Road Trip!

It was a gorgeous weekend here in Seattle - temps in the low 80's and SUN!  When we woke up Saturday AM, Mike & I decided to hit the road for a road trip around the Olympics.  

After a few hours hanging out with my parents at their house (and building jumps for JJ!) we drove to our first destination of the day: an overnight stay in Port Angeles.  We had the LAST room available at the hotel.

View from our hotel room - that's the Strait of Juan de Fuca

After we got to the hotel, we realized why it was so busy - there was a World Championship sand-sculpture contest going on.  WHEEE!

This was JJ's first night in a hotel, and he was VERY interested in helping.

We crashed pretty hard after a day playing in the sunshine, and took a morning walk down to the water.

 

 

 

Moooooooomm!

After a quick drive around town, we busted up the side of the mountain to Hurricane Ridge.  Mike & I are both suckers for a pretty view, and you simply can't beat Hurricane Ridge on a clear day.

There's still snow on the ground, so of course I had to go hiking around in flip-flops.  A true Seattle moment.

SRS BIZNESS.

 

 

Back down off the mountain - at 20 mph.  Clear day + views = LOTS of tourists in rental cars.  We decided to ditch the paved road and drive down an 'unpaved' road we found on the map.

We were rewarded with a fantastically maintained gravel road and views of the new and old growth forest that surrounds Olympic National Park.

Back onto the paved road, and lots of this for the next 5 hours.

Traffic was relatively light, and we were often by ourselves on clear, two lane highways.  LOVE.   We stopped off at a beach along the ocean coast, but it was COMPLETELY socked in with fog.  You couldn't even see the waves. :( 

After nearly 9 hours (including a stop at my mom's house to let JJ burn off some energy with their dogs), we arrived back home to Seattle to a FANTASTIC sunset.

 

 Those mountains in the distance?  Where we were 9 hours ago. :)

Our final route on day 2: