@zipyourlips - we will be driving back to Seattle from the Olympic National Park. We are heading over there on Friday - it’s going to be a long day; driving back to Victoria, then taking the ferry to Port Angeles. We are staying in Sequim and will use that as a base to exploring the park.
@teriwtt pls feel free to post your stories here. Flew into Seattle yesterday and raised the window shade just in time to see an incredible view of Mt Rainier. So amazing.
Drove the Chuckanut route and had a nice lunch at Chuckanut Manor outside on the water.
Our hotel is right where the airplanes take off, and it’s really cool to watch them.
Our waiter at Cactus Club cafe was so friendly last night and wrote down some good tips for things to do and other restaurants. Again had an amazing water view for the meal. With wine, our meal was $116, but when we asked about exchange rate they said they would accept $100 U.S…
Looking forward to Stanley Park today.
Yes, that view of Rainier is pretty remarkable from the air; you get a real sense of exactly how big it is.
Yum… you ate at Cactus Club. We really enjoyed it!
On a spur of the moment yesterday, we decided to do a bear watching boat tour in the afternoon (after some hiking in the morning), which initially I wasn’t too excited about, but it ended up being so cool! The boat takes you about 30 minutes up in the safe passages at low tide - that’s when the black bears come down and roll over the rocks to look for tiny crabs to eat. We saw at least four adult bears, including two mommas with two and three cubs each. Also saw a harbor seal and watched a bald eagle soar above us for a bit, looking for a fish, then diving down not far from us, grabbing it, and taking it off to eat somewhere.
Just arrived in Sequim, WA tonight (we learned it’s pronounced Squim on the ferry ride). Absolutely LOVE our VRBO, even though it’s dark and we can’t see anything; but I can tell in the morning we’re going to have some incredible views.
Spent the day driving back to Victoria, then did Butchart Gardens; then walked around the harbor area for a bit while waiting for our ferry.
I just can’t believe how lucky we’ve been with the weather. This morning when we got up, we had a few raindrops as we left Tofino, then just a few as we got off the ferry at Port Angeles. They are calling for rain on and off tomorrow here in the Olympic National Park, but we are prepared. Sunday is supposed to be better. I do realize we’ve been very, very fortunate with the weather.
Hope the high winds and rain do not negatively affect your plans, all! Stay safe.
Waves to Teri.
BB - well, they affected everyone’s plans! It’s been an interesting day, for sure.
No one can be prepared for what happened today. It was unbelievable. It rained early this morning, but by the time we got up and saw our view for the first time from our rental, it was absolutely beautiful (looking out across Sequim Bay), so we couldn’t understand what everyone was warning us about. But at one point, while we were getting ready, I said to H, “It looks like it’s raining outside.” But I wasn’t standing at the window and the skies were still mostly blue. I just saw stuff falling from the sky and thought it was rain since that what they were predicting.
In hindsight, now I know what was falling was dead pine needles, and I’m not sure how far they must have blown in from because it really wasn’t windy at our rental.
Anyway, we drove to the park information center at Port Angeles, and were basically told as we walked in, pretty much all the major roads into the park are closed due to high winds. They’re evacuating people at almost every camp ground, and many of the roads into the park have trees across them, so even if you want to risk it, you really can’t get in. And she had a live weather cam and when we saw Hurricane Ridge, it looked horrible. We asked about all Hoh Rain Forest, La Push, etc., and were told people were being evacuated along the west side of the peninsula along the beaches, and Hoh had trees laying across the road. But at the information station itself, it was still sunny, so we thought, we’ll at least drive down 101 to Lake Crescent, just for a look, then see how the weather is like over that way and decide if we just want to do a little car scenery trip further. Ha! Between Port Angeles and Lake Crescent we started seeing all kinds of debris on the road - tons of dead pine needles, small twigs off of pine trees as well as other trees, and some larger branches lying on the side of the road. And when we rounded the second curve at the lake, we saw tons of white caps and 2-3’ swells! There was also a smaller tree (probably only 20" diameter, but 25-30’ tall), which had fallen across the road, but had not reached the road because it was so close to the guardrail that it was basically leaning across the road (about three lanes of traffic) where the guardrail had kept it from falling all the way down. So we figured we were getting into some nasty stuff. We found a pull-off very quickly, but noticed other people who had gotten out of their cars were fighting some serious wind. H did get out for about 15 seconds, but got back in quickly and said it was too nasty (it really wasn’t raining too much, though). We took a different road back, just for different scenery, and the debris was unbelievable. Dozens of times he had to swerve into the oncoming lane to avoid running over a large branch on the road - luckily it was a very rural road with a low speed limit, and we saw less than a handful of cars coming our way. Getting back on 101, we headed back toward Sequim, and about 20 minutes away, he noticed his reading glasses had been blown off his shirt where he hangs them.
As got back to Port Angeles, then Sequim, it was sunny again, and not really windy, so we thought we’d try a place on the east side (Falls View). Within ten miles of reaching it, we started noticing all kinds of debris on the road again - LOTS of dead pine needles, as well as small twigs on the road, and larger branches on the side of the road. We made it to Falls View, walked the 30 or so yards to see the falls, and decided it wasn’t worth it to do the trail - the campground only had one family still remaining - all the other spots had cleared out. As we then headed back up toward Sequim again, we saw the rain was starting to follow us further north, and decided to call it quits and come back to the rental, and try again tomorrow. When we got back here, the lovely view I had this morning had been replaced by cloudy gray skies and a light rain. It’s still 98% more beautiful than anything I’d see near home, so I’m not complaining. I still need to upload my photos from Butchard Gardens yesterday.
Oh, when we were driving back to Sequim from Falls View, a snow plow was ahead of us, clearing the debris from the road - I guess that’s how they do it here! And it explained why we saw more debris on the shoulders of the roads, as opposed to on the road.
I also started getting notifications from VanCity Buzz on Facebook about Vancouver, and as of a couple of hours ago, they closed Stanley Park due to so many trees being down. Large portions of Vancouver are without power, and I saw so many pictures of huge trees that were toppled over, across roads. The ranger at the park information center said winds had been recorded at 90 mph across the west coat and mountains. We just hope the damage isn’t too significant to keep us out of Hurricane Ridge tomorrow. I guess we won’t be doing the Hoh Rain Forest - it’ll be too much to cram both into one day and we leave Monday.
I checked the weather at Whistler, and they don’t seem to be getting the damaging winds we have here, and that are present in Vancouver. At least there, if the weather doesn’t cooperate, it’s not too bad walking around Whistler Village, etc., where there are some things to do.
Wow! All we had in Whistler yesterday was rain, at times rather heavy. No wind really. We decided to work out at the hotel and did a nice spa day. Walked around the village in the afternoon, then napped and went out to dinner later. Had no idea of the violent weather elsewhere. Today looks partly cloudy at present. DH wants to do peak to peak gondola if the weather cooperates. Clouds are very low, however, so I’m skeptical.
@teriwtt, sounds like your trip was the perfect combo of adventure, good weather, rain, and down time.
Our goals were to get out of the Texas heat, relax, pamper, and just chill. So our trip did live up to that. However, we did get pretty unlucky with the weather, which had we been stoked for lots of outdoor activities, we would have been really disappointed. Our first 3 days were lovely, but the last 3 were rainy, gray, and pretty chilly. We were glad to have fireplaces in our hotel rooms!
From what we heard, they hadn’t had rain in this region since May, so they really REALLY needed it, and boy did they get it. We’ve lived through drought and wildfires here in Texas (our lake house neighborhood was hit really hard, though our street was spared), so we were actually happy for them.
Vancouver:
Thanks to @zipyourlips for the Chuckanut drive suggestion from the Seattle airport. That was worth the extra minutes it took!
In re-reading my earlier post, I see that I wasn’t clear that when I said our room looked out onto the airport, I meant the WATER AIRPORT. Lol. Those airplanes take off from and land right on the water, and they looked really cool. They serve to provide air tours and actual transportation to various island destinations, and I never got tired of watching them.
Our view of the water and mountains at the Pan Pacific hotel (thanks, @Magnetron) was incredible.
We really liked Vancouver, and we took advice given by @teriwtt, @MomofWildChild, and @nottelling and did a wonderful 1.5 hour bike ride through Stanley Park and along the waterfront. That was one of the most fun bike rides ever. We also took a horse/carriage ride through the park and learned a little of its history.
We ate every meal at restaurants with water views. I just couldn’t get enough of the water/mountain thing they have going on. Everywhere we went, people mentioned my accent and asked where we were from. When I said Texas, they’d reply “thought so!” Many of them were surprised to find out that we get “Love it or List it, Too” in Dallas and that it would have sparked the desire to come see their city. Very friendly people!
The Sea to Sky highway has some of the most incredible, spectacular scenery I’ve ever seen! BC is just beautiful and the ocean and streams have a beautiful color. After the rains hit, the rivers were a milky, almost green color, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. They were raging with all of the rainfall coming down from the mountains. We stopped at Shannon Falls and Brandywine falls and just marveled at the black rock and beautiful foliage everywhere.
Whistler:
The Four Seasons Whistler is a quiet resort. Thanks to @alwyasamom for that suggestion. We stepped into the Fairmont and saw that it seems much bigger, busier and livelier, with a lot more young children than at the Four Seasons. Very nice looking resort. At the Four Seasons, we booked a suite with mountain views and a fireplace, and enjoyed the two full baths!
We did the spa thing when the rain hit, but were still able to explore the “village” during lulls. The farmer’s market was cool, with lots of unusual ethnic foods available at the various stands. The temps were in the 50s, which was heaven to us. Unfortunately, the rain and low clouds made the Peak to Peak not worth the trouble. DH was bummed, but I admit to feeling a tinge of relief even while experiencing vicarious regret for DH. We talked to a guy who had gone ahead and done it, and he said that he got some incredible views of absolutely nothing! I wasn’t interested in mountain biking in torrential rain, but I noticed LOTS of young guys coming back from their rides, all muddy, but smiling and happy, so it’s still possible to do lots of outdoor things even in inclement weather, if you are the determined and athletic type.
It was pouring on the way back to Seattle, but we still enjoyed the drive. Thanks to Teriwtt’s warning about the Lion’s Gate Bridge, we went over to another bridge called the Ironworker’s Memorial bridge and zipped right over into Vancouver. We took @BunsenBurner’s advice and ate lunch at Anthony’s in Bellingham, and then got into the city in time to enjoy the Pike Place market. I got some video of the guys at the fish market throwing the fish back and forth and putting on a show. We had a delicious dinner at the ocean front restaurant in our hotel (the Edgewater). I totally splurged and had lobster macaroni and cheese, which was sinfully good. Reality TV star Kendra Wilkinson and her husband Hank came in and ate two tables over from us. After seeing all their commercials where she was screaming at him for some reason, we were surprised to see them acting normal and pretty affectionate. I texted D2 and she responded back with the snippet from the commercials we must have seen a hundred times: “The Devil has eaten your soul! Rise up! Rise up!” Pretty funny. I found Seattle to be a really pretty city and envy @emeraldkity4, @BunsenBurner, and you other Seattle area people for getting to live in such a lovely place.
The trip was over before we even knew it. It was fun in spite of the weather, but created a desire to come back and do more of a Teriwtt trip next time, if we can get some decent weather. It was hard to come home to temps in the 90’s.
Thanks to all who helped out!
It was just fascinating to be in one, and really, not much of a different feeling than the couple of times I’ve been in four-seaters that take off and land from regular runways. Even after we had our ride to and from the hot springs, whenever we were near a harbor or dock and saw one coming in or landing, I’d always have to stop and watch it. I really realized how much seaplanes are a way of life up there.
I will say, when I went back and looked at my video from our take offs and landings, take off was as smooth as a baby’s bottom, but landing was a tiny bit bumpy - you can tell how the camera shakes just a tad.
Regarding weather, it was cool at home while we were gone, and as soon as we returned, the temps have been hitting the 90s. Oh, well!
The day we went up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park and hiked to Hurricane Hill (5,757 ft.) for a 360° view, it was cold at the top… probably 45° or colder. We only stayed up there about 5-10 minutes because we didn’t have any gloves or hats (we were in long pants and had lighter jackets on, but it was work climbing up that 1.5 miles!) And stupid me, I didn’t want to put my hands in my jacket pockets because otherwise my FitBit wouldn’t register all those steps! That was the one day I went over 100 flights of steps.
Where did you end up staying in Tofino, Teri?
Middle Beach Lodge… and it was a nice place (beautiful location and main lodge), but I would have preferred just a bit more room to spread out in, and a tad bit closer to town.
However, last night I did some looking around on VRBO, and now that I know the area, I would feel very comfortable going back and staying in a house. I found a few right on Tonquin Beach.
Oh, hope I didn’t steer you wrong! We stayed at the Wickainnish (sp?) (“Wick”) Inn on one trip and at Middle Beach Lodge on another when the Wick Inn unexpectedly closed because of a water rationing issue. Totally different ends of the spectrum - - Wick Inn is luxury and Middle Beach Lodge was rustic but we loved both and loved the natural beauty of both sites. And the lodge at Middle Beach Inn was great! We were only there for 3 nights each trip so didn’t miss proximity to town.
Did you check out the Wickainnish Inn when you were there? It is also a bit outside of town but such an amazing (but expensive) property.
@nottelling, I tried to book the Wickainnish Inn for our trip, but it was booked. Maybe next time!
@nottelling - Oh, no… the Middle Beach Lodge was great - we didn’t realize when we booked it, but they offered a continental breakfast every morning, so we barely used the kitchen in our room. Every night we’d go over to the lodge with our laptops and hang out there waiting for the sun to set, then we’d take a bunch of pictures, and then go back to our room. The only reason I said I would consider a VRBO next time is because the staff at the Middle Beach Lodge was very helpful in steering us in the right direction whenever we had questions about activities. They helped us book our seaplane ride to the hot springs as well as directed us on the kind of trails we wanted to hike, but we wouldn’t really need that kind of service in the future. I liked the idea that in the evening, people would just go hang out in the lodge because it was so comfortable and had such great views. They do offer dinner there five nights a week, but we chose to eat out in Tofino every night and ate at some outstanding restaurants. On our fifth night, we went back to our favorite. But it always involved a drive back into town, and if we stayed at one of the VRBOs I saw, we could walk into town easily. But getting a VRBO on a first trip with no knowledge of the area is more of a challenge, so we needed to stay at a hotel/lodge. And I would recommend it to people.
Our biggest frustration was that we had no wifi access in our room - we were too far away. So the Tofino part of the trip turned into more of an ‘off-the-grid’ sort of trip, which ended up being a very good thing. I would only turn my phone on a couple of times a day long enough to see if I had any messages. I don’t think we even turned on the TV the entire time we were there.
Yes, we did drive back into the Wickaninnish Inn property just to get a look see. From the outside it just didn’t look all that different, but I believe you that it was different. We talked about making a reservation to go over there for dinner one night, but we found such great places in town that we just wanted to eat at those places. And we didn’t need to make reservations. We were always able to be seated when we arrived - and each night it was different depending on what activities we’d been doing that day. In fact, someone mentioned dinner at the Middle Beach Lodge (which they do five nights a week), but we preferred to go into town and walk around.
I do think if we go again, we would travel there differently - fly into Vancouver and take a smaller airline and fly directly to Tofino and rent our car there. We did like the drive from Nanaimo to Tofino, then back to Victoria, but we’ve done it once now, and would make more efficient use of our time by flying in/out of Tofino, although I remember someone saying that those flights can get unpredictable depending on the weather. We loved the part of the drive, particularly between Pt. Alberni and Tofino - beautiful scenery!
But as Nrdsb4 says - the Sea to Sky highway route is just breathtaking. I kind of felt bad having H drive, while I got to do most of the looking around. I just didn’t want it to end, but it does change a bit at Squamish.
So glad you enjoyed your trips, Teri and Nrdsb4!
So happy that you both enjoyed my beautiful country! What a great time to visit, too, when the U.S. $ is worth so much here. 