Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m forty-four

After our hike on the “Moments in Time” trail on Saturday, we decided that on Sunday we would come back to Lake Crescent and hike to Marymere Falls. We noticed on Saturday that there were a lot people hiking to the falls, so we decided we would head out earlier and see if we could beat the crowds. We didn’t really need to set an alarm, though, because we have two living alarm clocks us who had a hard time sleeping on the trip and had no black out curtains in their room.

Since it was my birthday, the first thing we did was open up my presents – Emily brought them with us. I’m pretty sure Cates and Wickham were more excited about them than I was! But I do love all my new Disneyana – especially my new Orange Bird ornament that Emily got me.

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At any rate, we were up fairly early and we headed out to the falls a little bit after 8:00. Unlike Saturday, today was only a 20 minute drive because Lake Crescent is only about 20 minutes from Port Angeles. It was rainy when we got to the falls, but we live in the Pacific Northwest, so we were prepared (not to mention the Olympic National Park is literally a rain forest….so….). The silver lining was that the early time coupled with the weather meant that there was almost no one else on the trail with us. We passed 3 hikers on the way in who were leaving but when we got to the falls, we were the only ones there. We were able to hang out, eat some snacks, and enjoy the beauty of Marymere all by ourselves. After about ten minutes, we headed back down the trail. It became clear that we had made a great choice with our timing. Not only had it stopped raining before we got to the falls, on the way out we saw way more hiking groups on their way in. We were quite happy that we got to have the falls to ourselves and beat the crowds. After we got back to the parking area, we spent a little while on the shore of Lake Crescent skipping pebbles and even going out on the dock to see how clear the water really is.

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After our hiking trip, we went back to the house and had some quiet rest time. In the afternoon, we decided to check out the Port Angeles waterfront. There was a pier, a few buildings, and a small beach. The kids and I enjoyed climbing to the top of an observation tower on the pier and looking out at Vancouver Island and Victoria across the strait. Emily, on the other hand, stayed on the pier and wasn’t even keen to look up and see us on the tower. We then spent a good amount of time on the beach. The kids got their feet in the water, skipped some more stones, and wrote some messages in the sand before headed back home for dinner. We decided to order from Westside Pizza – which is a chain, but one that only serves the small towns to the west of Seattle and King County, so it was semi-local. Emily and I decided it actually tasted quite a bit like Pizza Hut, so in a way, we did get a little bit of Hut pizza on this weekend trip.

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Alas, all good things come to an end. On Monday morning we packed up and headed back to Kirkland. On the way, we stopped at Sonic for lunch in Tacoma and got some cherry limeades – the first we’ve had in four years! So tasty! We are sad that the trip is over, but we are looking forward to another road trip later this summer in place of our trip to England. And thankfully, that trip is only a few weeks away! Happy Distant Traveling!

Social Distancing from a Distance

As with many others, we have found ourselves in the difficult position of canceling our summer trip plans. We already had to cancel/postpone our trip to Florida over Spring Break, and now we have had to do the same with our trip to England this summer. We of course recognize how blessed we are to still have jobs and to be healthy, but the momentary disappointment is real – especially since this was to be our first trip to Europe since 2014. Alas, we can’t change that; we’re likely reschedule for next summer, but we’ll have to deal with that later.

In the meantime, after two months of rigorous social distancing and staying at home (only traveling to Safeway and Fred Meyer), we decided that with some of the relaxation of the requirements and flattening of the curve, we would go for a long weekend to socially distance ourselves from Kirkland….we really needed a couple of days out of our own house. Even still, we felt it was important that we do what we can to minimize contact with others so that we don’t bring any King County germs to Klallum County. So we rented an AirBnB, bought our groceries at our local Safeway, packed up our stuff – including our masks AND our Instant Pot, and headed to Port Angeles. The drive was about two and half hours, so not too bad.

The house is a bit weird – it is on a main street and was turned into a business at one point so the front bedroom has a window in it where the receptionist likely sat to check people in. But the kids think it is the best thing ever because there are stairs AND it is somewhere different (they haven’t even gotten to go to Safeway these past two months). We’ve brought several games and puzzles and we are having a great time together in a new space.

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One of the benefits of coming to the Olympic Peninsula is that Olympic National Park has some areas that are open to day hikes, and so that is what we set out to do today. That and we wanted to be able to show the kids the Pacific Ocean (despite living here for four years, they’ve never actually seen it). We were only successful in one of those two goals….

When we set out this morning, we aimed for La Push, Washington which is on the Quileute Reservation. We enjoyed the drive through the national park on the way – even stopping for a quick photo op at Lake Crescent.

However, when we made it all the way to through the park and the Olympic National Forest, we found out that they had closed the reservation (including La Push) and there was no access to the coast. On top of that, pretty much the rest of the coastline for about 50 miles is part of the national park and was also closed. So we had to turn around disappointed and make our way back toward Port Angeles – though we did drive through Forks for a few minutes just to say we did.

On our way back through the park, we decided to find one of the day hikes and give it a try. We found a short, 0.6 mile, level hike called the “Moment in Time” trail and decided to give it a go. It shared the same parking lot with the Marymere Falls hike, so the parking lot was rather full, but the actual trail was almost empty (most people were hiking to the falls); so it was pretty easy to socially distance. The trail was the perfect length and, since it was clearly designed for kids, it was sign-posted with several informative placards telling about the different things you were seeing such as a nursing log, a tree gutted by fire, and a “momentary meadow.” It also had a small beach on Lake Crescent where the kids enjoyed throwing rocks and feeling the icy cold water – it is a glacial lake full of snow runoff. It really was magnificent – as was the primeval forest. It was so nice to be outside hiking somewhere new – and the weather was perfect, kinda sunny at 60ish degrees.

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After our hike, we came back to the house to laze around for the rest of the day. We finished the puzzle we brought with us, played Sleeping Queens and Outfoxed, Emily gave the kids manicures and pedicures, we finished off the pilau we made last night, and we watched Robin Hood on Disney+. All in all it was a great day. Tomorrow we are thinking we may try and hike up to Marymere Falls – we’re planning to leave earlier in the day so that we can beat any crowds that may be planning a visit tomorrow. Plus, it’ll be my birthday, so there’s also that.

Happy socially distant traveling! Stay safe!