One of the unexpected treats of our Northwest Trip was all the bald eagles saw, perhaps 20 in all. This is one of our favorites that we saw as we took our whale watching tour in the San Juan Islands. Sue took this awesome shot of this magnificent bird perched on a small grass covered ...
2014 Northwest Trip
Mount St. Helens : Northwest Trip Day 12
After staying the night in Kelso, Washington, we began our journey to our destination for the day, Mount St. Helens. My undergraduate degree was in geology, and I have always wanted to see Mount St. Helens. The stories that I'd heard an the pictures I'd seen of the eruption in 1980 were incredible ...
Lewis and Clark Along The Washington Coast : Northwest Trip Day 11
After the Hoh Rain Forest, we pushed on to Aberdeen, Washington, where we stayed the night. We had a lot on tap for Day 11, chasing Lewis and Clark along the Washington coast. The first stop of the day was to North Head Lighthouse in the southwest corner of Washington state near the mouth of ...
Olympic National Park Beach and Rain Forest : Northwest Trip Day 10
After staying the night in Forks, we headed out to First Beach and La Push, both located on the Quileute Reservation. Both of these have scenes that also take place in the Twilight series and Sue wanted to visit them. It turns out that First Beach was another introduction to the gorgeous ...
Cape Flattery and Forks : Northwest Trip Day 9
After a long day with our trip to Butchart Gardens, it was time to leave Port Angeles. I think Port Angeles would be interesting to go back to and visit again and be able to explore the areas around more than we were able. Next on our agenda was exploring the other two environments of Olympic ...
Butchart Gardens : Northwest Trip Day 8
For day 8 on our northwest trip, we planned a trip across the Juan de Fuca Strait to Victoria, British Columbia and then on up to the Butchart Gardens. These gardens are world famous and Sue has wanted to see them for a long time, so this was a golden opportunity to us to do just that. I spent ...
Olympic National Park Mountains : Northwest Trip Day 7
Our destination for Day 7 was Port Angeles, a town of about 20,000, squeezed in between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains. And I do mean squeezed. The south edge of town sits right on the Straits and the north edge is right at the base of the mountains. It's a pretty cool ...
Whale Watching in the San Juan Islands : Northwest Trip Day 6
Once in a while you have an experience on a trip that will be with you forever. We've had several of those through years, like the airboat ride we took in the Everglades a couple of years after we moved to Florida. Our whale watching tour is now another one of those experiences. ...
Seattle : Northwest Trip Day 5
Day 5 took us from Marysville to Seattle. It had been my intention to stay in Seattle a few days, include a whale watching tour in the middle, drive around south to Tacoma, up the other side, and then on to Port Angeles, spending time in Olympic National Park, as well as a ferry ride over to ...