Nothing says welcome back to Washington like a good rainstorm! :) When our friends back home are dealing with 95 degrees and unhealthy smoke levels, I doubt we're going to get much sympathy. in Bremerton (Gorst). Trophy Lake is no longer the course I used to love. It's in average shape and there are no marshals to maintain pace of play. We left after 9 holes when we saw 4 foursomes on the 10th hole. Gold Mountain, on the other hand, is a classic Northwest course. Tree lined, ample fairways, great greens, and so many ways to play each hole. I think we both really enjoyed the round!
We made a brief pit stop at the Bremerton Elks for a few nights after leaving Oregon and before heading to the Olympic Peninsula. None of the Elks locations we’ve visited so far are going to win a four paw award from Max, but the Bremerton Elks came close – it’s a great spot with lots of running room for Max, located fairly close to amenities, and lots of blackberries to pick!
Glenn (my brother-in-law) and Patricia (his fiancé) were kind enough to drive over to see us from Gig Harbor on our first night. We enjoyed a socially distanced dinner and, with all of the firewood the Elks provides, I built a memorable bonfire that warmed us up – in addition to most of the neighborhood!
The Kitsap Peninsula has many golf courses, and some of the best in the greater Seattle area, in my opinion, so we took advantage by playing Trophy Lake in Port Orchard and Gold Mountain – Olympic Course in Bremerton (Gorst). Trophy Lake is no longer the course I used to love. It's in average shape and there are no marshalls to maintain pace of play. We left after 9 holes when we saw 4 foursomes on the 10th hole. Gold Mountain, on the other hand, is a classic Northwest course. Tree lined, ample fairways, great greens, and so many ways to play each hole. I think we both really enjoyed the round!
And then it was off to the Olympic Peninsula.
We stayed at an RV park in Port Angeles as it was the closest we could find to the Olympic National Park (the Sequim Elks RV lot was closed due to Covid). The town of Port Angeles is along the coast – just at the beginning of the Strait of Juan De Fuca. The site was only 100 yards or less from the site of the former Elwa Dam. The dam was removed in an attempt to restore the salmon run and hopefully save the Puget Sound Orca population. It was a great hike in to the former site and pretty amazing how hard it was to see any evidence of the damn.
Port Angeles is normally a busy spot with a lot of Canadian tourism (it’s a short hop across the straits to Vancouver Island), but it was extremely slow when we were there. Port Angeles had some very well-reviewed restaurants and lots of tourist options, though many were temporarily closed. Overall, the timber towns in Washington seem to be much better at adapting their economies than the towns along the Oregon Coast. One of the highlights of Port Angeles was that we were able to ride our bikes along the Olympic Discovery Trail – a converted 35 mile stretch of rail line that is an awesome bike and walking path. We took on a fairly short stretch in order to grab lunch – but the full ride would be amazing! Cheryl got pizza (duh!) and I got to stop at the "Purple Haze" lavender farm. I'll have to do some research, but it seems that lavender must grow particularly well in Sequim because there were a ton of lavender farms.
Similar to Oregon, many of the “main attractions” on the Olympic Peninsula were closed (Neah Bay and all of the beaches at the most northwest point of the continental U.S.).
We made the trip to Lake Crescent as it is recommended as one of the top places to visit along the Olympic Peninsula. The lodge area was so crowded that every parking place was taken and people were resorting to parking in some highly creative “spots”. We decided not to risk the crowds and avoided the lodge/beaches – but because US 101 borders almost the entire south side of the lake, we were able to take in the beauty of the lake via our drive instead – and what an amazing drive! I would probably recommend it over stopping at the lodge altogether!
Because we had some time on our hands (by not stopping at Lake Crescent), we decided to head to Forks, Washington. I had heard my dad talk so much about his dealings he had with the lumber industry and the Forks community when he chaired the Washington State Old Growth commission, that we decided it would be worth the drive to see what it was all about (both of us, of course, also knew about Forks because that’s where the show Twilight – one of Annie’s all-time favorites – was filmed! 😉). We both discovered there isn’t a lot going on in Forks (sorry, Annie!) and we were lucky enough to also tour it on a day that was gorgeously sunny, because it’s right at the entrance to a rainforest. I highly doubt there are more than a handful of 80 degree and sunny days on record there!
Our final stop before heading to our Port Townsend destination was Hurricane Ridge – a 5,242’ mountain top (most of the climb happens in less than 15 miles) with spectacular 360◦ views. The road is one of the many roads we’ve traveled that lead to some fun conversations about who, how, and why someone decided to build it (note: the only reason it was built was to increase tourism!). We got up early (for us!) to arrive before the crowds. In hindsight, a little earlier to catch the sunrise would have been worth it. By the time we came back down the mountain around 9-9:30 a.m., there was already a line to get through the gate. Someone at our RV park informed us that they arrived around 10 a.m. and had to wait 1.5 hours to get through the gate!
コメント