Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Ruby Tuesday

Our final full day of the trip includes a rainforest and a beach before heading back to Seattle. We got up a bit later than yesterday morning and stopped again to get something for lunch. We drove the hour or so to the Hoh Rainforest which I was personally excited about because it seemed like a highlight of Olympic National Park. Unfortunately, the line to get in took about 30 minutes at the entrance gate because the credit card machine was down so they had to write down all of the credit card numbers and for some reason, that took like 5 minutes per car that didn't have a pass.

After waiting in the line and finally getting through, the place was packed and there was nowhere to park. At this point we didn't want to wait too long as we wanted to get back to Seattle before it was too late and as we were about to give up on it, a spot opened up. We then went to the "Hall of Mosses" trail was about a mile loop through moss-filled forest. It was neat to see as the moss was cool and the trees were huge but since it's the dry season, it didn't feel like a rainforest. It was about 80 degrees and everything was pretty dry so I think it took something away with it not feeling like the Pacific Northwest.












We were running late so that was the only trail we did; after that, we fought off the bugs as we had another picnic in the shade which I found as enjoyable as the hike. We left Hoh and headed to our last stop, Ruby Beach. A bunch of the coast is technically in the park and we figured it'd be great to see a completely different area. What was crazy is that as we approached the coast, the temperature went from about 80 to 70 even though it was still sunny. As we got a few miles from the coast, the fog was visible and when we drove into it, the temps dropped in the mid-50's.

We were able to find a parking spot easier here so we grabbed some jackets and headed towards the beach which was a short walk down a hill. It reminded me of Cannon Beach but it was still cool to see the fog over the water and around the sea stacks near the shore. There was a lot of driftwood there too that can move around as the tides come in; thankfully it was nearer to low tide when we got there. We hung around there for a little bit and took some pictures, including having someone take a group photo of us.










Our final stop was for dinner at a restaurant in Olympia that was also pretty good (basically, Yelp never let us down). The traffic looked terrible on the way home but the slight delay with dinner helped clear things up as we got back to our hotel in Seattle without hitting any stops. We didn't stay in the same place as we had been at before - between some soccer tournament and cruise ships, nearly everything was booked up - but the Hampton Inn by the airport was perfectly fine. We certainly appreciate Mark and Laurel's offer to stay at their house, but since we already disrupted the baby's schedule enough, we didn't want to do it again with our early morning flight. It turns out that worked out since it was hot in Seattle the last couple of days and it was about 90 in the guest room of their house and it doesn't have AC in it.

All in all, this was a great trip and we were so glad we got to spend time with all of our friends while also seeing more National Parks and some sporting events!

(Hat tip to Mark for the title of this post, who said "Where are we going and what day is it?" when he realized it added up.)

As they say in the Hoh Rainforest, "May your moss be damp and your trees be tall." Note: No one says this.

1 comment:

  1. You wouldn't need to find someone to take your group picture if you had a selfie stick.

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