From Sea to Shining Sea

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Today we toured through Olympic National Park, our sixth national park on the tour. This was my final national park before I head back to Maine on Sunday, but Kris still plans to hit a few more on her journey back to New England. Olympic NP is in the Northwest corner of Washington on the opposite side of Pugeut Sound as Seattle. We took a ferry early in the morning over to the peninsula and began working our way around the park. The park has high glaciated mountains, the biggest being Mount Olympus in the middle of the park. We finally could see some snow capped mountains in Washington today including Mt. Rainier from our ferry boat ride. Olympic also has two temperate rain forests that receives over 140 inches per year. The western part of the park hugs the coastline and offers some spectacular views of the rocky coast including the famous haystacks. Haystacks are created when the main land gets separated from ocean currents to pieces near the coast. These pieces are still in the form of long rocky spires, but are no longer attached to the main land created tall islands that look like haystacks of rock. I wish I could describe them better, but you'll just have to check out the pictures and the latest video on my school web page. (www.yorkschools.org/~elawson and click "Where in the USA?")

I loved Olympic National Park and I was very glad to have caught the sunset on the western coast. In fact, we ate at a wonderful restaurant right in the park on the water. Our table was against the window watching the sun set into the ocean. Kris and I split a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington and some local crab crakes. For dinner I had the mushroom, pepper and goat cheese strudel. It was a wonderful meal and a breathtaking view. A perfect ending to my trip from the east coast to the west coast.

Tomorrow we will visit Seattle one more time and then I'll be back in Maine on Sunday evening. It has been a great vacation. I have seen a lot of this beautiful country and will certainly make plans to come back to many of them. The foods, sights and especially the friendly people that we have encountered along the way have made this one of the best trips I have ever taken. I'm anxious to get back home, but I truly had a wonderful time touring the country on this road trip.

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Comments

[Aunt Kathy]

Your Trip
Thanks for interesting blogs. Am jealous. Description of haystacks was perfect; reminds me of hoodoos in Canadian Rockies, but in water. Hope you have a safe trip home. Anxious to see Kris tonight in Nashville.

[Lawson]

Sea Stacks
They did remind me a bit of the hoodoos in Banff just carved from the water instead of the wind. I hope you, Lisa, Nicole and Kris have a good week in Nashville.