Seattle to Sequim

We flew out to Seattle on Tuesday morning to spend some time with my sister and meet my niece. What a cutie she is! Here is a picture of the two of us together.  Our flight was a little scary as we almost missed our connection in Cleveland, but we made it out in one piece. After that flight, we are super excited to take the train home!

My niece

We spent the day with my sister and niece, enjoying the lovely weather in Seattle. Wednesday morning we woke up early to have coffee and pastries at Honore Bakery. We met a friend of mine, and after a delicious ham and cheese croissant, an orange scone and some nice iced americanos, we trundled off to the grocery store to get some provisions for our trip to the Olympic Peninsula. 

Our trip to the Olympic Peninsula started with a ferry ride from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island. The ferry ride was about half an hour and the cars were loaded on by some staff that barely seemed interested in what they were doing. Tim and I got a cute picture of the Seattle skyline behind us as we pulled out of town. 

Seattle from the Ferry to Bainbridge Island

We could also see Mount Ranier to the right of the city as we pulled away. It was a little hazy and foggy, but we could see the snow covered peak. It has been such a treat to see snow covered mountains, which are not a common sight in Rhode Island.

Bainbridge has a very cute little main street, and we had lunch at the Hitchcock deli. The sandwiches were very good, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who passes through Bainbridge. We had dessert at Mora Ice Cream. 

We then continued on our way to Sequim. On the way we drove over the longest floating bridge across salt water in the world. In the 1970s part of it sank, and it took two years to rebuild it. We then continued through Port Townsend before arriving in Sequim and our rental house. From the porch on our rental house, we can see the Juan de Fuca strait and the snow capped Mt. Baker. We have also been able to see lots of deer running through the meadow in front of the porch.

Thursday we slept in, and then headed into Port Angeles. This is the biggest city in the Olympic Peninsula and was also part of the Twilight story. In fact, there are all these brochures in our rental house about going on a "Twilight tour." We are about 75 miles from Forks, where the story all takes place. After a quick drive through Port Angeles we headed into the Olympic National Park. The park is very big and takes up most of the Peninsula. It is the only place in the world with temperate rain forests, too!

Tim and I decided to do an 8 mile hike. It is a 4 mile, each way hike called the Spruce Railroad Trail. I picked it because of the name - if it has to do with a train, it must be good, right?!

Crescent Lake, Olympic National Park

The trail went along the northern edge of Lake Crescent, which was formed by glaciers. The water was bright blue and crystal clear, and the entire lake was framed by hills and mountains. It was so beautiful!

About 1.5 miles into the hike, we came upon this wooden and metal bridge. There were families jumping into the lake off the bridge. There was also a great little swimming hole on the side of the bridge. We found someone kind enough to take a picture of the two of us enjoying our hike. 

Enjoying our hike!

We continued to the end of the trail, and then turned around and made our way back to the trail head. Our 8 mile hike took about 2.5-3 hours and we had a great time.

We got nice and sweaty on our hike, and we wanted to do nothing more than jump in the beautiful crystal clear water of the lake. We hopped back in the rental car and headed over to East Beach, which was just a few miles down the road. A quick change in the car into our bathing suits, and we were enjoying the lake. We were hot, but the water was FREEZING! After just a few minutes we were nicely cooled down, and headed back to the car and back to the house to have dinner with the family.

Tomorrow we are planning on maybe heading to Hurricane Ridge, or perhaps down to the Dungeness Beach. The great thing about this peninsula is that we are right where the mountains meet the ocean, so there is a choice to see everything that one might want to see. We hope to also maybe head to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, on Saturday, or maybe do a hard cider tasting tour.

On Monday we will begin our second cross country train adventure - can't wait!