Tough to leave Ben and our cottage on the Hood Canal

Left pretty early Tuesday morning for our trip home.  First flight took us to Charlotte, NC, then onto Harrisburg.  We had a nice dinner last night with Ben and Natalie then we all went to he cottage for one last brew.  Matt, Ben's roommate, also came over to wish us goodbye.  Thanks to all who may have followed my blog at sometime during our trip.  Take care,, Jim and Sheila.

Finally - Over to Seattle on the ferry!

We left fairly early this morning and caught the Bremerton ferry to Seattle.  Since it was a clear morning we hiked to the short monorail and rode to the Space Needle, erected in 1962 for the World's Fair.  Located adjacent to the "needle" were the Chihuly Glass Museum and Garden which were hard to capture in photos because of their details and color brillance.  After lunch we visited the famous Pike Street Market, directly across from the first "Starbucks" in the U.S.  Our 12,000 step day ended with a return ferry ride and a dinner out with Ben and Natalie.  I'm including numerous photos from today's activities which may follow the above text but, if not, you can tell it was a beautiful day in Seattle.

Port Angeles

We headed up the Washington coast today (Ben, Sheila, and Jim) with all intentions of crossing the Straits of Juan de Fuca by ferry to the city of Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island.  The weather was fairly overcast so we scrapped that plan and, instead, drove up along Crescent Lake and entered the Olympic National Park at Sol Duc.  There we went for a nice one mile hike back into that enormous forest to view the Sol Duc Falls and the old lodge and hot springs in that area.  Here's a few photos from downtown Port Angeles and I've also included a shot I took at the Naval Undersea museum the other day, I never knew that the USN named a dive suit after me, perhaps for my 4 years of service back in the late 60's?  Take care.

Crabbing on the Hood Canal

We launched Ben's boat around 1pm and spent much of the day dropping and retrieving his three crab cages.  We weren't as successful as we were a few days ago, only got five for all our efforts.  You can only keep male crabs of a certain size, all females and undersized males are tossed back in.  I have several photos of Ben's boat and a low tide shot from the cottage.

Cottage Cookout

Had a nice evening cooking outside at our cottage with Ben, Natalie, and Ben's great neighbors.The highlight was dessert with Sheila's handpicked blackberries which she made into a tasty syrup for cake and ice cream, the marinated chicken and red potatoes were good, too.Most of yesterday was a little iffy but by picnic time it turned beautiful again. I went for a kayak expedition up the coast for about a mile, beautiful homes nestled into the shoreline everywhere. Woke up this morning to a very low tide, tried to get a photo of the drastic change (sometimes up to 17 feet) from high to low tide. Have a good day.

Poulsbo

It wasn't such a nice day today, more like a typical NW one. We traveled a little way up the area from Ben's and went to the little town harbor town of Poulsbo. Walked around their Main Street, had some goodies from the bakery, and snapped a few shots. Then went to "foody" heaven, aka The Central Market, where Sheila stocked up on Seattle chocolates. Final visit was to the US Naval Undersea Warfare museum near Keyport, WA. Forget to mention that earlier this morning S went on a berry hunting safari and came back with quite a few. Photos attached for some of these activities.

Sidetrip to Sequim, WA

Today was beautiful here on the Hood Canal.  Went for an early morning walk and came back with a bowl of blackberries, plentiful along our course so Sheila will be heading back for more tomorrow.  Took a roadtrip north to Sequim, WA, where we visited the Olympic animal preserve.  I've included several shots showing a fairly large Yak trying to get a piece of bread (must be wheat only), and a group of fairly large bison. On the way back home we stopped in Port Gamble (photo) where Sheila visited a quilt shop we've been to before.  After a long day we got a chance to use the hot tub which sits out on the edge of the back patio of the cottage we're staying at.  Have a good evening.