We left the mountains and headed up to the most northwestern point in the contiguous states, the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Katrina found a place called Glen Ayr Canal Hotel and Campground. The peninsula is beautiful and we are glad that we didn’t miss it. The Glen Ayr is located near the town of Hoodsport on the Hood Canal.
The place was cute, although a bit tight:
The first night we tried to go to a restaurant that our host told us about called the Hama Hama Oyster Saloon up in Hamma Hamma. It was about 5:45 when we headed up and Katrina called them only to find out that they closed at 6:00. They were only open during daylight hours due to shortness of staff. Therefore, we turned around and found El Puerto De Angeles in Hoodsport. We got to sit on the dock and sip margaritas!
I had one made with jalapeños, yikes it was hot! Check out the seeds floating on the top! The food was decent to boot!
Our neighbors told us about a way that commercial fisherman fish called “beach seining” where they use a vertical net with floats on the top and weights on the bottom and then draw the ends together as they pull the net onto the shore. Katrina did a Facebook Live, you can see it @Katrina Jerger Busse.
The Native Americans fish like this on Mondays and the commercial fisherman take Thursdays. We were there about 2:00pm and they told us that they had already caught about 2,000 pounds of fish and planned on fishing another five hours. That’s a lot of fish! Our neighbor was down there with her family and Katrina got this cute picture of their granddaughter who found a starfish:
What a cutie-pie!
With our fill of fish, we headed up to hike the Staircase Rapids in the Olympic National Park.
It took us about 30 minutes to drive there and then we found out that Bear couldn’t go on the trail with us. We had to keep him in the truck (we always leave the truck running with the air on) while we hiked and saw the green trees with moss on them:
The river was such a brilliant blue:
Views of the river:
A rolling stone gathers no moss:
Apparently this one has been stationary for a long time! (The stone, not Katrina).
When we got back to the truck we took Bear down to the river to let him play:
If I haven’t told you yet, he loves the water!
Katrina made dinner reservations at the Alderbrook Resort & Spa in Union.
We had a wonderful meal in this upscale resort.
The next day we drove up to Sequim to see the lavender fields. Our first stop was at Purple Haze:
Katrina picked a peck of purple petals while I shared a white chocolate lavender ice cream cone with Bear:
We were also able to take these pictures of the grounds:
In order to get the essential lavender oil you have to distill the flowers:
Quite the outdoor still!
For lunch we went to the John Wayne Marina and ate at the Dockside Grill. While we were eating a crab boat pulled up and offloaded their catch:
We saw them unload four 55 gallon drums of the Dungeness crabs.
We saw this sign on the window sill and thought it was funny:
The food was outstanding! I had the grilled salmon sandwich and Katrina had the coconut shrimp!
So delicious! I highly recommend this place if you happen to be in the area!
After lunch we decided to check out another lavender farm called B & B Family Farm.
There we took a tour to learn about how they dry the stalks for flower arrangements,
pluck the buds from the stalks for use in sachets,
and distill the flowers to make the essential oils. Katrina did a live on this as well @Katrina Jerger Busse.
Of course their fields were beautiful:
When we got back to Glen Ayr, we hopped into the hot tub to relax. What a wonderful and educational day!
The next morning we picked some wild blackberries:
Man were they tasty!
We did get a chance to try Hama Hama the next day as we went there for lunch. Very interesting place:
For almost 100 years they have been shucking oysters and serving them up:
The food and beer were great! Check out these piles of shells:
I climbed it because it was there!
Our neighbors told us about a music festival that was being held down in the town of Union. So we loaded up the truck and headed there. Since it was held at the bottom of the Hood Canal, someone thought that this annual festival should be named “Hoodstock”. Funny!
Since we didn’t have a floatation device to get close to the “band boat” we listened for awhile from the coast. The music that we heard was good!
We headed back to the coach and started to pack up as we were heading out the next morning to hit the Oregon coast.
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