Writing About Nothing: Grateful Friday: the bluest blue and the greenest green

Friday, August 6, 2021

Grateful Friday: the bluest blue and the greenest green

Tuesday we headed to Edmonds to take the ferry to Kingston on the peninsula. We were surrounded by blue.

On the ferry, I saw what looked like someone on a kayak. That didn't make sense. I kept watching and realized it was an orca. I saw the flash of white as it flicked its tail and reemerged. It was far enough away that I couldn't tell if it was the same orca over and over or more than one.

Still, I was excited. I had never seen an orca in the wild before.

We went to Port Gamble which is a darling little seaside town. The people who founded it were from Maine so it looked like a New England seaside town.

Then, we went to Olympic National Park. We climbed up and up, stopping at a few viewpoints.

The pictures never do mother nature justice and that's sort of wonderful. Our eyes are pretty great.

Here, I told Emma to look pensive and this was the best she could do.

I am one of those people who can't successfully take a selfie.

We went to Hurricane Ridge, which is above the tree line. There were some amazing views of mountains and glaciers.

We also saw several deer and a marmot which is a ridiculous looking animal if you ask me. I think I hate everything that is mouse adjacent.

We were staying in Forks that night. We checked into our hotel, had dinner and then high tailed it to the beach for sunset. We got there just in time.

It was delightful traveling with these adult children. They are interesting and pleasant and funny.

It was just SO pretty!

Jackson is taking a picture and Mark is throwing rocks which was on brand for both of them.

Mark stopped throwing rocks long enough to create this.

For my part, I'm a beach scavenger. Pretty rocks and seashells and sea glass. I'm not good at finding sea glass but Geri is and she gives it to me.

Here I am rubbing the sand off a treasure.

I mostly carry my finds around for a little while and then drop them back on the beach. I keep some of them (for sure the sea glass).

With her artist's eye, Emma took this shot. These are the rocks Mark hadn't thrown...yet.

And here's Adam's artsy picture:

Adam and I went to the grocery store Wednesday morning to buy stuff for breakfast.

I couldn't resist texting this picture to our kids:

When in Rome...

Speaking of the Forks experience, Geri and Adam and Mark and I went to the beach and the rest of the group went "full tourist" as Emma described it.

When they were tweens, Emma and Tali were all in with the Twilight series and they had a chance to revisit their passion.

this sign is at the border in La Push where the reservation starts

To get to the beach, we took a trail through the woods. So much green!

I think the tall trees made me taller.

The dense trees opened into a wide beach.

And the beach made the small hike well worth it!

This is as much as I got in the water. It was coooold. Not like Florida Keys ocean water!

Related: who wears long jeans and a sweatshirt to the beach in July? Me. In the PNW, me.

The tide was out so we got to see all sorts of creatures.

Adam and Mark flew Adam's stunt kite and one of them took this picture so now you know what it looks like to fly a stunt kite.

The beach is always a good idea.

Also, I texted this picture to Braeden and Anna. I pointed out how white I was that I got a small sunburn in Forks, WA. It was the setting for Twilight because of its lack of sunshine!

After the beach we went to the Hoh rainforest.

The trees kept getting thicker if that was possible.

We drove through dense trees and I was looking forward to being in the temperate rainforest (a first for me) but alas, the parking lot was full and the wait was about 45 minutes so we parted ways and our family headed to Portland.

We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway and saw some beautiful ocean vistas, not very well photographed through the windshield, but you get the idea.