Wonders of Nature // Olympic National Park

This past weekend we packed up our gear and headed to the Olympic Peninsula via the Kingston Ferry. We decided to relax on the beach and explore a bit of rain forest - both of which are part of Olympic National Park.What an incredible place! We took so many fun pictures of our explorations that I had to post a few (or more than a few!) to share.

We hiked down and camped at Second Beach, where we explored many tidepools and found many fun creatures. Lucky for us we didn't have any bears or racoons bug us (Note: Tysha is holding the bear cannister the rangers lent us just in case!) There, we set up camp for the night and thanks to a full moon and extra high tides, we heard the ocean waves not 15 feet from our tent during the middle of the night. Other beach campers woke to find that the water came only inches from their tents!

Of course, we had fair warning that this beach, an otherwise "wild" Pacific Coast beach, can at times be dangerous. Watch out for the log jams! (During summer and minus storms, most people find wading to be quite a joyous thing to do here!) The trail down to the beach had some pretty funky trees (and tree roots). We kind of felt like Tim Burton may have planted them there they were so cool!

Once we had set up camp, we headed off to explore the tidepools and cool off a bit. It had been a 6 hour drive (thanks to the 90 minute ferry wait!) We were ready to stretch our legs and explore! Here is what we found:

Tidepools

Sea Anemone

Starfish

and Crabs.

That night, just as were eating dinner, it began to mist. Not rain, not sprinkle (here in Seattle we have as many words for water falling from the sky as the Eskimo's have for snow.) Yes, it began to mist. It misted most of the night and early the next morning we woke up to a beautifully misted beach and the clouds clearing out for a marvelous new day. Though tides had been super-high the night before, in the morning they were almost as low as you can go. We walked out to explore this island before the waves came crashing back in to make it unaccessible. This was about 7am. Everything was glistening! We saw...

Plentiful sea life.

Starfish galore!

Such happy looking starfish! So colorful and bright!

Finally, the sun began to shine on a new day (about 8am) and scatter the clouds from the night before. We ate breakfast, broke camp, and went to church in a nearby town. And then we headed for the Hoh Rain Forest, another part of the park. There, we saw very large, old-growth trees in the forest.

We saw lots of moss and as many shades of green as you can ever imagine. I think it is the green-est place we have ever been! The Hoh is a temperate rain forest. We learned that while Seattle (& Chicago's) average annual rainfall is something like 37 inches, this here Rain Forest gets up to 167 inches! We decided to visit on a non-raining day (although I'm sure it misted the night before!) The Rain Forest is a magical place. We half expected to turn the bend and find the Garden of Eden! (We didn't) But we did come around the corner and find...

An Elk (there were actually two). She let us stand very close and watch her eat some of the foilage. She didn't even mind that we took her picture. She kinda looked at us, probably wondering what kind of strange creatures we are, and then went back to grazing. Not to make you think that the Rain Forest is so perfect it doesn't have it's pests as well... Tysha did get chased and stung by a wasp or two, which is another story...

We came home late on Sunday night and this is what we saw from the back of the ferry as we crossed the Puget Sound back to Seattle...a beautiful sunset to close our adventurous weekend. (Sigh) We HIGHLY RECOMMEND a visit to Olympic National Park!

6 months together

Jacob decided to take me on a special date on Saturday to celebrate our Six Month Anniversary. He's a generally awesome husband. What else can I say?

We started off by going down to the Agua Verde Paddle Club on Lake Union. We got geared up and set out for a perfect afternoon paddle.
We had a K-2 (that's a double) and promised each other not to flip (although the weather and water temp were so nice, I don't think either of us would have minded...although we would rather keep our camera than water-log it!)
Heading toward Union Bay in our kayak we spied...
An adorable little houseboat (think "Sleepless in Seattle" - it's in the neighborhood!)...
The University Bridge open up to let a tall and beautiful sailboat through...
This is the lovely sailboat...
People having picnics and fun in the water at Gasworks Park...
A pretty amazing view of the Seattle Skyline - we love our city home!
A friendly resident of a houseboat who smiled for the camera...he appeared to be accustomed to people paddling by his porch while he eats dinner...
And then, we headed to West Seattle's Beach Neighborhood for a dinner of our own. We got all dressed up and set out for a long evening of fine dining at "La Rustica", a quaint and beautiful Italian Restaurant.
As you can see, the food was excellent (tasted as good as it looks here with our Caprese Bruschetta appetizer). This little find also has great views of the Puget Sound. We highly recommend this little unhurried, romantic spot to anyone looking for a place to celebrate something special, or for a seriously nice evening out.

Good Fortune

I'm not sure exactly when I pulled this message out of a fortune cookie, who I was with, or where I was. But I do remember slipping it into my pocket with a hope that this particular good fortune would truly come to be: "You will be successful in love," it said.





And it came true! It was six months ago today that Jacob and I got married. I thought it was great then...but I've discovered it only gets better! What good fortune I have to have Jacob! Happy Six Months Babe!

Independence Day 2007

Independence Day is Tysha's very favorite holiday. We had awesome weather in Seattle this year for celebrating (the joke among locals is that summer doesn't really get to Seattle until July 5th - but this year it came early!)



We were going to go for a hike in the morning but learned from our neighbor that our location is one of the most desirable for watching the fireworks and that if we left we might not get a parking spot on return (even though we have a designated parking spot!) So, we decided to instead go on an "Urban Jungle Hike". We hiked downtown and went to climb to the top of a different kind of "mountain" for a spectacular kind of view.



We headed to the Smith Tower. , which is located in the heart of Pioneer Square (historic downtown Seattle). We learned that The Smith Tower opened on July 4, 1914 - exactly 93 years ago. At the time, it was the fourth tallest building in the world. It remained the tallest building outside of New York City for almost 50 years. Access to the Observation Deck is via one of the last manually operated elevators on the west coast, which we found to be very cool!



Somehow the elevator operator thought we were cool enough that he gave us two golden tickets - a free ride up to the observation deck, where we wandered around soaking in the sun and fantastic views of the Puget Sound, downtown, and even clear skies all the way to Mt. Rainier.



Tysha said it was one of the best days of her life (she says that every now and then). After our picnic and taking in the views from the top of our Urban Hike, we headed to Pike Place Market., where Jacob surprised Tysha with some very fresh and beautiful flowers from the farmers. Tysha was in heaven.



Near the market we wandered in a guitar and music store. Jacob was in heaven.



On our way home, we meandered through the new Olympic Sculpture Park.



Later, our friends Sofie & Casey (who are getting married this Friday!) came over for a BBQ, games, and to watch the fireworks from Lake Union on our rooftop. The Lake was plum full of boats all afternoon, hoping for the best views. And we could literally see Gas Works Park from our roof, a mountain of almost 60,000 people! Lucky for us, we didn't have to brave the crowd. We just relaxed on our roof and enjoyed 40 minutes of one of the Nation's top 5 fireworks displays!




What a day!