Lookin' Down on Creation

You know Karen Carpenter's song, "Top of the World"? Well get that one in your head because I'll show you some pictures that felt like we must have been up there quite a ways :-).

Over Labor Day Weekend (note I said over the weekend, we didn't actually go ON Labor Day which was kind of an issue for my children - who insisted they needed something to write about the next day for the first day of school. You know, the "What did you do over summer break question?" Never mind all of the travel and fun we'd had all summer, what really counts is the day before school starts.), my children and I traveled westward to the Washington coast.

I didn't tell the kids where we were going, I didn't tell them how long we'd be gone. I wanted to be flexible and kind of "fly by the seat of my pants" on that last weekend before school was to start.

We headed to the ferry,

Guess you can't tell, but this really is a ferry. Our car is underneath

waited along with hundreds of other residents yearning to "get out of dodge". It seemed like getting over to our destination took quite a long time, even though on the map it didn't look so far. We went through many windy roads interspersed with simply breathtaking views. Lake Crescent took my breath away, such a beautiful huge lake right in the middle of the heavily forested mountains. I hope to return to Lake Crescent for camping or canoeing another time.

We went clear over to Forks Washington, a small town the size of the nearby "city" where I grew up. We swam until 9 or 10 pm, that night.  The next morning, after having a nice conversation with a cashier at the only grocery store in town, we headed over to the coast - La Push. I loved this part of the drive because there were signs all over (big, homemade kind of signs - none of that neon, flashy stuff in the city) talking about werewolves and references to the hit story series set in Forks, "Twilight".

Love the Beautiful Ocean

La Push was perfect. The beach was sandy (much to my surprise, I thought WA only had rocky beaches) and the atmosphere so calming. We spent all morning on the beach.



You can just feel the sand in your toes right?

Heading back toward home, we stopped for ice cream at Lake Crescent and again determined we must go back there. Since I had already paid the National Park Fee (Sol Duc Hot Springs - had to pay to enter forest, but found out the resort was full, so I didn't even stay there), I headed on up to Hurricane Ridge - the top of the Olympic Mountains. What a windy road to get there, but wow was it worth it.

Catching the Wildlife on our Sunrise Point Hike

You can see the road way down there can't you? Seriously high up

I've given you a travel log, which isn't funny but these pictures make me smile because we all had a great time. Just looking at these Hurricane Ridge pictures makes my stomach turn knots. We were SOOO high up there.


Hurricane Ridge -- Visitors Center View



I may be smiling, but I was scared to death