Olympic Peninsula Date Week

Jeff and I stayed closer to home for our annual date trip this year. Since we didn't go to Paris for the Olympics, we decided that the next best thing would be to go to the Olympic Peninsula. We were right; it was a marvelous trip! On Saturday, August 3rd, my Mom flew in to stay with Rose and Amber at our house while we journeyed. On Monday, August 5th, we drove Jay plus four other teenagers 3 hours to Seattle University for FSY church camp. We deposited them at the edge of campus with their bags, offered hugs to any kid who wanted one (Jay plus one of his friends accepted our hugs). Then we continued driving west for two more hours until we reached Sequim, WA, a small bustling town on the northeastern corner of the Olympic Peninsula (pronounced "skwim").

The Olympic Mountains are stunning!

Just outside of Sequim, we checked into our darling country cottage studio Airbnb and promptly collapsed onto the large bed to watch the Olympic Track and Field event coverage. Eventually, we drove into Sequim for dinner at Salty Girls Seafood. The food was good, but the portions were minuscule! We ordered crab melts and clam chowder, and the chowder was in a tiny palm-sized cup ($7), while the open faced crab melt sandwich was one side of a square ciabatta bun! With a small handful of chips on the side, for $17. We aren't what I'd call stingy on our vacation restaurant food, but we thought we should at least get enough calories for a $50 meal! We ended up driving to Costco so Jeff could get a hot dog to fill in the gap. I had cereal back at our Airbnb. 

Wimpy food portions at inflated prices turned out to be a theme in Sequim's restaurants, and it took us several other tries before we found a good Greek place for nice filling plates of shawarma. On our last night in Sequim, we caved and went to Applebee's to have the all-you-can-eat special. As runners, we tend to need a good amount of food to fuel our bodies, but we were extra hungry on this trip because each day we ran in the morning and hiked in the afternoon. So we required extra food! We ate out once a day and had two (or three) other meals at our Airbnb.

Our daily vacation routine looked like this: run in the morning, breakfast at the Airbnb, watch the Olympics, nap, lunch at the Airbnb, hike in the Olympic mountains, early dinner at a restaurant in Sequim, watch the Olympics, go to bed. We didn't ever run together on this trip, but we ran at the same time. Jeff is in snappy amazing shape right now and he enjoys running way faster than me. Plus, my hips and glutes were pretty cranky so I was a bit slower than usual. But we did hike together! Even though the total time each day that we were active was less than 4 hours and we were literally laying in bed for most of the rest of the day around the run and hike, I was so sore and tired the entire week! It was a good tired, but it was amusing that we spent so much time lying in bed feeling tired on our vacation. I wonder if we will ever feel the need to do a vacation where we actually rest from hard physical activity. Haha! Maybe in 30 or 40 years!

Running in Sequim was so nice: the roads were flat, the countryside was green, and the temperature was cool. The air was humid and 50 degrees, which felt absolutely medicinal after the crispy dry triple digit Yakima Valley where we live. After our first run in Sequim, we agreed that this was going to be an excellent vacation for the weather alone. For our hikes, I tried to find trails that were close to Sequim, because we have been to the Olympic Peninsula before and have already made the rookie mistake of choosing locations that don't seem that far away on the map or in miles, but actually take hours to drive due to the limited roads in that beautiful wilderness. Determined not to drive more than an hour from Sequim, we easily narrowed down the trails and selected the Deer Ridge Trail (30 minute drive), the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge Sand Spit (10 minute drive), and Hurricane Hill (1 hour drive). We hiked one trail per day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. 

On Friday after our morning run, we rested all the way till check-out time at noon, and then drove 2 hours east to Seattle. We stayed at a hotel 15 minutes from Seattle University on Friday night so we could more easily make it to the crazy early 7am pickup time at FSY on Saturday morning. Once we had our minivan full of teenagers, we drove 3 more hours home, dropping off each kid in Sunnyside. We were home before 11am. It was a great week.

Here are 68 pictures from our adventure. I narrowed it down, trust me.

Monday, August 5th:

Rose and Amber felt so special having Grama Meri all to themselves for an entire week. Rose made a big list of things to do with Grama, and they checked pretty much everything off of the list.

In the minivan headed for FSY! (FSY = For the Strength of Youth. It's still hard not to say EFY, which was the church camp of my heyday.)

They're off! We seriously just dropped them off at the sidewalk near a counselor and said good luck. It didn't seem like a big deal at first, but as we drove away, I started wondering if we should've made sure the kids all found the check in table and their dorm rooms. It's one thing to let my own son figure it out on his own, but was I supposed to be more responsible for the other kids we dropped off? Jeff talked me down and we kept driving. Later the kids told us it was fine and they didn't have any trouble figuring out where to go. Whew! Responsible 15 year olds are great!

Watching the Olympics in bed! King sized beds always feel massive because we have a queen size bed at home.

Tuesday, August 6th:

Glorious misty cool briny fresh morning run to the coast.

That's the ocean, or the Strait of Juan de Fuca, behind me, shrouded in mist.

The sides of several small roads near our Airbnb were crowded with greenery. It was like trail running without the fear of tripping over rocks and roots!

Deer Ridge Trail. We hiked 2 miles up the incredibly steep 4 mile trail and decided that was enough for our poor legs. The map told us that the remaining 2 miles up were just as steep, if not steeper, than what we had already done. So we turned around and hiked back down. It was seriously a staircase steep trail. We just didn't want to destroy ourselves completely on hike #1!

The one and only view we could see from the trail since we didn't hike all the way up to the ridge.

The hamburger patties from Tootsie's were thinner than the lettuce! Wimpy dinner number two! Costco backup dinner number two!

Wednesday, August 7th:

I ran past some beautiful lavender farms on Wednesday morning. Usually I don't love the way lavender smells, but something about the quantity of lavender mixed with the briny sea breeze made it smell so good!

A different beach from Tuesday's run.

Another flower farm--they were all closed when I was running early in the morning.

Lavender!

This fawn was living in the yard of our Airbnb cottage. His mother sometimes wandered through too, but this guy was always lounging or tiptoeing around the house.

We realized that many of the best-looking Sequim restaurants were lunch places, so we switched our big eat-out meal for lunch and enjoyed nice filling shawarma.

Wednesday's hike was at the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge. It is a 5 mile long sand spit with a wildlife refuge on one side. I brought binoculars hoping to see birds, but all we saw were some seagulls. The first part of the trail descended through gorgeous trees down to the coast. It was all sand walking from then on.

It was chilly and misty on the sand spit, and we could not see very far either direction.

Seagulls, the only birds we saw.

We hiked out 3 miles before the incoming tide made us too nervous to continue. We didn't want to trek back up in the soft sand or scramble over the driftwood logs, so we gave ourselves enough time to walk in the firm sand before the tide came in. It was a bit of a bummer not to make it to the lighthouse at the end of the sand spit, but it was so misty that we didn't really think it would make a difference. Of course by the time we made it back to the woods, the mist was gone!

Traditional date-hike kissing picture!

We couldn't see the lighthouse when we were only 2 miles away from it on the sand spit, but once the mist cleared, we could see it 5 miles away as we left the sand! It's that white lump on the horizon slightly to the right of the center on this picture.

View of the Dungeness Sand Spit from higher up on the trail before we turned away from the coast.

I love trees. This place was so fresh and beautiful.

The evening view off the back patio of our Airbnb was tranquil and beautiful

Thursday, August 8th:

For our morning run on Thursday, we drove 12 minutes to a portion of the Olympic Discovery Trail, which is a rail-to-trail bike path that runs mostly along highway 101. This section had some gorgeous greenery blocking the highway and a tempting scenic trestle bridge.

The Johnson Trestle Bridge was high in the trees--it was heady being that high up near the treetops with a creek waaay far down below! Pictures couldn't capture the height of the bridge.

The trestle bridge was 400 feet long--a satisfying distance to travel through the treetops.

The Olympic Discovery Trail was pleasant, peaceful, and paved, although some sections were noisy with proximity to highway 101.

 This portion of the trail hugged the coast of Sequim bay, and every now and then, I caught a peek of Sequim Bay through the trees.

The sun was much higher on my return journey across the trestle bridge. For about a mile of this run, I was in significant gastrointestinal distress and was incredibly relieved to finally arrive at a well-placed port-a-potty. Poor Jeff had to wait for a while at the van while I took care of business, because I had our keys in my pocket.

Humidity makes us pour sweat like a waterfall!

Hurricane Hill Hike: We parked at the main parking area, not realizing just how far away the actual Hurricane Hill trail began, and ended up walking over a mile down the road to the trailhead. But this VIEW!!!!! It was an odd trail because the whole thing was paved, but we were high up in the remote Olympic Mountains. A strange combination, but our feet did not get dusty. Now I will be quiet and let you enjoy the peaceful panoramas:

(this was a side path next to the road that we took before we reached the Hurricane Hill trail)

Way up top there was our destination. It was definitely an exposed, sweaty uphill hike.

The wildflowers were waning, but we still saw some.

Jeff, hiking ahead while I took pictures.

Sky hug!

View from the top, to the north: we could see all the way out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The road back to the main parking lot. Jeff jogged the last mile of this road because his hiking muscles were less sore than his running muscles. I walked because all of my muscles were equally tired and sore, haha. I love these tall skinny spiky Pacific Northwest pine trees. They add so much variety and texture to one vista.

Friday, August 9th:

One last run on our original route to the beach. It was much clearer on Friday than it was here on Tuesday! The tide had washed up some seriously briny squishy slippery green seaweed. I tried running on it but decided to stick to pavement.

Feeling the sun and breeze on my belly makes me so happy. I think the only part of my body that I actually like feeling wind is on my stomach, haha. This probably comes from years of feeling compelled to keep it covered before realizing that a stomach is a stomach. Male belly buttons are not any more or less "modest" or worthy of fresh air than female belly buttons! Pardon my soapbox. Everyone can choose what to wear. I do keep my running shirt on when I coach. The point is: I felt extra zen on this run because the air felt amazing on my skin!

Seashells and running shoes.

This gorgeous seashell was too big for my tiny running pocket, so I took a picture of it and left it in the sand.

Bye, beach!

Beautiful bucolic Olympic Peninsula side road. Sequim is such an interesting mix of swanky touristy pockets and old time shabby homes, natural overgrowth, and small farms. It was quite charming, but I liked the countryside best.

"Poultry in motion." I love it!

I finally remembered to take a picture of our Airbnb from the road. How sweet is that cottage? The owners lived in a big house next door, but we had our own gated driveway and tons of trees between the two houses for privacy.

Saturday, August 10th:

When we got home, the girls were deep in a game of dominos with Grama. They played over two dozen games of dominos in five days! Rose and Amber were in Grama Meri Heaven. (THANK YOU, MOM!)

Jay said that FSY was fun and he liked the morning scripture study best. He also liked the FSY classes, and the variety show, but the cafeteria food got tiresome very fast. He came home and took a very long nap.

It was different dividing up into three for the week at home, FSY, and the Olympic Peninsula, and in some ways it made me miss the simpler days where we'd take our three little babies camping together. Now we have so many activities, we have to divide and conquer. But it was a good week for all of us!