Day 54 - Making the most of another Olympic bust

This morning we got a late start to the day - we all slept in until 8!  This likely wasn’t our best choice if we wanted to see the Hurricane Ridge area, but we decided that it wasn’t worth waking early to race the crowds only to potentially still not be allowed up into the Hurricane Ridge area.  Because of all the visitors, they have to manage the people coming in both because of the parking and also the bathrooms.  



After sleeping in, we got things moving had breakfast and started to pack up.  As we were packing up, our neighbor/friend Martin and his grandmother woke up.  We watched as his grandmother strolled off and jumped in the lake for a morning swim.  Talk about a brisk way to start the day!


Once packed up, we said goodbye to Martin and exchanged addresses because who doesn’t want a pen pall from Alaska?!!  Then we headed into town.  Rather than drag Dover up into Hurricane Ridge, we decided to drop it off in town at the grocery store.  From there, we proceeded to the visitor center.  As soon as we pulled in, it was clear we were not going to be par of the quota.  However, we still had a pretty good time exploring the discovery center and seeing the giant banana slug statue - and we got a "Welcome to the Park" picture!.  



Since Hurricane Ridge was now off the table, we decided to make today the tide pool day we had lost yesterday so we headed over to the Salt Creek area. Sebastian and I immediately went exploring the pools and, while it wasn’t completely low tide, we found so much life to look at. 





It was amazing.  Amy and Robinson weren’t that interested in the pools so they spent their time visiting a historical WWII bunker (Camp Hayden).  They eventually made it down to the water and claimed that the water was warm!  


After we all got back together, we saw a few sea caves down below.  Unfortunately, the tide was coming back in so we weren’t able to explore them at all.  But they sure looked neat.


From there, we drove over to Seattle.  We had traffic nearly the entire drive, but it got MUCH worse as we got near the city - mostly because we were arriving at rush hour.  But we did have some nice views and there were a couple of bald eagles to break up the traffic.


We checked into the hotel and started some laundry.  There was a request for some sushi for dinner.  Good news for us, it was within walking distance of the hotel.  We enjoyed the dinner together and finished the laundry up.


Once back at the hotel, Amy and I wanted something for dessert so we left the boys with the electronic babysitter (TV!) and walked over to the grocery store.  We had no expectations of anything good, but we found some fresh made desserts that had been discounted because it was the end of the day - Sweet (literally)!  Finally, the universe smiled on us.  We gobbled them up and finished the day.

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