On up into the Olympic Peninsula we drove.  It is so beautiful there.  Forests and mountains and rivers and mossy trees.  You can imagine a Sasquatch walking in these forests.  I really would not want to spend the night in them!   The landscape reminded me a lot of Alaska.

We kept seeing signs for Big Cedar.  Now we have seen the Sequoias and I don’t think any tree could be as big as they are, but, hey, there was a big cedar waiting to be seen so we decided to see it.   Finally we saw the road off to the Big Cedar and we parked and walked about a half mile back into the forest.   We met a couple coming from the opposite direction and asked them if it was a Big Cedar?  “Pretty big tree,” one of them said, but I thought I saw a smirk on their faces. so we continued on the path until its end and this is what we found.

Yes, a big, DEAD, Cedar!   At one time it ruled these forests, but not anymore.  We laughed and went back to the car.  Well, it was a good walk, anyway.

So on we drove when, “What?!?  Another sign for a Big Cedar.  Could there be two or did we just get fooled?   So, of course, we followed the road back to this Big Cedar. Five miles.  We drove and drove. I wanted to turn around and go back, but David was determined to see the Big Cedar.  We passed one car coming from the opposite direction and I wondered if it was the same couple and if they were laughing at us for driving to see the Big Cedar.   Then we came to the end of the road.  There was an old wooden path and a bridge to the Big Cedar.  This is what we saw.

Another almost dead tree standing there in the forest with two crazy people looking at it.  Did I hear laughing somewhere?    Well, it was a good drive and a good time to stretch our legs.

At one time this tree was magnificent, but it’s seen better days.  I had bought a post card to send to one of my grandchildren that had a really big cedar with a man standing by it. I think it might have been this tree in the fifties.

So, on we drove.  With glimpses of the Pacific.

Isn’t it beautiful?  We do have a grand and glorious country.

David almost took a tumble at one of our stops when he stepped on some loose rocks at the edge of a cliff.  I was thinking I would appear on the ID channel as a wife who pushed her husband off a cliff to get her inheritance.  It really did scare me, though, because we had no cellphone reception and cars were few and far between.  I pictured me trying to get down the cliff and get David back up all by myself.   I really wish he would not get so near cliffs.

Since watching Treehouse Masters on tv, I have been wishing for a tree house.  Now this is a real tree house we found along the way.

Isn’t it cute?     We had more to see and a motel to find so onward we traveled. More my next post.  Bye.

 

David and I arrived in Seattle, rented a car and off we went on our adventure in the Northwest.   We couldn’t wait to get out of the city.  We are not city people.  We headed toward the Pacific Ocean where we had a motel for two nights at Ocean Shores, Washington. Being that is was off season it was not very busy in that area.

Our room faced the ocean side and this was the sunset we saw our first night.

There was a beach if you wanted to walk about a mile through bushes and beach growth and wonder if there were snakes around.   I don’t think this beach path has been used for years.

Instead we drove around the town and did some shopping and sight seeing.

You know you are in a beach town when there are sharks and seahorses around.

There were cute little shops and this was my favorite one.  They had so many things I would have loved to buy if we had our car and weren’t going back on the train.

It was cute on the outside and the inside.

I bought this  bottle of hand soap just because I liked how pretty it was.

Suddenly we started seeing deer.  Deer everywhere.  I had noticed a sign outside of town that said no hunting.  I guess the deer knew this.

Does and this little fawn.

And these gorgeous boys. They were smaller than our deer here in Indiana.

“Aren’t I handsome?”  He was not at all afraid of us.

Everywhere we turned, we saw deer.   Then we decided to drive onto the beach.

We had it almost to ourselves.  Just a few people.

I love the ocean.  There is something wild and wonderful about it.

We ate at this place one time.  All the locals seemed to like it.  You cannot go near the ocean and not eat fish.  Well, David didn’t.  He ate a hamburger.  But I had cod and clams and it was good.

The water was so cold the fishermen wore warm, waterproof clothes to fish in the water.  They looked like they were freezing.  I walked in the water and it was icy.

One of my favorite birds.  I have seen sea gulls on both coasts,  the gulf of Mexico,in Alaska, and in the Virgin Islands.  They all fascinate me because they are so aware of everything around them.  Drop a crump and suddenly you have twenty or more flying around you. I don’t know how they know when food is around, but they always do  They act solitary until food is around and then, bam.   Every bird for himself.

We left Ocean Shores for the Olympic Peninsula.  We didn’t get up there the last time we were in the Northwest and I always hoped to get back.  It’s about a three hundred mile loop around it so we decided to take three days to drive it.

There are lodges all around it. We stopped at this one to eat lunch.

How cozy is this?  It was chilly out and a roaring fire in the fireplace was just what was needed.  Big, comfy couches and chairs around it.  Wish we had stayed here.

As it was off season, there were a lot of empty tables.

We were seated right by the window and could look out at a beautiful lake and at birds eating at the bird feeders.

We learned this was a Stellar Jay,  not unlike the blue jays in Indiana.

This was our view while we dined.  All the Adirondack chairs waiting for people to come sit and look at the scenery.

Anyone could be a Sasquatch.  Just put your face in the hole.    Sad to say, we saw no Sasquatches while in Washington.

Maybe next time we will stay at this lodge.

We continued up the peninsula in search of the Big Cedar.   That will be in the next post.  Stay tuned. Bye.