DAY-25 Hemp, Olympics, Apples & Ferries; This Must Be Washington

Day-25: Sunday, September 27, 2015

Starting Location: Red Lion Inn, Port Angeles, WA

Interim Location: Olympic National Park, WA

Ending Location: Best Western, Mount Vernon, WA

So the Red Lion Inn shampoo and conditioner is described as "Hemp & Lemon", should I be concerned about drug sniffing dogs, could my Navy career be over (how forgetful of me, it is over), if I use this stuff will I have "high" hair?

We skipped breakfast, perhaps a first for this trip, what will we do?

In The Red Lion Parking Lot
"Would a car like this get you free beer for life?"

After check out we went over to the Olympic National Park visitor center located in Port Angeles. As usual we stamped the parks book and bought a few souvenir cards. We then proceeded uphill for 17 miles to Hurricane Ridge, the heart of the mountain section of Olympic National Park. Along the way we had viewpoints looking into the farming valley and out to Puget Sound. Mount Baker was in the distance. Wildlife for the day while in the park was limited to a few deer both along the roadway and at the ridge top visitor center.

Mount Baker "Sandwich" (about 70 miles away)
(Okay, it's two trees with the mountain in between like a sandwich,
the trees being the bread and the mountain being the peanut butter,
ham, turkey or whatever you use to make the sandwich or an Oreo,
the trees as the chocolate wafers and the mountain as the cream filling.) 

From Hurricane Ridge you can see over to Mount Olympia as well as Mount Carrie to name another. Cascading down from the latter is the Carrie Glacier, just to the west of the Blue Glacier. Of course mankind is ruining these glaciers by perpetuating the need for carbon fuels and causing the disproportionate rise in carbon dioxide levels (or so the signage insinuates).

Park service employing the locals (the deer) for
presentations and customer service.

Carrie Glacier (on the right)

Once back downhill we moved on to Chimacum, WA home of the Finnriver Orchard.

We had eagerly anticipated this side trip expecting a cornucopia of fresh farm products, cider and apple laced pastries as well. So it turns out there are laws prohibiting or at least discouraging the manufacture of "hard" cider and "soft" cider in the same facility. Apparently Finnriver has opted for the "hard" variety and the offerings of the day were either Peach or Pear. Don't be confused, it was still apple cider but like wine being simply grape juice aged and flavored, so is the "hard" cider, basically apple cider infused with sour peaches and sweet pears. There was a small farm plot to see but the many warning signs basically said "keep out". They did have rows of very unusual apples, many heirloom stocks some dating back into the early 19th century in England. Turned out that today was a festival day at the cidery so we hung out listening to a music combo and having pizza with our cider. The pizza was good but I'm not much into the cider. Even though it wasn't what we expected, the side trip was good in that it was different and made for a good people watching opportunity.

The Pollinators

Pear "Cider" on the left & Peach "Cider" on the right

Country Crow

Washington Peanuts

Pepperoni Pizza "Nice, thin crust."

We moved on to Kingston, WA where we took a ferry to Edmond, WA. The 30-minute trip at a cost of $16 even with the hour wait, cuts off about 80 miles for driving to get across the sound and north of Seattle. Once in Edmond we made our way to Mount Vernon our jumping off point for tomorrow's trip to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

Mount Rainier

We stayed at the Best Western in Mount Vernon and as dusk approached headed outside to personally witness the "blood moon" and lunar eclipse. As predicted, the moon rose above the mountains and after a few not so focused photos we returned inside and watched the end of the Sunday night football game before calling it a day.

Blood Moon/Lunar Eclipse 2015
Next occurrence 2033