Hello Pacific Northwest!

So, this past weekend, I used the free ticket I'd earned with Southwest to go on a very random adventure! For years, I've wanted to see the Pacific Northwest, but I've never had a good reason to go or money to go! Thanks to nearly 2 years with the FDIC, my free ticket replaced a ticket that would've otherwise cost me $500! and hotel points allowed me to stay at a nice hotel, so all I had to pay for was a rental car, gas, and food! On the flight from Seattle to Vegas, I decided to write out my thoughts from my weekend... to post here, of course!

I flew out of Little Rock at 1:10pm Friday afternoon, changing planes in Vegas and landing in a sunny Seattle at 7:00pm - pacific time! I picked up my rental car (of course it was a dodge calibur... i'm SO not a fan!) and tried to find my way to my hotel in Tacoma. With, to me, a ton of traffic, I was confident i'd made the right decision NOT to go into Seattle... with such a limited amount of time, I knew it wouldnt be worth it (i dont like big cities much anyway!) I finally did find my hotel, got to my room, planned out the next day & crashed!

Saturday morning I was up at 5:15am and on the road an hour later. Glad to turn off Hwy 5 and get away from most of the other cars, all I knew was head west to Aberdeen & Hoquiam then turn onto the 101. That was my guide for the day... stop wherever I wanted, dont forget to keep gas in the car, and make it back to my hotel in Tacoma at the end of the day. And so, here we go!

LOVED the little town of Aberdeen (or maybe it was Hoquiam.. they kinda blended together). I'd love to know the history there. it actually looked a bit run down in areas, but the houses - LOVED the houses! very colorful and quaint.

LOVED getting to see the pacific ocean!! wish I couldve spent the whole day walking the beaches. Not a lot of sand, but lots of rocks and pebbles. Would love to go to the beaches again with a friend who equally wanted to explore! (I didnt see any tidepools all day! i was sad! of course, i didnt know where to look or what to look for!)

Forks, WA / La Push / Twilight. Okay... so you may not believe me but the purpose of my trip was not because of Twilight! My Fodor guide book told me there was a place to eat in the Timber museum in Forks, so I stopped looking for lunch. Sadly, the guide book was wrong. I found a Subway & took it along in the car. While my purpose there wasnt Twilight, PLENTY of other people were there for that reason! This, of course, made me want to get the heck out of dodge even faster! So i hopped back on the road, turning on 110 to check out La Push and Rialto Beach. Forks wasnt what I'd pictured from the book. Neither was La Push. Twilight was everywhere. I saw the Forks High School sign a street over and didnt stop! Finding First Beach/La Push was complicated. going out & back on 110 was painfully slow, and it ate a world of time. My frustration was rectified a bit sunday at the airport. I saw a book in the Borders at the airport that was a Twilight movie behind the scenes. And, ah-ha - much of what you see in the movie as "Forks" isnt really Forks! I read no further - that made it all better. I didnt want the places in the books to be real - its better that the movie is shot in all these difference places & then the Twilight Forks is created. That's much more fitting! Whew!

But so by the time I got on the road to Port Angeles, it was already past 3pm. CRAP! Time now was really limited. I opted not to try to see the furthest point northwest (Neah Bay?) because it wouldve been another follow a road out and back thing. I didnt get to see any waterfalls. Merrymar (sp?) I wish I could've seen. Oh - I did go to Hoh Rain Forest and do a quick walk on the Hall of Mosses trail. I didnt stay here long (it was also an hour detour getting there and back).

So driving to Port Angeles - Lake Crescent was beautiful! Surrounded by mountains and the road followed right along the edge. It took a while though - the speed limit was 35 a good portion of the way. Finally Port Angeles welcomed me. And it turned out to be another seriously cute town!! I liked the size - it felt small but friendly. I saw a store called "Dazzled by Twilight" which made me laugh. I should've stopped and bought something cheesy. Maybe they have a website (i just looked.. didnt see one).

Finally, I saw the sign for Hurricane Ridge and headed that direction for my final "outing" of the trip. I paid my $15, which I'd conveniently not paid earlier in the day. I was excited when I headed up (now 5pm) because there were blue skies and just a small bit of drizzly rain. The drive up (18 miles) was curvy - serious drop offs along the way! but beautiful. Quickly, I could see the high mountain tops still covered in snow! I had no idea where the end of the road would be.. just kept driving. Suddenly, I was driving among the snow covered mountain tops - Holy Cow! SNOW!!!! I got to the top and went crazy! God was giving me a special treat. I couldnt believe there was snow (and I'm talking real snow like we'll NEVER see in arkansas!!) At the end of the road, there was no one else in the parking lot. If they had cameras on the parking lot, I bet I looked really funny! Funniest was that there was no view whatsoever! The fog was so think you couldnt see 20 feeet down/up the mountains! But everything was covered in snow. It was the best winter I've never had! I dont even remember if it was cold outside because I was so excited! I couldve gone snow-shoeing! I snapped a few photos - I tried to jump into them, that didnt really work! I laugh because I didnt touch the snow! It just looked too perfectly undisburbed! I didnt stay long - it was 6 or so by now and I was hungry! Of course the visitors centers werent open, so no souviners to buy.

And so I went back down the ridge and stopped by taco bell for a quick dinner (7pm!)Realizing it was over 2 hours back to the hotel (oops), decided to head that way with no stops. Sad and long. Still lots of rain and much more traffic by this time. It was nice that the sun didnt set until 9pm. So most of the way to Olympia I could still see the Sound next to me and the park at places on the other side. When I finally got to Olympia,I realized Tacoma was 28 miles away, not 8 (ouch!). I got to my hotel just before 10. I was SOO tired! 15 hours in the rental car was so long that it my shoulder actually felt dislocated! so much odd pain! I stayed up just long enough to realize my pictures didnt do justice to what I'd seen (maybe they'll look better on the computer) and then sleep came quickly!

One observation I made - so, now I know that logging is a big deal in the olympic peninsula, but i hated the drives past the huge areas where all the trees were "harvested". It looked like nature's war zone. THese areas always started as soon as you left the national park area. thank goodness the park preserves so much.

So there you have it. My very short and random trip to the Pacific Northwest. Parts of the day felt very lonely. I'd wished I had a connection to the area, particularly the native indians. I wouldve loved a glimpse into their history and daily lives. Theres something so beautiful to me about native indians... dont know what it is! i think part of me wishes their lives were different - reflecting a different ... way of living I suppose. Saturday, I'd said I didnt think i'd ever want to return to this area. After writing all this down, though, I guess I feel a bit differently. I feel thankful for the opportunity, even though my eyelids are feeling heavy again. I have a 4 hour layover in Vegas and will get back to Little Rock by 10:30. Tomorrow morning takes me right back to where I was. A job that I'm not passionate about, a life where I question purpose and long for something different. I hope that Uganda motivates my nights. And I hope I'll work hard at my job regardless - because that's the type of person I want to be.