Road Trip :: Olympic

At the end of June, because I had a little time off between contracts at work, Mark and I packed up the car and headed into Washington State and British Columbia. We started our 1,000+ mile journey at Olympic National Park, which is about four hours north of Portland. The west side of the park is the rainiest place in the U.S. - receiving 12 to 14 feet of rain each year {rainy Portland averages about 3.5 feet each year}...but as luck would have it, the sun came out for our two days there.

Because of the crazy amounts of rain, the west side of the park is a temperate rain forest...moss everywhere. And banana slugs, which can be bright yellow and grow up to a foot in length. My only real disappointment this entire trip was not actually seeing a yellow version of these behemoths {we have the overripe banana {brown and spotted} version in Portland}...oh well, another time perhaps.

I couldn't help but feel that this rain forest was really missing some monkeys. Unfortunately it's not that type of rain forest. This is the slug forest. Not the monkey forest.

The first night, after touring a few rain forests, we camped on the beach. This campsite was more like a parking lot, but it had a flushing toilet and when it comes to camping, you really can't ask for more. I am not what one would call a "happy camper" but I managed to survive and by the end of the trip actually started to enjoy it {made more enjoyable by the fact it only costs about 10 dollars a night}. The only big downside was the temperature - 40 degrees one night, 30 the next. Not cool June.

We unpacked our kites, which were purchased years ago on the complete other side of the country. They did just as well on the Pacific Ocean although it did take me about 20 minutes to realize the tail, which I didn't attach, was actually important. Once we figured out the missing piece, it went right up.

See...easy peasy.

As is the case with camping, we operated on the sun's schedule. In bed by 10, up at 6. More to follow...