Still struggling with a cold’s aftermath so I’m feeling more tired that I might otherwise.
So, the day began slowly. We haven’t planned as much for the day as we have in the past.
The La Push Ocean Park Resort has gotten Internet and WiFi of a limited sort since I was last here two year ago. By that, I mean that they have WiFi broadcasting for the folks in the office and if the guests want to access it, they have to come over near the office to pick it up. This has worked OK for us so far but last night we discovered that it wasn’t working and when I requested that they reset their WiFi modem, it turned out that it is in the locked manager’s office and no one has the key until she returns. Bummer! All day today’s it’s been off and she may be back Sunday (tomorrow) but no one knows for sure.
After a good sleep in, I took my clothes down to the Quileutte Tribe’s general store where they have some coin-operated washers and dryers around the back and I did my laundry. This took $2 and about 2.5 hours. I spent a lot of the time sipping coffee, reading “OnThe Road” and sitting in the general store at a table in the center where everyone sits that wants to visit or pass time. I really like the small town homey feel of such places. If you send off friendly vibes, everyone accepts you and things go on much as they would if you weren’t there.
Colette, at one point, walked down to see me and see how I was doing. She’s been hanging out in the room reading.
I think some relaxed downtime is good for both of us. This trip, has been absolutely wonderful but it’s also been fairly non-stop moving from town to town or staying in folk’s homes and socializing. All of which we love but some quiet rest time has its place as well and that’s what La Push has been for us; three nights with only us out on the remote Washington coast in the Quiluette Tribe’s Ocean Park Resort at very nearly the end of the earth. No TV, no telephone, no radio and barely any Wifi. One small restaurant in town and for everything else, you have to go 14 miles up the road to Forks; population 3,000. Yep, that’s sounds good to me.
In the afternoon, we drove into Forks and got some lunch at the deli counter in the Thriftway store and then drove about 25 miles out to the Olympic National Park’s Hoh Rainforest. A magical place where they have 14 feet or better of rainfall a year as the winter storms sweep in off the North Pacific and dump their enormous loads of water against the western facing flanks of the Olympic Mountains of the Olympic Peninsula. Moss hangs from the trees in a deeply surreal manner and everything is alive with every possible shade of green the eye can see.
The ranger who took our money for admission asked me if I was 62 and I replied that I was 64. She said, this was my lucky day because for $10, she was going to sell me a senior pass to all the USA’s National Parks that’s good for life. And, it would also get the two of us in to the Hoh Rainforest for the day which would have been $15. Sweet. So now I have this little gem of a card in my wallet and we’ll probably use it a few more times before this trip’s over.
We took two of the loop trails and saw the Halls of Moss the the Spruce Loop. Interesting stuff that I’ve seen before but I always enjoy it and it was, of course, all new for Colette.
After that, it was back to Forks and then back to La Push where we arrived back to our room at late Twilight. Some organizing and some reading. Colette cooked us a Risotto with asparagus, broccoli and mushrooms. Yum. And then some granola, yogurt and cantaloupe bits for dessert. I washed up the dishes and we were done.
We’d been discussing how to organize the 2nd half of our trip. It’s pretty undefined once we finish in Vancouver, B.C. on December 13th and begin to head south again. She started working on a suggested itinerary which we’re going to tweak until we both agree that it’s optimal.
And now I’m typing up notes for this Blog. And that’s how it is on this 3rd of December, 2011 out on the western coast of the Olympic Peninsula. This is your correspondant, Dennis Gallagher, signing off for now.