Day 12, Olympic NP and misc.

With no free breakfast at our cabin, we had to wait until we arrived in the world famous town of Forks, WA before we could eat. On our way in, we tried to find Bella Swans house, but the address we had programmed into our GPS led us to an empty field. Not feeling the need to pursue the search for another twenty minutes, we headed over to a local restaurant where we enjoyed a full breakfast. Willing to give it one last try, seeing as we wouldn’t be doing anything else as we passed through Forks, we asked our waitress if she knew where Bella’s house was located. Even with only a thousand or so people residing in Forks, our waitress still “claimed” that she didn’t know where it was. We immediately figured that the residents of Forks had been told not to give out the address, and in all truth, who could blame the old woman that apparently owned the house? It’s not like we would want people coming around to our neighborhood and snapping pictures of our house either.

So, with our breakfasts consumed we left Forks behind and headed off to Port Angeles. Here we walked around the streets and down the boardwalks were we looked out over the port and spotted some sea lions frolicking about in the distant waves. We also watched a sand sculpting competition; with six artists from 4 different countries sculpting there works of art to fit the theme “Sci-Fi and Legends”. While they were all amazing, the only sculptures we recognized were Aliens, Planet of the Apes (because it was labeled) and Terminator.

Our next stop was at Olympic National Park. This time we only went to a couple overlooks and a short trail known as the Hurricane Ridge. While the trail was steep, it was only about a quarter of a mile long and had a terrific view of the snowy mountains and valleys that surrounded the hill we had hiked up. The landscape reminded me of The Sound of Music’s “The Hills are Alive” theme. There were also a couple of crows that were flying overhead and they cries were something Jessie really found amusing.

Our final stop of the day was at Fort Casey, which we visited after taking a huge ferry across the bay. Here we checked out the massive artillery such as the disappearing guns that had been used in WWII. The Fort was now a State Park, and we were allowed to walk around through the buildings hallways, tunnels and even the top of the roof. Though we were a bit hesitant (not Dad) on visiting, what with it being such a long day, this was defiantly something we would recommend to anyone traveling in the area. You don’t even have to be a history buff or anything to have a good time scrabbling through the Fort, which was like a giant concrete maze.