Of beaches and vampires....

Day 9:

We started today a little west of Port Angeles in a charming little campground near Elwha Dam, which they began deconstructing a few weeks ago to rehabitat salmon spawning grounds on the Olympic Peninsula.  The project is supposed to take two or three years to complete. 

The kids playing at the playground at Elwha Dam RV Park

Backtracking a few miles back to Port Angeles, we picked up cappuccinos from Bella Rosa and drove up the hill to the National Park.  Jenny walked a mile with Daniel and Jonathan to the playground down the street while I took the three older kids into the park headquarters to become Junior Rangers.  The park ranger talked with the kids for a few minutes, gave them the Junior Ranger oath and presented their badges.  Then, we looked around the museum for a few minutes before joining Jenny and the boys who were by this time at the park.

The older kids earn their junior ranger badges from the Olympic National Park Headquarters in Port Angeles.

After adding Olympic National Park to their list of junior ranger badges, we stopped at Safeway, where Jenny went in to get a few supplies.  We listened to Adventures in Odyssey while we waited and the radio once she got back to the RV.  We may have also left the lights on, but the engine was not running.  When I turned the engine, it wouldn't turn over.  

The bells rang in the courthouse bell tower while we waited in the Safeway parking lot in Port Angeles.

Frustrated, I pulled out the jumper cables and found a man who was sitting in his Class-A, asking if he could help.  There wasn't enough room to pull his coach around to jump the car, but he said that his wife would be there soon in the car and she could jump us.  After waiting for ten minutes, I gave it another try and the engine hesitated but started.  I thanked the man for his time.

Finally leaving Port Angeles around 10am, we drove the 101 toward Forks, stopping at Lake Crescent to get a few pictures.  It was an amazing drive with spectacular views of mountains in the temperate rain forest.  Before reaching Forks, I saw the sign for LaPush, so I drove us toward Jacob's home.  Passing the treaty line, we knew we were safe from vampires but had no assurances about werewolves.  

Stopping for pictures at the picturesque First Beach in La Push

All silliness aside, we passed Beach 3 and Beach 2 without any change in the vegetation.  Nothing around us would have given us any suspicion that the world's largest body of water was only a mile from us.  But as we turned a corner and just before we reached the town of La Push, which is on a reservation, we saw waves crashing onto rocky islands jutting out of the water, the first view of the ocean since a rainy day in Whittier early last month.

On our way out of La Push, we decided to check out whether Beaches 2 and 3 were as amazing as Beach 1 in town.  Beach 2 didn't have enough free parking for our vehicle, but Jenny and I dismounted the RV at Beach 3 and, starting out on the trail that led to the beach, we passed four hikers.  They told us the beach was 1.4 miles.  We decided to walk up to the kiosk which told us exactly the same and that it was only .7 miles from Beach 2.

Four hitchhikers we drove several miles to a roadside restaurant on our way back to Forks, WA

Less than a mile down the road, we passed the same four hikers who were signaling their intention to hitch a ride.  Even though we never do anything in normal situations, Jenny and I both agreed that this was an ideal time to offer them a ride.  Their names were Drew, Travis, Mitch and Rachel.  They are cooks for a company that works inside the National Parks and one of them worked on top of Hurricane Ridge.  Our kids talked their ears off until we reached the first restaurant, which was at the boundary line, where we left them to grab a good meal.

Jenny and Rebekah stop for a picture at the sign for Forks.

Once in Forks, Jenny checked on the guided tours, but determined that they would take longer than we could feasibly afford to spend.  (Later, I saw that even the military rate for the guided tours was $35 for everyone seven and up, more than we could have possibly spent.)  

We walked into the Dazzled by Twilight store in downtown Forks and it was an amazing place.  They had all sorts of fun things for the kids to do.  Daniel was enthralled by the black-light room and Jacob's motorcycle.  The kids' enchantment of the store allowed Jenny and I the rare luxury of being able to actually look around without having to chase kids everywhere.  Having this luxury, we spent more time than we otherwise would have thought possible.  We pressed some pennies and bought a couple shirts and some postcards and bumper-stickers.

At the Twilight store in Forks, Daniel got his picture on Jacob's motorcycle.

Asking for a good place to eat, we stopped at a great pizza joint where Jenny wrote a few postcards, mailing them before we drove out of town.  Heading back into the National Park (as it covers some seashore as well as the mountains of the inland part of the peninsula) we stopped at a turnout that had easy access to the beach.  It was low tide, so there was a huge area for the kids to run around in the sand, completely deserted.

We stopped for a sunset stroll on the beach before jumping back in the RV and making a break for Oregon.

Heading back into the RV, we dusted the sand off everyone with diaper wipes and kept driving, stopping in Hoquiam for gas and Aberdeen for directions.  Driving on in the dark, we continued on across the Columbia River into Oregon, through the town of Astoria and past a couple of seaside towns (including one town called Seaside), finally settling at a small RV park in Cannon Beach, about 30 miles outside of Tillamook.

Wildlife count to date:  2 moose, 21 bears, 2 rabbits and 3 deer.