Olympic National Park

 We spent our last weekend at Squamish and left on Sunday morning. It was time to go as arms and fingers were starting to  hurt. Our list of projects still remains strong and we're hoping to make it back there someday after the trip is finished. After leaving Squamish we headed straight to Olympic National Park via the west side of Washington (to avoid Seattle) we hopped a ferry from Keystone to Port Townsend for about $25. It was a beautiful day out and we enjoyed getting closer to Sol Duc Hot Springs without driving.

Last hike at Squamish

Port Townsend Ferry

Sol Doc is a great little hot springs resort tucked into the center of Olympic Park. It has a few pools at different temperatures and a larger swimming pool. Last Christmas Cassie's parents (leo and dottie) got us a great Christmas present of a gift certificate that we could use for a couple of different resorts at Olympic including the hot springs. We made great use of it by camping within walking distance of the springs and using the gift for great dinners. We have only eaten out a few times on the trip so it was a special treat. The springs are really relaxing and we made the most out of our day-pass by soaking 3 different times. It was a very relaxing day. The weather (though part of the park is a rainforest) was excellent and we continued to be amazed by the warm dry days. We left after 2 nights at Sol Duc. On the way out we hiked to Sol Duc falls, and watched salmon coming up a lower section of the river. Really special place to see. 

Salmon

Sol Duc Falls

 From Sol Duc we headed to the Pacific coast. We camped at South Beach right next to the beach and went for walks to tidepools. Once Cassie was walking mojo and got surprised by a freak wave. I got a great action sequence of them both running away from the wave, unfortunately mojo didn't quite make it and got soaked. It wasn't quite as dangerous of a beach as a sign indicated it could be. Though the danger might be real we had a surprisingly relaxing time given that we should have been fearing for our lives...

DANGER!

Running from a wave

Otter

filtered sunlight

Cassie's birthday was on the 30th and we spent it having dinner at Kalaloch lodge and walking on the beach to watch the sun set. It was an outstanding meal and sunset.

Birthday Sunset

This labor day weekend we had been planning to do a backpack with Paul (our friend from Seattle) so we headed to Portland Oregon to stay with Cassie's parents and get organized. Mojo and I will be staying here at Cassie's parents house getting some projects done on the van while Cassie goes out on the backpack. But, fear not, though I will miss spending time with Paul there are other things coming to look forward to. Such as EUROPE!!!


We leave for Europe on Sept 13th and return December 14th. We fly into Paris and currently are planning to head straight to Fontainebleau (a humongous bouldering area) which is about an hour outside of the city. After that who knows what we'll be up to since the whole trip is still a work in progress.

So, we may not be posting much for the next 2 weeks or so, but expect a post from Europe as soon as we are able. 

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean