THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA: THERE’S SO MUCH BEAUTY HERE

July, 2021

We had several other planned adventures from our home in Sequim, the primary of which was an all-day whale watch cruise to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands.

Along the way some unplanned stops made for fine adventures…

Traveling back to Sequim from visiting the Hoh Rain Forest we stumbled through the small town of Forks, Washington. Curiously enough, parts of the Twilight movie franchise were filmed here. Brian probably should have taken a couple of photographs of the cabins and surrounding woods, but there is the novelty of discovering the unexpected after all.

Port Angeles is just about 20 miles west of Sequim, and we passed through a few times when heading up to Hurricane Ridge, out to the beaches and over to the Hoh Rain Forest. Heading home after one of our journeys, we stopped for a cup of coffee only to find that the city was reopening (after the covid shutdown) and celebrating the return of live music to its amphitheater.

We took a seat with a hundred or so of our “new closest friends” and gave a listen to the tunes of Ant Bath. The band calls it’s musical genre underground garage surf. Not sure what that means, but it’s sorta kinda like combining acid jazz with arcane rock while on ‘ludes. Clear?

Bainbridge Island is a city of 23,000 on the Puget Sound and from there it’s a short ferry ride to Seattle. The Island is home to amazing boutiques and restaurants, a wonderful harbor, a decent walking trail and some amazing flowers.

A floating bridge is made of concrete and steel that is “built on a sheltered water-crossing where it is not considered economically feasible to suspend a bridge from anchored piers. Such bridges can require a section that is elevated, or can be raised or removed, to allow waterborne traffic to pass.” There are 5 floating bridges 4 of which connect Seattle to various points west and across Lake Washington. The 5th floating bridge connects Bainbridge Island to the Olympic Peninsula.

The San Juan Islands are an archipelago between the US State of Washington and Vancouver Island, Bristish Columbia, Canada. The archipelago is made up of hundreds of islands, some no bigger than a rowboat and many that disappear if the tide gets too high. Many of the small and medium-sized islands are privately owned.

San Juan, Orcas, and Lopez Island are the most popular locations for tourists; campgrounds are available on these islands for the more adventurous visitors. San Juan Island is considered to be the jewel of the archipelago, and the City of Friday Harbor is the destination for many of the day cruises from Port Townsend as well as other coast cities within reach such as Fidalgo Island and the town of Anacortes. Our cruise to and from Port Townsend would cover 62.8 nautical miles.

Remember Carl Sandberg? One of his most famous poems goes like this: “the fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.” The fog was dense and covering harbor and city as we were prepping for and at the beginning our cruise.

Once we were out of the Port Townsend harbor would the fog surround us? Probably! We began early in the day, and the fog in the morning is as ubiquitous as moss in a rain forest. Would the fog burn off for the afternoon cruise back to port? Definitely! Would we see sea lions and seals during our cruise? Absolutely! Would we see whales during our cruise? Maybe! Would we see bald eagles during the cruise? Bald Eagles out in the Pacific Ocean?

It was a wonderful trip to Friday Harbor, San Juan Island. The fog remained with us for about two-thirds of the outbound trip, the sound of our foghorn adding to the mystery of the vast, dark, deep, and dangerous ocean. The fog burned off and the temperatures warmed as we approached Friday Harbor. An easy walk and we found ourselves checking out the boutiques along main street. After purchasing some sandalwood soap, we ate a quick lunch at a restaurant overlooking the harbor and made our way back to our boat for our return voyage.

Little did we expect that about a half hour out of port we would find a pod of 4 orca feeding. The naturalist on board explained that the size of the dorsal fin and its particular white marking was the best way to identify individual orca.

And what a joy to once again see Mount Rainier during our journey across the Strait of Juan de Fuca back to Port Townsend.

We got out on the water and finally got to see some sea life! On land we found a couple of pretty cool places to explore. Thinking about these as well as our adventures in Olympic National Park and what we found was someplace that would take a lifetime to really truly explore.

Barbara and Brian