Time to say goodbye to Seattle. We enjoyed the unexpected extra day there but its time to go. We got up early headed for Deer Park which included an optional and quicker trip on a ferry. This was a first for us but it was easy and fun. It was also interesting to see regular Seattlites on their morning ferry commute.
After disembarking we drove down the road and grabbed some coffee drinks at another one of those little stands you see everywhere in the Pacific Northwest. This one was called "Espresso Gone Wild" and was staffed by a lovely young woman in a bikini. (no comment). After getting caffeined up we headed to Port Angeles to obtain our permits for the following days campsite at Shi Shi beach as well as information about Deer Park. Deer park is a 17 mile drive which includes 7 miles of narrow gravel road with no guard rails and..........you guessed it.......steep cliffs on one side. Steph, being in the passenger seat and on the cliff side was not really having any of it. I remember once hearing "can we not just do something EASY for once???" No......no we cannot lol.
Would the trip to the top be worth it? Would there be any campsites left? Yes and yes. We found an absolutely beautiful campsite with a 180* view of the snowy olympic peaks. We spoke with a disappointed local who showed up later and said that we had the best site in the whole place. Lucky us.
With nothing really to do for a few hours we took the opportunity to lay around and be lazy. It was glorious. That evening we decided to go do the Rainshadow Loop which is a short 1/2 mile around the peak of Blue Mountain. Wow. You can see Vancouver Island, Victoria, Seattle, Vancouver and a number of mountain peaks from up there.
It was so cool that we decided to return for sunset where we were treated to what was EASILY one of the best sunsets of our lives. No words for this one.
We sat around the fire and watched the full moon come up before turning in for the night.
Sometime in the middle of the night I heard a rustling outside the tent. I peaked out the window and saw two doe munching on grass about 10 ft away. I woke Steph and told her to look outside her window. Tentatively she peeked out and saw a large buck right beside the tent. He was eating charcoal out of our fire pit. Each bite sounded like some cartoonishly crunchy apple he bit into. Yum-O. We conked right back out as soon as our heads hit the pillow.