birds, admire mushrooms; all we need is a heavy dose of khaki to make it official. As naturalists we succeeded today, in addition to seeing the worlds largest spruce and some interesting bracket fungi, we also saw the following wildlife:

Black Bear
Herd of Roosevelt Elk
Deer
Two Bald Eagles

One of the highlights today was the roadside Merrimam Falls that was spectacular from the recent rain.

We are staying in a lake view room at the Quinault Lodge. Franklin Delano Roosevelt stayed here in 1937 while deciding if Olympic National Park should be founded. Luckily he enjoyed the area just as much as we do. We witnessed a beautiful sunset over the lake before an amazing dinner at the lodge's Roosevelt Restaurant. Salmon served on a cedar plank and yummy pork chop with banana foster and white wine poached pears for dessert.



View from our room.

-- Post From Sara's iPhone

Location:Quinault Lodge

Polson's in WA

For the third time in my life I passed the Polson Museum today. And for the third time it was closed. I had actually looked ahead and knew that it would be, but I still had hopes that their website was wrong.









It is a beautiful home (from the outside at least) which was apparently the base for the families logging operations in times past. I have mixed feelings, being very interested in history of the family and of the very important role the lumber industry played in the history of this area, but at the same time sad at the role they played in removing the old growth rainforest which is now relegated to only a few valleys in this area. Knowing that my great grandfather was a lumber man in NC does also make me wonder about how closely related we may be . . . Perhaps some cousin struck out for new experiences as the old growth forests dwindled in the East.

In any case we continued to see evidence of the influence of Polson's on this area including a logging road that we followed called Polson Camp Rd.

For a family name that is relatively obscure, it was very exciting to see!


-- Post From Shawn's iPhone

Location:Hoquiam, WA

Vancouver 2010

And we're off... After the obligatory last-minute fretting and sleep deprivation we have managed to start our trip off 18 hours early.









We left Chicago just as the snow started falling and I imagine it is snowing at home by now as well. I have a conference in Portland next week, so that's where our flight is heading. Btw, Portland is a balmy 52 degrees at last report.

On the agenda for tonight:
-Sit in limb-compromising, contorted positions with tray tables in our laps for seemingly endless hours.
-Fume at guy in front whose seat is reclined twice as far as is normally possible.
-Rent a car.
-Check into hotel.
-Complete poster for conference (maybe).
-Collapse on bed.

-- Post From Shawn's iPhone

Location:37,000 feet above Mt Rushmore

Halifax

Our first day in Halifax was largely spent resting and catching up on laundry. We did get out for a few hours to explore. We made our way up the large hill that dominates the downtown landscape. Halifax is and has long been a major port for Canada due to it's large, ice-free harbor. To protect this resource a series of citadels have occupied the top of this hill.

The next day we went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which had hundreds of ship models of every kind. There were also special exhibits on tug boats, the Titanic, and the Halifax Explosion. The Halifax Explosion occured in 1917 as a result of a ship collision with another vessel carrying war time explosives. 2000 people died and 9000 were injured. It remains the largest man-made accidental explosion to date. The exhibit was both interesting and tragic.





While in Halifax we wandered around the Public Gardens, heard bagpipes play, walked around the university, and drank in an Irish Pub. We relaxed and reflected, and tried to prepare ourselves for returning to our lives back home. We are going to miss the Maritimes and there is a part of us that wants to stay. But the part of us that misses our pets and realizes that vacations are less fun without a source of income won out, so tomorrow we return home.




Thanks for traveling with us!


-- Post From Shawn's iPhone