I'm back from Seattle. It ended up being a great weekend!

The weather cooperated for us, and it ended up being a fairly nice weekend. Saturday was sunny and warm. There was some morning fog on Sunday and Monday, but otherwise the weather was nice for the rest of the weekend.

Friday's travel was pretty easy, and luckily our connecting flight in Salt Lake City was only 2 gates over (same terminal). With less than a half an hour between seats, our seats were almost given away to standbye travelers!

I finally got to meet Barbara's old friend from Florida. Unfortunately, our time together was very brief, and I proceeded to try and find the hotel (to drop off my car) and then to find the pub where the rest of the guys were already drinking.

I think it ended up taking about an hour to find the hotel and to finally meet up with the rest of the guys. This trip should've taken like a half an hour... but of course, I was "disoriented" and really had no idea which way to go. The maps I had didn't show all the roads. Luckily Alamo gave me a detailed map.

We made it a relatively early night and were back up by 6:00 am.

We got back on the road (and ferry) and made it past our campsite to Port Angeles. We walked around for a bit, picked up a few things at a farmers market, and then we rented some sea kayaks.

Sea kayaking was a lot of fun... too bad I forgot a hat. I think my scalp got fried in the sun. We were for about 3 hours or so. We went down the coast and went on shore near a lighthouse. We rested, took some photos, and ate some snacks. Overall - a pretty cool day.

So we left Port Angeles and then went back to our campsites. The campsites ended up being perfect for the 6 of us. We had 3 sites that all backed up to the same central area... perfect for a larger group.

Luckily everyone did some shopping the day before, so we quickly got our tents set up and got a fire going.

Saturday night was very chill and very relaxing. We stopped by the fish market earlier on in the day and picked up a bunch of halibut, tuna, and steaks. The whole night, we never used a single plate to eat from and instead, just picked from everything. It was great!

Also while in line, a woman told us a great recipe for halibut: mayonaise, garlic, and parmesan cheese. We didn't have the cheese, but it was still damn good. The cheese would've made it awesome.

Sunday we went for a drive (lasted longer than expected) to the Hoh Rain Forest. The drive took about 3 hours each way! Bob had been wanting to go to the Hoh for about 10 years, so I guess now was a good time to go.

We did a 2.9 mile hike to a waterfall. Overall, not that impressive - but the hike was beautiful and I guess the exercise was good too. Was it worth it? Not in my point of view... but at least Bob was happy.

On our way home, we went to the Smoke House Restaurant. Lets just say that this place is an "interesting" restaurant/lounge. The downstairs seemed like a typical mom and pop type of restaurant - something you'd normally see off the side of the road - most likely a favorite of locals and a few passing tourist.

We found there to be a lounge upstairs that had the same food menu. So we went upstairs to what we later found out to the be the "Salmon lounge."

The "Salmon Lounge" ended up being a bar upstairs with a few extra tables and chairs. Nothing fancy - nothing too nice. But we thought we should stay.

Sunday's afternoon Texas Hold 'Em tournament was finishing up, and there were a bunch of locals that you could tell frequented this establishment way to often. There were at least two females that seemed to be pretty drunk and trying to go home with a couple guys. Interestingly enough, those people seemed to come and go in pairs... I wonder?

Mean while, some guy near the bar kept screaming that "they were all assholes! blah blah blah..."

The Smokehouse Restaurant is definitely one for the travel books!

By the time we got back and went to the store, it was already after 9:30pm. Luckily they don't close off the exit to the campsites cause we came in pretty late.

The last night was another night of picking over a bunch of food by the campfire. Bob made some "special" cookies that were very enjoyable! ;n)

Surprisingly, we didn't drink that much beer. I think we only had about 2 twelve packs of beer and then 2 bottles of wine. I think we finished the beer. Man - we were pretty "good" by the end of the night!

Monday was another morning of eggs, bacon, and toast - bacon is so good! (I spoiled myself with the bacon, and now I'll be restricting myself!)

We got our gear all packed up and made it back to the ferry. By 1-1:30 we were at the airport and within an hour of my flight back home.

Overall a great trip! I hope Bob had fun.

Photos will be online soon! posted by jame1030 at 4:04 PM |