Spring Break!

It finally arrived-- a few days off of school and a trip to the great outdoors. The theme for this trip: chasing waterfalls. 

We started off the trip immediately upon my parent's arrival from Missoula. We dined at Boom noodle at U Village followed by a yummy stop at Molly Moon's ice cream. Yum!
 

 We woke the next morning for a walk with Peyton in Magnuson Park and then, of course, we just had to fuel up for the road trip to the Hood Canal. :) I wanted some eggs AND french toast. They wouldn't make just one slice of french toast, so I ordered both entree's to split with mom--but it looked like I was a pig since this was my plate:

 And this was my mom's plate:

 We drove down through Tacoma and we just couldn't pass Tacoma without a quick pit stop for some delicious chai at Bertolino's.

 When we arrived at our cabin on the Hood canal we were greeted by gorgeous, sunshine views of the canal!

 Peyton didn't hesitate to hit the beach and dive straight in for a swim.

 Then, our trip was somewhat complicated by tom's need for internet access to complete some statistical work for his boss. We ended up hitting the road to scavenge for free Wifi and happened upon a nursery that provided some. The boys set up camp with the laptops and mom and I wandered through their luxurious display gardens. Mom fell in love with the size of this rhodi!

 After a long search for wifi (which ended up not being helpful for Tom and ended up getting my parent's phones hacked by someone on the free wifi network) we landed in a local tavern named the Geoduck. They were famous for their burgers and we found out why. Look at the size of that thing! (Oh- and many people have wondered how dad got that Irish lady into his glass :).

 Tom's burger was also just as big.

 Look at the size of the hamburger bun!

 Now that we had eaten our weight in burgers, we were ready to start chasing waterfalls. Thanks to mom being perspicacious when browsing a Sunset magazine, she learned that there is a whole "waterfall trail" that you can see for yourself here: http://www.olympicpeninsulawaterfalltrail.com/. We started our hunt at the Murhut Falls. This was the only falls that actually required some sort of hike--just a quick 0.8 miles in and we were there!

 Here we are making it look extra strenuous but it was such a pleasant little jaunt through the woods.

 And at the end, we enjoyed an amazingly robust falls.

 And, what would some forest-time be without discoveries of some of the biggest leaves we've ever seen?

 Our next "hike" led us to this falls. We were shocked (and nearly missed the turn-off 3 times) because this "Rocky Brook Falls" was just off the side of the road behind a water power plant that looked abandoned. We were amazed as we walked a mere 200 yards to find this beauty awaiting us!

 

 The setting was gorgeous and we just couldn't help but feel baffled by how close it was to the road!

 We also found some of the tiniest pine cones I've ever seen!

 Our next falls--which I think was called Fall's View Falls was gorgeous but great distance away--this was the closest we got to seeing it.

 We loved seeing all the deciduous trees covered in moss -- even though the tree might be dying from it, it sure was pretty to look at.

 Once again, we were ready to check out the local cuisine around Brinnon, WA. However, by the time we were ready for dinner (around 6:30 PM) everything we came across was closed! We were "night owls" in this town! We ended up calling this place: Logger's Landing at 6:45 PM and we were told that they closed at 7 PM. We were about a 15 minute drive away so we asked them if we could sneak in or if they wouldn't be willing to stay. At which point the hostess said "No, we like money, come on over."

 Tom then informed the waitress that we were 15 minutes away at which point she said "well, ya better hurry up!" and she hung up. So, we raced up there just in time to get a meal.

 The next day we were on the trail again for a few more waterfalls. I think this is Vincent falls.

 We had to hop over a guard rail and down a little bit in order to see it but it was worth it.

 The photos don't do it justice-but we had to raise our voices to hear each other over the falls!

 We had parked just past that bridge up there and then walked back down the road and down the side of the hill to snag this view.

 While there we ended up in and out of a rain cloud but when it cleared up these mountains were a gorgeous backdrop for us.

 The water was so blue in all of the streams, just beautiful.

 While en route to our falls we pushed the limits of the gas tank. The gas light came on as we were on our way up to the falls. We thought we only had to go about 6 miles up so we thought we'd be ok...well, it turns out we had to go about 13 miles up and then when we got back down we would still have to go another 13+ miles to the next main town for gas. But, we decided to push it and ended up putting it in neutral for most of the way down to save every last drop. Once we got back down to the main road we were happily surprised to see that there was a gas station only 4 miles away....sadly, it was closed. We had to press on another 5 miles and made it to the Lilliwaup general store. We were never so happy to see expensive gas before!

 And once we filled up with gas we decided to catch some Mexican grub at this little family owned place.

 Mom and dad concurred: the margaritas were good!

 Our last falls we visited I can't remember the name of but we had to cross a small bridge that the website I have a link for above called a "vertigo-inducing bridge." It's nearly 400 feet up above this gorge. Beautiful--but definitely HIGH!

 The sun was shining so bright that you can't really appreciate how great the falls were but you can imagine (and I wasn't complaining that the sun was shining).

 Peyton needed more of walk after the day of driving around to catch falls so we took another little jaunt up to Lake Cushman for a swim. I caught her in the act of shaking off :)

 It was gorgeous but WINDY!

 The drift wood/logs made for a great playground.

 And, as if we had not had enough to eat yet, we stopped by for some yummy ice cream.

 Back at home we settled in for a night of card games, laundry, star gazing and roasted marshmallows by the fire. Dad didn't bring a wine opener, so like usual, he crafted one from a table knife, a screw and a weird gizmo found in the kitchen utensil drawer.

 we played Rook and my mom and I took down the boys -- I think that's a first.

 On our last day we took the scenic route back to Seattle by going up through Port Townsend and back down again through Kingston. We were happy to discover a huge antique store in Port Townsend.

 Then we checked out the Fort Worden on the point and the old lighthouse.

 The views were fabulous and we felt so lucky to have blue skies and sun even if it was windy.

 The architecture was beautiful. After a nice lunch at the Waterfront Pizza we had one more stop to make before our trip was complete.

 We rounded off the trip at Velocity coffee shop--the highest ranked coffee shop in Port Townsend for a couple of "bee stings"  - espresso, vanilla, honey, milk and a dash of cinnamon. I don't drink coffee but the smell of these things tempted me.

Now, I'm back in the library trying to get some work done that I had been neglecting for the past 5 days. Our professors have already emailed out the course syllabi and the "homework assignments" for day 1 of class are already on my "to-do list" along with a whole list of other things. So, I think it's back to the grind (almost). We feel so loved, spoiled and refreshed to face it all again. Thanks mom and dad for the amazing get-away. As we settle in for the last quarter of the year, I know it's going to fly by and May will be here before we know it!