Shawnee update, through OR and WA Olympic Nat. Park

 July 7 written on July 18th
I am getting farther and farther behind in the days because we are now spending about 8 to 10 hours driving east through the north route home leaving very little time to write and download pix for this blog.   I'm adding a page at the top of places we've stayed on our trip across the USA so you can see the route.

This is primarily a boat blog temporarily morphing into a travel USA blog. Although I have no work pix, Shawnee is getting 2 coats of bottom paint with Sea Hawk Cukote, followed by cleaning and waxing the hull and decks.  The mast and redoing the furling gear has been a job.  The furling gear got jammed in when we winched it too tight after it was already completely furled in.  Don't do that to your own.  Quite a repair.  Of course the Bristol Finish on all the teak is a huge job as well.  The work is being done at Zimmerman in Mathews, VA.  We may leave the boat there and sail it to FL in the fall.

We arrived in Oregon

and stayed at Grant's Pass July 8th, a nice little town in the middle of OR with a good La Quinta Motel. I belong to their membership program.  They have a good standard, eco things around the edges, a pool and a hot tub I use. We saw a bit of OR.

A foggy beach, the fog covering larger mountains.

 Notice how close the trees are to the road.  Frequently they covered the top of the road like a tunnel.

 As we drove into WA we saw massive clear cutting, but replanting as well.

At 9 we arrived at Quinault River Inn, Amanda Park, Washington, our hub for 2 nights as we explored Olympic National Park seashore and Hoh Rainforest.  That's me on shore and the view out of our room window of the Quinault River.  It stayed light pretty late because of how far north we were.  Amazing stars as well, but didn't get to see aurora borealis, the northern lights.  It's on my list of must-dos.

Hoh Rain Forest is the largest rainforest in North America.  It's a rainforest because they receive 12', yes feet, of rain a year.  It misted the whole time we were there, serious rain fell only while we slept.  We never saw the sun and never saw the spectacular peaks of the glorious mountains there.  We didn't take in the northern part of the peninsula.

I LOVED the rainforest.  We took our longest hike here.

 Moss walk.  It droops down from everything.

 Moss covers whole trees, every branch.

 
 Right off of our walking trail we saw an elk with a full rack, face to face for about 5 minutes.

 Me standing next to the largest recorded Western Cedar.  Most of the tops of the largest trees had fallen down, but they are still alive so they can still hold the record, I guess for the largest girth or age or something.  I'm in some of these pictures just to give you an indication of the scale.

Oxalis Oregana are the floor of the rainforest everywhere.  Some had a 5 petal white flower looking like shamrocks.

 The rainforest primeval:

 Drew took a video of the Hoh River that runs through the forest.  There is water everywhere in small lakes, ponds, streams and rivers.

We stopped at recommended Ruby Beach and Beach 4 that had giant boulders in the ocean and a pebbly beach.  The steep walk down was worth it.

 On our way back, near dark, Drew had to drag me out of that forest...there are tons more photos...we ate at a log built resort restaurant at Kalaloch Lodge with an ocean view.

The next morning, July 11th, before we headed 3 hours to Seattle and another welcoming relative, Eileen, we did a highly recommended loop drive around Quinault Lake with a couple of short walks in.  It had everything Hoh rainforest had and more with wonderful waterfalls and 4 record breaking trees.

See how small the picnic table is.

 Largest spruce - whole tree.

We drove to Seattle and had dinner at well known and excellent Ray's Restaurant with Eileen, her brother, Chris, and her mom, Shiela.  They all love it here and have added to a wonderful community.  Here we are with our view of Pugent Sound in the reflection of the window.