#quinalt

Worlds largest spruce tree, picea sitchensis, quinalt rainforest, Olympic National Forest, Washington USA

What Was I Thinking?

6.4.15

Merriman Falls - Quinault, WA - 6-10-13 01 by Tucapel on Flickr.

Quinalt Rain Forest, Washington

After our crazy long, unexpected day in Mt. Rainier we splurged on a hotel room. It was just what we needed to regroup while John got the tires changed. All four of them. During this trip I've used Trip Advisor to find restaurants and this hotel. The ratings can really help to find a good, clean, family friendly, local place. Through that we have met some great people, eaten yummy food, and had no disappointments. After staying in Olympia and seeing the beautiful capitol building peeking through the trees, John V won't forget the capital of Washington any time soon. Check! :) We headed west and then north to the peninsula and entered Olympic National Park. We started at Lake Quinalt Lodge and saw the tallest Sitka spruce in the world. Amazing. We went into the Ranger station and they had Smokey the Bear stuffed animals and pamphlets. It was cracking us up because the Ranger asked my kids if they had heard of Smokey the Bear. They looked at him in disbelief like he had asked if they knew their own names. But they nicely said yes and took the pamphlet he offered. Outside John and I were laughing at what they could have said. "Umm, have YOU visited his museum? Stood at his grave? Seen where they found him in the pass? Yes, we know Smokey." You see, he's a bit of a family tradition, and we might have frequented his museum since I was a little girl. Lake Quinalt was so beautiful. A parkitecture style lodge with an enormous lawn looking out over a crystal lake. Anywhere with a hilly lawn means my kids immediately throw themselves on the ground and roll down sideways. This provides free entertainment for all standing by who are not expecting this instant reaction to a patch of grass. We then headed up to Ruby Beach. Shrouded in mist with towering rocky islands, it is the perfect backdrop for the stories of courage and mystery always ready to emerge from a child's imagination. Driftwood and rocks covered the beach, huge seagulls made Natalie run around calling in delight, and waves crashing on the rocks made you speculate dreamily of all the deserted ships' carcasses likely to be lying beneath those turbulent waters. Pirate's treasure? It simply HAD to be somewhere, if not an actual pirate himself. The scene made me grateful for the many classic stories I read as a child and eager to continue sharing those with my kids. It was a full day and we headed to our campground and then off to find hot food. At the restaurant, we officially lost it. We were in a tiny logging town, were apparently the evening's entertainment as the entire restaurant was literally turned around watching us, and managed to spill two drinks and drop a plate in about sixty seconds. Wheels. Were. Off. We managed to keep calm and started laughing hysterically at everything. At one point John was laughing and said, "I just almost started crying." Then we really lost it at the idea of us sitting in the restaurant with a sobbing daddy. After laughing hard and filling tummies, we felt much better and headed off to sleep before our rainforest expedition the next day.