I'm Home!
Posted on August 29, 2004 at 11:42 PM EST
Yesterday evening I returned home from my trip to Washington State. I had a wonderful time and enjoyed spending time with my parents and sister who I only get to see a few times per year. The forecast called for rain every day we were there, but we got lucky and it only rained on two of the days.
We left Baltimore around 5:30 PM EST on Friday and arrived in Seattle at 1:00 AM EST. After a short night’s rest, we drove down to Mount St. Helens. I was amazed to see that even though the volcano had erupted over 24 years ago, it looked as though it happened just a few months ago. On the way up to the lava dome, we drove up many mountains that had nothing but trees (around two - three feet in diameter) which had been knocked over or snapped in half as a result of the 450 MPH blast. In many areas there was very little vegetation growing and the ground was extremely barren.
After visiting Mount St. Helens, we went to Mount Rainier, which is the highest mountain in the United States and is 14,410 feet in elevation. We drove up to Paradise, which is the highest point that you can drive to and is roughly 5,400 feet in elevation. Along the way we passed many waterfalls that cascade over lava flows, including one that was 168 feet high.
The following day we drove up to Port Townsend, a Victorian Seaport on the Olympic Peninsula, and went to Fort Worden. The fort was established in 1902 and served as the first line of defense to guard Puget Sound cities and the naval shipyard at Bremerton. It was also the fort that was used in the movie An Officer and a Gentleman which starred Richard Gere and Debra Winger. The navy closed down the fort in 1965 since coastal artillery forts were no longer necessary.
Later that day we went to Hurricane Ridge, which is located in the Olympic National Park, just south of Port Angeles. We parked at the Visitor Center then walked to the end of the mile long trail at the top of the mountain. Here we saw an incredible view of Port Angeles with the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the background.
The next day we took a ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca over to Victoria, Canada, the capital of British Columbia. After getting off the ferry, we got on a double-decker bus that took us to Butchart Gardens. The gardens were 16 miles from where our ferry docked so our driver gave us a guided tour of the city. The bus had been used in England in the 1970’s and to make the tour even better, our driver was originally from Nottingham, England so he had a strong British accent. After visiting the Butchart Gardens, we went to Crystal Gardens which had a large variety of tropical animals and plants.
The day after we got back from Victoria, we drove out to Rialto Beach, which is located on the Pacific Ocean and is one of the most popular beaches on the Olympic Peninsula. I thought the sea stacks (steep pillars of rock with trees) that were out in the ocean were interesting since I’m used to seeing nothing but flat land and sandy beaches here along the Carolina coast. We then drove down to the Hoh Rain Forest, which averages around 150 inches of rain per year and is the only temperate rain forest in the United States. It was pouring down rain when we got there, which was quite appropriate for a rain forest. We ended up taking the Hall of Mosses trail which just under a mile long. It was neat to see all of the moss that was on the trees. Many of the trees were close to 1,000 year old Sitka spruce trees and were over 200 feet high and 12 feet in diameter.
We spent the last full day of our trip in Seattle. After getting off the ferry from Bremerton, we went to the Redhook Brewing Company in Woodinville, which is about 20 miles east of Seattle. I was really excited about visiting the brewery since they make one of my favorite beers that I regularly drink, Redhook India Pale Ale. This was the largest microbrewery that I had ever visited. It was modern, beautiful, and located in a nice rural area. My Dad and I went on the hour long tour of the brewery and we tried all of their beers and saw where the beer is mixed, brewed, and bottled. After we left the brewery, we went to Pike Place Market. The variety of fish and vegetables was out of this world. Just about all of the vegetables and fruit that I saw were perfect. There were many vendors selling flowers for around $4 which would have easily been around $25 back home. We walked around the Waterfront for a while then headed to Pyramid Alehouse which is located next to where the Mariners and Seahawks play. This is another beer that I frequently drink and when I looked at their beer menu, I was surprised to see so many different beers that I thought I would like since many of them are not available where I live. I usually see three or four different beers that I like at a microbrewery, but I saw nine that I liked at Pyramid so it was tough to pick which ones to order. Their Apricot Ale, which is one that I drink a lot at home tasted much better on draft and had a much stronger apricot taste than it does when it’s from a bottle.
I ended up taking 270 digital photos and 2 rolls of film. It was cloudy the entire time we were in Washington, but we were fortunate to have sunny skies in Victoria, Canada. Because of the gray skies, it wasn’t ideal for taking pictures on most of the trip. I still have to go through the photos and resize, retouch, and crop the images, but I will post them to the site within the next few days.
One thing that I am really going to miss is Alaskan Amber, my new favorite microbrew. It’s available on tap at just about all of the restaurants or bars in Northwest Washington and I ordered whenever it was available. I could always have it shipped to me, but unfortunately their bottled beer doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as when it’s from a tap.
My favorite part of the trip was definitely Mount St. Helens. It was surreal to see the devastation of a natural phenomenon that was equivalent to 1500 atomic bombs going off simultaneously.
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Tagged with beer, canada, family, seattle, travel
