Hurricane Ridge

John and Kay were anxious to show us the beauty of Hurricane Ridge. It was about a forty-five minute drive beautiful drive up to the alpine of the Olympic National Park Visitors Center. From there we had several options to hike.

As we charted our course a way too comfortable deer seemed to be wondering if we had a small bite for him to eat. Nada!

Kay led the way and enjoyed every sight and smell along the way. Everything looked familiar to her as the daughter of a forest ranger, and I enjoyed her enthusiasm and excitement over every tree and flower.

This was the final leg to the point of Sunset Ridge. On a clear day we would have been able to see the ocean out to Victoria BC, but not today.

This was a view the other direction looking at the road we had drive up. After our short hike we checked out the visitor's center before heading back down. So glad we did this!

Purple Haze

Purple Haze is an extraordinary little lavender farm in Sequim with over 15,000 plants in more than 50 varieties on 12 acres.

A sweet little shop with everything lavender in it for you.

When you visit Purple Haze, you are invited to wander the fields, enjoy the beauty of this sweet smelling herb, pick your own bouquet of flowers, enjoy a picnic on the lawns, and experience all the flavors, fragrances and healing of this purple flower.

Kay grabbed a basket and shears and went out to collect her bundle. There are extensive gardens to wander thru and creative spots to sit and dream of the possibility of a lavender oasis in your own back yard...

Sequim calls itself the "lavender capitol of North America", and even though the official lavender festival was a few weeks ago the lavender was still abundant and beautiful and oh so fragrant. What a fun stop in our day.

The Future

We thot this picture captures the future we face under Democrat rule. That's a government car at a government gas station. They plan to drive, but for us they want our ability to drive to be "legal but rare".

Fort Worden

We woke up to a cool, cloudy day which we had expected. After breakfast we only had time to drive around the Fort grounds which are actually quite incredible. It is a historic spot with lots of buildings and history that we will have to take in another time.

Fort Worden is an early 20th century U.S. Artillery Corps fort. It was used as the headquarters for the Puget Sound Harbor Defenses protecting the entrance to Puget Sound and the naval shipyard at Bremerton.

Commissioned in 1902 Fort Worden's military buildings have been preserved and you need to plan some time to take it all in. There is an extensive system of large, abandoned bunkers available for exploration, the Coast Artillery Museum, a balloon hangar that was used for airships, three 3-inch anti-aircraft gun emplacements, and several restored quarters on Officers' Row, and the Point Wilson Lighthouse.

We will be back.

Olympic Peninsula

We are with John & Kay on a four day jaunt around the Olympic Peninsula in the bbow. It has been over 10 years since we've been out this way so I'm looking forward seeing it all again with good friends.

We left just after four and missed our ferry reservation due to traffic and construction, but thankfully made the next ferry.

We ate dinner at the small cafe at the ferry terminal and then watched the sun go down as we sailed.

Our stop for the night was at Fort Worden but we got in too late to see any of the buildings. We did take a walk out to the beach and suddenly over a dark cloudy horizon a big butter moon appeared. It was so fun to watch how fast it rose over the cloud.

It was just too cold to enjoy much outside so we went back to the bbow and got settled for the nite.