Touching the Pacific

Being my first time on the Pacific Coast, of course I had it on my agenda to "touch" the Pacific ocean.  From Port Angeles we made the drive up the coast to Forks, WA - no I'm not a Twilight fan.  I actually never knew the novels took place there until I was there.  Locals kept asking us, "are you here for the vampire book?"  What? I thought to myself.  We happened to be there on the weekend of the "Twilight high school dance" - a dance for fans at the actual high school.  We saw shuttle bus after shuttle bus and tons of sign-age, including one that said "Vampires Welcome."  I still haven't read any of the books or watched the movies.

One of my favorite things about Washington state was all their little coffee "huts."  They don't have Dunkin Donuts every few miles like we do, in fact they just have little coffee shacks with private owners and cute drive thrus.  I loved Tully's coffee and had the best bagels I've ever had - they were monster sized.  Enough for breakfast and lunch.  Oh - and their cups are totally compost able.

Here is a picture of Crescent Lake again on the way to Forks:

Forks, WA not only is the home of Twilight but is also the logging capital of the WORLD.  Really, the world.  

So finally, here is the Pacific ocean!

Scary thought!

So on our last night in Washington we went out to eat and try...dungeness crab!  I had an Alaskan Amber beer with my dinner, I love trying brews from different places.  At another restaurant I had tried a local porter that was delicious.  I wish I could remember what kind it was!  When we were at dinner we listened to the radio for the first time and found out that both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett passed away.  Crazy things happen when you don't listen to the news for days!

Our last day there we spent time in our campground saying bye to Mama Cat and her kittens.  She had made a home for them underneath our cabin and we became friends.

She was really cute and her babies were too!  There were three little black kittens but 

they were very camera shy.  No kitties like flash very much!

In town we went to the Port Angeles Aquarium.  The girl working there was very knowledgeable, especially on the differences of species in the Pacific versus the Atlantic.  Here are some awesome sea stars there: