This magical place is the washington coast, a cold and gray place most of the year that lights up in the summer to invite the Seattle surfing community for some wonderful rides on long sandy beaches.
So I thought.
Us at the beach: we left Seattle that was already sporting sweet 80 degrees at 10am in the morning when we left. By the time we hit Port Angeles, it had dropped to 75 degrees. When we pull into Neah Bay, it was down to 65. The two miles around Cape Flattery to the campsite were a trip throug recent history: that is, we were thrown back to around mid April. 55 degress and cloudy. It's apparently a special microclimate that beach and campsite enjoys.
The kids didn't mind though. they loved the beach and the sand
And apparently so did I.
We also did some hanging around the campsite, which was of course a ton of fun for the kids. The crew was all boys Milo and Watson's age. They had a blast.
Me getting ready for the so called "cold water surfing"
He looks droopy here but he loved playing in the waves:
It's just a fact though. Kids don't care much if there is a ton of sunshine, if it's raining (it wasn't but I'm just saying). Milo in his shorty and the surfboard was out there for 2 hours having the time of his life. So was I. They will be tough kids some day when they go off to college.
Me crashing.
So we decided to bail early after two days because the weather was shitty. We decided to go by the natural hot srpings of Sol Duc. I remember coming here some 8 years ago and thinking it was shitty, but boy my memory was off. It was very cool. Hot springs at 102 degrees was the right treatment after the cold Neah Bay experience.
The setting reminded me a lot of the alps. Though this was on the Olympic Peninsula, not in the cascades, the place we usually go to the mountains.
Of course the kids loved the pool thing.
I had to throw a bunch of Milo and Watson bombs.
It was so much warmer once we left Neah Bay. Only 10-15 miles outside of Neah Bay it was back to mid 70s summer weather. That place is foresaken.We also stopped by Lake Crescent, where there is a wonderful old 1913 lodge on the lake. the setting and all reminded me a lot of Koenigssee.
The thing about lake Crescent is that it is very deep (nearly 700ft). It's also fairly cold. Apparently there are a number of murders that have happened here, the most fabled one is from our book "Ghost stories of Whashington." An upper class dude impregnates a worker at the lodge. He takes her on a boat ride from which she never returns. Supposedly bodies have been found stuck in crevaces in the lower portions of the lake, which have all turned to soap.FDR stayed here in 1936 pondering whether or not to create the Olympic Forest Wildlife reserve, which he then did.
