WASHINGTON

A time of visiting family and friends and a much needed rest. 

Our first stop in Washington was in Port Angeles to visit our good friends Shelly and Dayle. We were warmly welcomed by them and also by the sweetest dog named Reggie. 

Our campsite on Jason's property. 

One of the sculpture made from river rock near the restaurant where we ate dinner. The view from our seat was wonderful and we could see across the water to Canada. 

It was a great time of getting together and remembering good time, going out to dinner, playing games and just relaxing. They also took us to see some places in the area even though the weather was not very cooperative. We drove up onto Hurricane Ridge. The first picture is of what we were supposed to have seen and the second picture is of what we saw. 

It was quite cold up there and they still had leftover winter snow. 

They then took us down to sea level to the Straights of Juan de Fuga beach where we saw shacks built from all the large pieces of drift wood and also saw seals playing in the water. 

The white splash in the picture is where the seal went under. It was hard to get a good picture of them. 

After we left there we went to visit the Black Rabbit Trail Air B&B owned by their friend. What a beautiful and interesting place that was. There were fish in the pond and when Shelly threw food pellets into the water it looked like a piranha feeding frenzy but they were only trout. 

On Monday, Shelly and Dayle had a funeral to attend in Seattle so we took a run into Forks, WA where the story of Twilight took place. Our first stop was at the Beachcombers Museum, owned by Mike and Sam's friend John. He has been collecting things from off the beach for 45 years and there are so many interesting finds. 

Can you guess which one is John? 

This is what greets you as you drive to the museum entrance.

A tiki statue

Glass bottles, some which had notes inside of them. If they had contact information on the note John would always try to contact the person who left the note. He has a notebook full of the notes and many interesting stories about them. 

Japanese whisky bottles. The sailors would leave a swallow of whisky in the bottle and throw it overboard for the gods. One beachcomber said that one day he found enough bottles that he was able to have a nice drink of whisky from what was left inside. 

An anchor chain. 

Can you make out what the main image in this picture might be?

Jaw bone from a baby Blue Whale

There are lots on containers lost at sea every year and the contents wash up on shore. Here are some clown heads that were in one of the containers. Another had Nike sneakers. 

An unusual find was this mammoth tooth. John didn't know what it was but found it very interesting and when he took it to the University they told him that is was a tooth from a Wooly Mammoth. 

This was an interesting story. Another beach comber found one of the slippers with a name on it so he tried to find the owner thinking that he might be needing his slipper. Two years later John found the other slipper on a different beach so the first man gave him the first slipper so he could put the pair into his museum. 

Jars full of Sea Glass

Because we are friends of Mike and Sam, John took us into some other areas that aren't part of the museum, including his wife's craft room. (not pictured)

Yep, he's found several boats on the beach, some too big to bring back.

Close up of the wind vain built from bouys. This was his 2020 Covid project when the museum was closed. 

He also had a special spot in the museum with items found from the Japanese Tsunami with many interesting stories behind the items found. One was a signed soccer ball but he was never able to find the owners of it. Unfortunately we were so interested in the stories behind the objects we forgot to take pictures. If  you want to know more about this topic here is a link to an interesting article. 

LINK

After we left the museum we went into town and saw this restaurant, Sully's Burgers. Since that is the name of our youngest grandson we of course had to stop there for lunch. The burgers were really good. 

After lunch we drove around the town and found the Welcome Center. There we found the cast from Twilight. They were a bit two dimensional and flat. But Jim enjoyed checking out the trucks that were mentioned in the book/movie. 

This is the type of truck that was mentioned in the book. 

This is the truck from the movies.

And if you're a fan of Twilight then you will know who's coat this is. 

While there we also visited the Fork's Timber Museum

That is a hut made from carving out the inside of a tree stump and then a roof was added to it. 

We tried to get to the Third Beach to do some beach combing but the parking lot was full and the Reservation was closed to we couldn't get to it. 

Our next stop was at a campground in mid Washington, Wanapum State Recreational Area, where Jhamee met up with us. It was a beautiful campground on the Columbia River.

On our way to visit the Ginko Petrified Forest and we stopped at what we thought was the Visitors Center only to find out it was a privately owned gift shop. 

Then we headed to the best Bed & Breakfast & Lunch & Dinner spot of the entire trip. 

Jhamee, our Hostess with the Mostest with her cat Mouse on her shoulder. 

Karen, the chief cook and gardener. Boy can she cook!

Stephen, our spiritual advisor and all around handyman. 

Here is the lovely spot they made for us to spend some time of Rest and Relaxation 

Stayed tuned, there's more to come for Washington