Retreating to the Olympic Peninsula

It happened as a divine coincidence that I would be between jobs the same week as my 6th wedding anniversary. Sometimes life hands you flowers instead of lemons. In this case it was a chance to kick off a glorious summer and visit the coast and family before I start something new and exciting!

We left home one morning in the middle of the week, took the Kingston ferry, drove across the Hood Canal and around the north of the peninsula, following lake Crescent to the area of La Push, west of Forks, Washington. We made oru way to the lodge we'd booked near Rialto Beach and were able to arrive in time to play on the beach for a while before sunset. While picking up beach trash, I found a stone with a cup in it and a smaller stone that fit perfectly inside it. I named it the mother and child stone.

The next day, we woke up early and drove down to the Hoh Rain Forest. Immediately upon entering the park, the scenery changed to wilderness and my mind began painting me into the scenario as that of the new explorer discovering this land for the first time. All humans or things human faded away so that I could enjoy my daydream. We strolled through the Hall of Mosses, commenting on the epiphytes dangling like Ent beards from the giant trees, listening for birds, and avoiding human contact other than our own. After a full day of daydreaming and discovery, we stopped at the Kalaloch lodge for dinner and another sunset.

We spent our final day in La Push, just strolling the beaches and enjoying the peace. Ironically, we considered a stop to the Quileute fireworks stands, but decided we didn't need to blow things up on the 4th of July to have a good time.

Our road trip continued down the coast to Astoria, where we hooked up with brother Dan for lunch and a visit to the Busy Bee packing company museum where they displayed some old Columbia River gill netting boats and biographies of the women who worked the packing plant. It was actually a pretty interesting piece of local history tucked away behind the Rogue Public House.

After lunch with Dan, we split for Portland to visit the rest of the family. Of course, we ate like royalty and had fun as always. We made a last stop in on Grandmother, who gave us our first baby gift. It was a sweet little handmade lullaby music box.

Basically, our anniversary turned into a fabulous road trip and also a family visit. On the way home, I had a realization of how lucky I am to have such a great family life. I hope it just gets better as Melanie and I bring a new person into that circle.