Trips We've Taken: July 2007 Archives

All of these are macro shots taken right outside the cabin we were staying in at Kalaloch Lodge, on the coast in Olympic National Park.

From our cabin, we had a wonderful view of the beach and the ocean.

These photos are all taken just outside our cabin door, just next to the cliff. The rope photos are marking the cliff area. The plants are near by.

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This photo series completes our trip to Olympic National Park in Washington State. It was an absolutely wonderful time for us. We had a lot of fun. I encourage everyone to go there. If you like the mountains, the scenery, and want to get away from your normal routines of city life and Starbucks, it’s a nice place to sit by the lake and spend an afternoon reading a book, or taking a hike. Every hike that we took offered it’s own beauty. Sometimes, especially after hiking back aways to be confronted with a beautiful waterfall, I found myself wanting to stay there and take in all the smells and the serenity of the place.

So below are a few images from Ruby Beach, an absolute must-go-place if you visit the park (park officials will tell you that also). I’m putting a link below for the entire Ruby Beach Album. But since this is the final in the whole series, I’m also including the link to the Washington State collection itself, which includes Seattle, Crescent Lake visit in Olympic National Park, and the Kalaloch Lodge visit in Olympic National Park.

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A nice day today. The weather is beautiful. We started out the day having smoked salmon with bagels at home. We’ve been doing that more lately. It’s nice to just spend some quiet time at home with each other. Then, we went to the mall to get a few things. We came home, Kent went to the gym, and I am trying to finish up the last photos from our trip to Olympic National Park, in Washington State. I have a few more sets to do, but here’s what I have so far.

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This moth was actually around five inches from one end to the other.

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A flower I spotted on our hike to Marymere Falls in Olympic National Park.

These photos were taken on June 18, 2007 on our trip to Olympic National Park. I’m still sifting through them. We are on top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, and as you can see, it’s quite a breath taking view of the mountains. We were lucky to have the view. Often, you can drive all the way up to Hurricane Ridge only to find yourself up in the clouds with no view at all.

I was looking through my notes that I took on that day. This is what I was in my travel journal:

We wanted to drive to Hurricane Ridge first thing. But upon the advice of a Forest Service ranger, who said that it would be very cloudy at the top of the ridge until around 6-7 in the evening, we put off our trip to the ridge and instead went to Elwha Valley. Once there, we drove up the river valley for some nice scenic shots, and spotted a very nice falls (photos to come) that was easily accessible by the handicapped. I was impressed by how nice the falls were and how understated the advertising was for this little gem.

We decided after that not to take the advice of the forest service ranger to wait until 6-7:00 for our drive to Hurricane Ridge, and took a chance that maybe at the top, it wouldn’t be so cloudy. We passed through a very cloudy section driving up the mountain, but eventually, we cleared the fog and were able to have breath taking views of the large mountain tops of Olympic Mountain range. And this was the view from our picnic table where we had lunch. The views were quite stunning as you can see from this.

After we got back to the hotel, we had dinner and went back to our room to relax a bit. We ended up going back to the bar for a bit before bedtime, because the bar had a WiFi Internet zone, and we wanted to catch up a bit on email.

While Kent was reading and answering email, I went to the bar to order a drink and a snack. While there, this young man started talking to me. He was working at the lodge for the summer. He was sitting at the bar sipping on a soda and talking to the bartender. He asked how I was doing. I told him how much we were enjoying our stay at the lodge. He said, “How long do you and your… what do I call him, your ‘husband’… plan to stay?” That kind of took me back because I really didn’t think we were that obvious, at least to these people who are out in the middle of nowhere.

I told him another few days, and a bit of silence filled in. I finally thanked him for at least acknowledging that we were a couple. He replied, “Hey, my aunt is, so I’ve seen it before. They’ve been together for 12 years!” I asked, “How long to you think we have been together?” He replied, “Probably not that long. You guys don’t stay together for that long.” I said, “Is that right? Well, take a guess.” He said, “Five years.” I said, “No. Try thirty-two years.” He said, “Damn! That’s older than I am. Well, I don’t agree with it, but whatever makes you happy.”

He then went on to mention that he used to be a youth pastor. If you ever wondered where youth who attend churches regularly pick up all the standard stereotypes of gay people, this guy is your poster child. It was all there. I started getting the creeps a bit, excused myself, and went back to our table to check email.

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A moment in time... We stopped to have lunch on the ridge, and this little fellow was helping himself to one of my oatmeal raisin cookies, which he thought was quite special. Notice the cookie breaking up in mid air.

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