World United States Washington Chimacum

Voyage of the Wayward Wind 2008

Olympic National Park Aug 23, 2008

Monday, Aug 18 thru Saturday, Aug 23, 2008 Monday afternoon we arrived at Evergreen Coho Escapee Co-op and got ourselves registered and set-up. Then we took a drive through the park to get a feel for where things were located. The landscaping is beautifully done with lots of blooming flowers. We checked the library for the 3 Janet Evanovich books we’re missing from her Stephanie Plum series. They were missing the same three ;- ( The weather was cool and rainy so we retired to the RV. Tuesday the weather continued to be pretty dreary, but we did drive through Chimacum (pronounced CHIMa-come) and Port Haddock the two nearby small towns. Then we drove north 12 miles to Port Townsend on the NE corner of the Olympic peninsula. Port Townsend is an historic Victorian seaport and is considered the gateway to the Olympic Peninsula. Drew found a barbershop there for a much needed haircut, and we had lunch at the Bayview restaurant with a great view of Puget Sound and the ferries coming and going. On the way back to the RV we stopped at the beauty academy in Port Haddock where I got my hair cut, too. Wednesday was dedicated to laundry & cleaning since it was raining. Mid-afternoon Drew wanted to go the post office which just happens to be next door to the Chimacum Café which prides itself on its homemade pies. So, we stopped in for an afternoon snack. I ordered warm wild blackberry pie ala mode - believe me, it was to die for!!!!! Thursday, we took the auto ferry from Kingston to Edmonds across the Sound so that we could take a tour of the Boeing Plant in Everett. The tour was nearly 2 hours long and very, very interesting. We were taken into the world’s largest building (2 ½ miles around the perimeter) which is the assembly plant for the 737s, 777s and the new 787s. We watched production on all 3 assembly lines. We actually saw the finishing touches being put on the very first DreamLiner (787) to be produced. After the tour we drove to downtown Seattle next to the Safeco Stadium to attend the Northwest Washington RV show. It was okay, but nothing to write home about except we did see a fifth wheel that we liked - a 2009 35-ft Montana Big Sky. We will try to find a Titanium dealer where we can maybe compare a 2009 unit to the Montana. Saturday was finally a warm, sunny day, and we took advantage of it to make the drive to Port Angeles where we could make our first visit to Olympic National Park. First, we stopped at the Park Entrance Visitor Center and spoke at length with a ranger about the park and the surrounding area. We learned that Olympic National Park has more active glaciers than Glacier NP and Mount Rainier NP combined! Then we made the drive up Hurricane Ridge to the mile-high Visitor Center. There one has the best view you can drive to of the interior of the park - awesome! However, what I saw was diametrically opposite of what I thought the park was like. Where, oh where, did I get the images I’ve always held of this park???.....Tomorrow it is supposed to start raining again and is forecast to do so for at least 3 more days. We're outta here! In the morning we’ll start moving toward Oregon.

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