THE WILD TOWN OF FORKS, WA

Its 0600 and we're waking up after a late night on the town in Forks, WA; it entailed eating dinner at one of three restaraunts the town has to offer and driving to the beach to watch the sun go down. Yep, we're out of control and don't know how to handle ourselves in big city! ;)

Flashing back though, yesterday was quite some day. After getting our fill of Seattle's Pikes Place Market and tipping back a couple cups of coffee (Allen, in response to your question, black for me and latte w/ skim for Amy) at the first Starbucks ever, we drove down to the docks and pulled onto a ferry to cross Puget Sound. Following the crossing we drove off the boat and headed north until we hit highway 101. This was a momentus occassion for us as we'll be on this road more or less for the rest of the trip until we hit San Diego.

About halfway through our trip and after the megametropolis of Sequim--where thanks to Amy's charm we were lucky enough to talk our way into a lunch table at the world renowned "Gwennies"--we made it to the road that would take us up Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Forest. It was/is something else. Breathtaking vistas and a drive with no guardrails that makes you grip the steering wheel a bit tighter on the way up (and down as it turns out). (http://www.nps.gov/olym/)

After making it to the bottom we continued our trek west to our predesignated waypoint at the Misty Valley Inn Bed and Breakfast (http://www.mistyvalleyinn.com/). After checking in and spending about half an hour with the owner/operators we headed into town for a bite to eat and to find our way to the Pacific Ocean to watch a sunset. It was a hike to get to the beach and we were both beat by the time we got there (still feeling the effects of the three hour time difference) but... When we got to the water it was a beautiful rugged coast.

Now, its time to sign off and get moving again. Hopefully when we add an entry tomorrow morning we'll have some great stories about the Hoh Rain Forest (our planned activity for this morning after breakfast) and then we've got nothing but forward movement to Seaside, Oregon planned so... We'll see what the day has in store for us as we begin our movement out of Washington. BYE FOR NOW!!!

P.S. Justine, to respond to your blog comment... I think the nearest airport is the Quillayute Airport. Not sure of the flight schedules but they did say in 2002 they cleared MANY of the visual and physical obstructions so it should be good to go. The following link gets you to the website: http://www.forkswashington.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=9. Just let us know when you're arrive and we'll wait in the cell phone staging area until you give us a ring and we can swing by to pick you up.