Olympic Peninsula

This last weekend I made a somewhat impromptu road trip up and around the Olympic Peninsula. I've lived most of my life in northwestern Oregon and had never been up past Ilwaco, which is kind of silly. I also just needed to get out of town and kind of clear my head for a bit.

I spent part of last week doing a little research on where to stay. I considered hotels, but I kind of wanted to do it on the cheap. Camping would have been okay, except I didn't know what the reservation situation was like up there, if the weather would cooperate, and oh, I didn't have a tent. So I remembered hostels, and although I had never stayed at one before, I thought I might as well have an extra adventure.

I started out on Friday night, knowing that if I started at home on Saturday I would probably get a too-slow start. I only made it as far as Seaside, as that is where the hostel was. I was pretty impressed for my first hostel stay, the Seaside hostel is in an old motel, very cozy and quiet. That night I walked to Broadway, then down the prom to the Salt Works. Had dinner on the way back.

I did get my early start Saturday morning, getting out of town by eight. After filling up on the Oregon side, I made the jaunt across the bridge to Washington. Staying on 101 on that side is a little out of the way, so I took a shortcut on some disembodied head of George Washington roads to catch 101 farther north. I drove a lot this morning, breezing through the greater Raymond-North Bend and Aberdeen-Hoquiam areas.

Aberdeen was much larger than I expected, but much of the rest of Washington's coast was more sparsely setteled than I would have thought. In fact, past Hoquiam, there isn't a town of any size until you get to Forks. Much of this area is either in the Olympic National Park or Forest, however. I thought the drive was nice, but can understand why so many washingtonians come south. There isn't the level of either spectacular scenic beauty or visitor facilities we have here. Plus, I think our coast is much more accessible.

After Forks, there is a big lake called Lake Crescent that the highway parallels for a time. It reminded me a lot of the lakes at Glacier Park. As I stretched my legs at a lakeside stop, an interpretive panel explained why- the lake was carved by glacial action.

Soon after leaving Lake Crescent, one arrives at Port Angeles. By this time, it was into the afternoon and I decided I could slow down for a bit. I walked around the harbor area a little bit, grabbed some lunch, and went looking for some internet. After finding that the internet cafe at the local bowling alley was chock full of gamerz, I found the library and caught up for a few minutes and confirmed plans on Sunday.

I was soon on my way again, making my way to Port Townsend. I arrived at the hostel at about four, an hour before their office opened. The Port Townsend hostel is located on an old army base, built back in the day to protect the mouth of Puget Sound from invading fleets. The place is a state park now, very Fort-Stevens-esque, with similar batteries and all. Soon enough, the nice people at the hostel found a place for me, even though the regular rooms were full; mostly with little, noisy Girl Scouts. I had a mattress on a chunk of floor in a spare room for the night. I had to room and adjacent bathroom all to myself, though, so it wasn't a bad deal at all for 14 bucks.

After securing lodging, I headed to downton Port Townsend. The downtown has a lot of lovely old victorian-era buildings. It was a nice downtown. The Rhododendron Festival was going on (I had no idea beforehand), so there seemed to be a lot of people about. There was a carnival going on on one end of town. I eventually headed into the very fun Rose Theater, which had an old-timey advertising canvas they roll up before the film instead of the de rigeur slide show.

I saw "What the #$*! Do We Know?!", filmed in Portland. MAX is in it a lot. It is an awesome movie. Aside from the public transit aspect, it is definitely a thought-provoking movie. Discussing it with lauren the next day, we both agreed that we wanted to know, "what do we do now?" after seeing it. After the film, I had a calzone at a nice Italian place downtown before heading back to the hostel to settle for the night.

I took the next morning more leisurely than Saturday. The hostel had a "make-your-own-pancake" breakfast where they have all the stuff, you just mix the batter and pour on the griddle. They suggest a donation of a few bucks. It was a good start to the day, eating a few silver dollar pancakes on the porch of the hostel, watching over the Puget Sound boat traffic.

I stopped for a few treats on my way out of town, there is a neat Food Co-op in Port Townsend. The store had plants growing all around, it was like shopping in a garden. The bag boy wore a Utilikilt.

I made my way down to Bainbridge Island, across the island to Winslow, to wait for the ferry to come. I hadn't ever taken a car on a big ferry before, so it was kind of exciting. I ended up waiting about half an hour before the ferry arrived, unloaded, and could board. I didn't know what the proper ferry protocol was, so I watched others. I saw some people leave their cars, and others stay inside. I got out and walked around, went up to the euphemistically named "sun" deck, and stood at the bow end, watching as we passed Alki Point and approached the Emerald City.

I met up with lauren at Dick's on Broadway. We walked around a bit, and had brunch at Julia's. We then made the trip out to Ikea, where we each bought a few things, then came back to Seattle, where we stopped at her house for a bit before I had to head back. I drove back south on I-5, detouring through downtown Tacoma to see some new things, then down to Olympia, where I got back on 101 for a ways before cutting back across to the coast and back to 101. 101 is exceedingly weird in Washington. I made it back into Tillamook before eleven.

May 17, 2004 05:18 PM

Comments (2)

06/04: brent said:

That sounds like a great weekend! Are you going to come and visit me when I live in Seattle??

For some reason, LiveJournal gets your posts weeks after you post them. Trevor's works fine.

06/04: Bill said:

So you've decided, you're going to be in Seattle? I do enjoy visiting, yes!

I don't think livejournal is the problem, I did just post this last night. I don't always get around to posting things right away.