December, 2010 Archives

Although we drove across a bridge to get to the Olympic Peninsula, we took the ferry from Bremerton to get back to Seattle. I’m a little iffy on boats – I get motion sickness in a serious way. I’ve found that being outside is better than being inside, so we rode on the outside part. Unfortunately, it was freezing. But it was totally worth it. Crispy planned it so that we were on the ferry as the sun was setting.

Mount Ranier:

Another ferry heading in the opposite direction:

We could see jellyfish under the water, it was pretty cool (not pictured, so don’t look too hard):

I was really worried this guy was going to poop on my head. Luckily he didn’t:

I have the best friends in the whole world. They stood in front of me to block some of the wind since I was freezing and couldn’t be inside:

So pretty!

Getting into Seattle:

Some more photos from La Push. I feel like these capture the feeling of the place much better than the color pictures, but that might just be me or the mood I was in at the time.

(disclaimer: I am not a great travel photographer, nor will I ever claim to be one.)

I loved checking out the coast as well. We went to La Push and saw the sea stacks and the ocean in general. I decided I like beaches when they’re gray; there’s just something very peaceful and dramatic about them.

La Rocks (with La Sea Stacks in the background):

La Moss:

I may have gotten a little carried away with this mossy area…

Look – a fork in Forks! (actually Kathleen said it was probably a spoon, which makes more sense, but I thought a fork was funnier).

I wonder how far leaves travel sometimes.

La Seaweed:

La Flowers:

La Friends (this is pretty much the summary of the entire trip):

(hi, I’m a professional photographer, and I don’t know how to get faces in focus…)

This is where we ate lunch. It was actually pretty good, considering.

So big.

I can never remember what these are called (foxglove maybe? maybe not):

I actually have more photos from La Push but I’ll save them for another day.

We did a lot of cool things when we were up in Washington, but this was, without a doubt, my favorite of the trip. We made a small hike up to Sol Duc Falls in the Olympic National Park at the end of the day when the light was just perfect. The photos hardly do it justice. It was a beautiful, peaceful place.

The sign at the beginning of the trail (there’s a point before that 8, before you get too impressed):

I couldn’t get it in the picture, but this rainbow went all the way across to the other side:

Crispy has no legs:

Kathleen jumps across the raging waters:

Here we be:

We drove up the mountains to Hurricane Ridge for some mountain-viewing and hiking. It’s one of those places that is gorgeous but the middle-of-the-day photos just can’t do it justice.

Doesn’t this just make you want to start spinning around singing “The HILLS are ALIIIIVE…!”

You have to use a wrestling announcing voice: “Trees versus flowers, the final show-down!”

The wildlife was friendly:

Maybe a little too friendly:

Snow in August! Hooray!

There’s Canada in the background – and snow in the foreground:

Ski lift: