We decided to take a road trip up to Washington state for the 4th of July weekend. I think I just really enjoy driving, or so I thought. The drive just took a lot longer than I expected, and I think I drove maybe 1500 miles or more this weekend, which was really crazy. I still had a lot of fun, but I think if I ever want a car up in Washington State, I will either fly to Portland or Seattle. Ha. Part of the reason was I wanted to stop in Portland for some eats, which I will blog about shortly, and a one way car rental seemed very expensive, and I don't know why I did not think to fly to Portland, rent a car, and then drive back to Portland after Washington. Anyway, I'm rambling now.
We stayed at a B&B called Eden by the Sea. (I am really into B&Bs, and would choose one any day over a hotel. Wish they had a rewards program, ha!) There were 4 rooms in this comfortably sized B&B. We learned that no matter how big your property, you were only allowed to have 6 rooms, including that of the proprietor. Not sure if this was in Port Angeles, or what, but that's what we learned! Dave and Evelyn made us feel welcome from the moment we stepped into the B&B. We had the Garden Room on the second floor which had a private balcony. Spacious with a large bathroom, the room overlooked the water and the Washington Inn lavender fields with some unbelievable views, especially at sunset. The grounds had a garden that took you out to a bluff overlooking the water. Breakfast was a 3-course affair, with an appetizer of some kind (over 3 days we had fruit, strawberry smoothie, stuffed mushrooms), a main (sherry poached eggs + toast + potatoes + sausage, shrimp avocado cocktail + crustless quiche + golden raisin muffin, French toast + bacon + baked apple), and a sorbet which I never had. Everything I ate was sublime. Dave was great with recommendations of things to do, and with driving directions. They both were very accommodating with our requests, and also very responsive by email, answering questions before we arrived. Since we were celebrating our anniversary, they gave us some bubbly and chocolate in the room, which was a lovely touch. Wifi was not great in our bedroom, which was the only downside of the place. We had such a great time in Port Angeles, and if we were to go back I know where I will be staying.
We arrived super late, so the first evening we just ate leftover Thai food. We walked around the property, and went to the neighbouring Washington Lavender Farm, which also had a B&B. It was closed since it was so late, but we got some nice pictures, and watched the sunset.
Our first day, after our sumptuous breakfast, we decided to go to Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point of the contiguous United States. I feel so clever saying that, but I just really copied and pasted it from Wiki. It was beautiful out there. You drive out as far as you possibly can, and then there's a short half mile hike/walk on a step-y path, and then you see the water, and it's blue and gorgeous. There were some beaches out there too but I have no idea how one gets there.
Then we went all the way back to Sequim (pronounced "Squim"), to visit another lavender farm called Purple Haze. You can purchase pick your own lavender there. I opted for lavender ice cream - got the white chocolate lavender and lemon lavender sorbet, double scoop FTW! I think that was about $6. I also purchased a bag of 8 lavender shortbread cookies, which cost $6.75, from the store. On hindsight, I should have purchased just one cookie from the ice cream place, since that was $0.75, so cheaper unit price, plus I wouldn't have to eat 8 cookies all by myself (although they were absolutely delish!). There was also a herb garden, a petting zoo, and really cute purple seating all around. Super cute farm. Dave, our B&B host, did not seem to like lavender, but he also said he was colour blind. Pity. I like it. I had been inspired by pictures of the lavender farms in France, and I don't think these quite had the scale, but they worked, for now.
Then, we went to dinner at Dockside Grill, at the Sequim marina. Dave said it was the best restaurant in the area. I got dungeness crab fritters, since they are from the area, and they were really good! Lingon got a 3 course $30 meal (such a deal, since my appetizer was around $17 or so). His entree was scallop ceviche with blood orange EVOO. We both thought the orange taste way overwhelmed the delicacy of the scallops, though the scallops were extremely fresh. Then he had a goat cheese beet green salad, which was really good, but I forgot to take a photo of that. Then, he got a salmon with rice which was cooked well and delicious. Nothing particularly blew us away, but we enjoyed the experience. The location at the marina was great too, as we stared out into the water, and watched boats come in. We saw a dad teach his daughter how to... kill crabs? He did it like a champ too, whipped out his knife, stabbed the crab, chopped it into half, threw the bad part back into the water, and then she tried to follow suit, though she looked nowhere as pro as he did.
The next day, July 4th, we decided to go hiking. Funny, since my purpose was to visit Olympic National Park, but we never once drove into the park boundary. We did the Lake Angeles hike, starting out right outside the Hurricane Ridge park entrance at the Heart O' The Hills Trailhead, starting with the Heather Park trail, across the Klahane Ridge, and looping around to the Lake Angeles trail. We went around 12 miles total. I fell flat on my face twice, got a bunch of scrapes which 5 days later are still hurting, and a sore ass and legs. We were ill prepared, as it was super hot and we did not have enough water, and we did not bring our hiking shoes or hiking poles, all which came back to bite us in the ass when we met with super loose sand and also a fairly rocky downhill. The hike was a great physical workout, but we did think it was going to be a lot prettier and were disappointed for the amount of work we had to do. We did encounter a goat (high on the hills with a lonely goat, literally) and deer, and I'm always excited when I see wild animals, so I was happy. From some points in the hike, we got to see Port Angeles, the Dungeness Recreation Area spit, and Lake Angeles, and those views were pretty. Wildflowers were in bloom and also gorgeous.
I had thought about dinner the night before and how places would be closed for the holiday, so I made a reservation at one of the few places in Port Angeles that took reservations, Bella Italia. Part of the reason I chose it was because it took reservations, but the other part, and I'm partly ashamed to say, was that it was the restaurant featured in Twilight, where Bella and Edward had their first date. I never watched the movie, but I enjoy doing silly things like that. I even got Bella's mushroom ravioli, and it was yummy! The food was good, big portions, and I'm glad we went. Lingon got an item on the specials menu, a crab lasagne I believe, and that was pretty good too!
The restaurant also had a great view of the July 4th Parade. God bless America! Took some farm tractor pictures for my father-in-law.
That night, we drove to town to see the fireworks. And sadly that was the end of our little adventure. Time passes so quickly. What a beautiful area and I hope to be back soon.
We stayed at a B&B called Eden by the Sea. (I am really into B&Bs, and would choose one any day over a hotel. Wish they had a rewards program, ha!) There were 4 rooms in this comfortably sized B&B. We learned that no matter how big your property, you were only allowed to have 6 rooms, including that of the proprietor. Not sure if this was in Port Angeles, or what, but that's what we learned! Dave and Evelyn made us feel welcome from the moment we stepped into the B&B. We had the Garden Room on the second floor which had a private balcony. Spacious with a large bathroom, the room overlooked the water and the Washington Inn lavender fields with some unbelievable views, especially at sunset. The grounds had a garden that took you out to a bluff overlooking the water. Breakfast was a 3-course affair, with an appetizer of some kind (over 3 days we had fruit, strawberry smoothie, stuffed mushrooms), a main (sherry poached eggs + toast + potatoes + sausage, shrimp avocado cocktail + crustless quiche + golden raisin muffin, French toast + bacon + baked apple), and a sorbet which I never had. Everything I ate was sublime. Dave was great with recommendations of things to do, and with driving directions. They both were very accommodating with our requests, and also very responsive by email, answering questions before we arrived. Since we were celebrating our anniversary, they gave us some bubbly and chocolate in the room, which was a lovely touch. Wifi was not great in our bedroom, which was the only downside of the place. We had such a great time in Port Angeles, and if we were to go back I know where I will be staying.
We arrived super late, so the first evening we just ate leftover Thai food. We walked around the property, and went to the neighbouring Washington Lavender Farm, which also had a B&B. It was closed since it was so late, but we got some nice pictures, and watched the sunset.
Our first day, after our sumptuous breakfast, we decided to go to Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point of the contiguous United States. I feel so clever saying that, but I just really copied and pasted it from Wiki. It was beautiful out there. You drive out as far as you possibly can, and then there's a short half mile hike/walk on a step-y path, and then you see the water, and it's blue and gorgeous. There were some beaches out there too but I have no idea how one gets there.
Then we went all the way back to Sequim (pronounced "Squim"), to visit another lavender farm called Purple Haze. You can purchase pick your own lavender there. I opted for lavender ice cream - got the white chocolate lavender and lemon lavender sorbet, double scoop FTW! I think that was about $6. I also purchased a bag of 8 lavender shortbread cookies, which cost $6.75, from the store. On hindsight, I should have purchased just one cookie from the ice cream place, since that was $0.75, so cheaper unit price, plus I wouldn't have to eat 8 cookies all by myself (although they were absolutely delish!). There was also a herb garden, a petting zoo, and really cute purple seating all around. Super cute farm. Dave, our B&B host, did not seem to like lavender, but he also said he was colour blind. Pity. I like it. I had been inspired by pictures of the lavender farms in France, and I don't think these quite had the scale, but they worked, for now.
Then, we went to dinner at Dockside Grill, at the Sequim marina. Dave said it was the best restaurant in the area. I got dungeness crab fritters, since they are from the area, and they were really good! Lingon got a 3 course $30 meal (such a deal, since my appetizer was around $17 or so). His entree was scallop ceviche with blood orange EVOO. We both thought the orange taste way overwhelmed the delicacy of the scallops, though the scallops were extremely fresh. Then he had a goat cheese beet green salad, which was really good, but I forgot to take a photo of that. Then, he got a salmon with rice which was cooked well and delicious. Nothing particularly blew us away, but we enjoyed the experience. The location at the marina was great too, as we stared out into the water, and watched boats come in. We saw a dad teach his daughter how to... kill crabs? He did it like a champ too, whipped out his knife, stabbed the crab, chopped it into half, threw the bad part back into the water, and then she tried to follow suit, though she looked nowhere as pro as he did.
The next day, July 4th, we decided to go hiking. Funny, since my purpose was to visit Olympic National Park, but we never once drove into the park boundary. We did the Lake Angeles hike, starting out right outside the Hurricane Ridge park entrance at the Heart O' The Hills Trailhead, starting with the Heather Park trail, across the Klahane Ridge, and looping around to the Lake Angeles trail. We went around 12 miles total. I fell flat on my face twice, got a bunch of scrapes which 5 days later are still hurting, and a sore ass and legs. We were ill prepared, as it was super hot and we did not have enough water, and we did not bring our hiking shoes or hiking poles, all which came back to bite us in the ass when we met with super loose sand and also a fairly rocky downhill. The hike was a great physical workout, but we did think it was going to be a lot prettier and were disappointed for the amount of work we had to do. We did encounter a goat (high on the hills with a lonely goat, literally) and deer, and I'm always excited when I see wild animals, so I was happy. From some points in the hike, we got to see Port Angeles, the Dungeness Recreation Area spit, and Lake Angeles, and those views were pretty. Wildflowers were in bloom and also gorgeous.
I had thought about dinner the night before and how places would be closed for the holiday, so I made a reservation at one of the few places in Port Angeles that took reservations, Bella Italia. Part of the reason I chose it was because it took reservations, but the other part, and I'm partly ashamed to say, was that it was the restaurant featured in Twilight, where Bella and Edward had their first date. I never watched the movie, but I enjoy doing silly things like that. I even got Bella's mushroom ravioli, and it was yummy! The food was good, big portions, and I'm glad we went. Lingon got an item on the specials menu, a crab lasagne I believe, and that was pretty good too!
The restaurant also had a great view of the July 4th Parade. God bless America! Took some farm tractor pictures for my father-in-law.
That night, we drove to town to see the fireworks. And sadly that was the end of our little adventure. Time passes so quickly. What a beautiful area and I hope to be back soon.
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