The Sweet Things In Life Include Lavender Cookies

  Sequim, Washington, United States
Monday, June 22, 2009

I sat on the balcony this morning and watched a tiny little harbor boat push a huge freighter out to sea. It was just unbelievable. The water in the harbor must be very, very deep to handle ships this large. I also spent more time being extremely curious about the marine animals swimming around in the bay. Kip finally spotted it today (so I was relieved to know I'm not just seeing things...) and has suggested it might be a sea otter. Could be. We debated that and any number of other topics while enjoying a leisurely balcony picnic involving left over pizza, duck, and pad Thai in a cup. Our one plastic fork broke early in the mission so it became an adventure in creative eating.

Rows of Lavendar at the Farms in Sequim

By late morning, after we'd reviewed our emails and made a number of work-related phone calls, we were ready to go exploring. We drove to nearby Sequim (which we learned is apparently pronounced, "Skwim") and visited three lavender farms. We were a wee bit early for full bloom (the Sequim Lavender Festival occurs next weekend), but the farms were still lovely to see and the gift shops had the market cornered on great smells. I bought teas and peppers and sachets and lemonades and a variety of other purple goodies. This would also be where we bought the totally amazing lavendar cookies with oatmeal and white chocolate. I didn't take a picture of them before they were consumed. I'm so ashamed of myself.

One of the Wineries We Visited

On the way back from Sequim, (and after more email and work calls) we decided to stop at two wine tasting shops. Olympic Cellars had good wine and featured, "The Working Girl" labels and artwork. Very amusing. I picked my mom up a neat sussy from here. Our favorite of the two was, however, Harbinger Winery. The guy working there was funny and friendly and we had a great time tasting the variety of wines he offered. We enjoyed their "table white" variety and I was particulary keen about their Raspberry Bliss dessert wine. They feature local artists on their labels and we had a nice time talking about the paintings of Santorini, Greece on display by one of their artists. Before leaving, we purchased a brick of Washington-made salmon and sharp cheddar cheese to enjoy later.

In a crazy fit of spontaneity, we decided to spend our last afternoon before the conference back upon Hurricane Ridge. We drove through a greasy-spoon hamburger joint called, "Frugals" for oh-so-yummy mushroom and swiss burgers, french fries and the magical, "fry sauce" and enjoyed the lot of it as we drove back into Olympic National Park.

Tall Trees in the Clouds On Hurricane Ridge

It was a particularly cloudy, foggy day, so the first part of our drive was amazingly different than it had been just two days previous. Being in the clouds is pretty, but also eerie and a little lonely feeling. We stopped at Switchback Trail and decided to hike up the mountainside a ways. The mist on the trees and moss made the sights just beautiful and, eventually, we broke out of the clouds and into breath-taking, sun-lit vistas overlooking the mountains and valleys below. Somewhere in the distance we could hear an elk calling, but Kip wasn't keen on my trying to imitate the call (given the previous woodpecker experience) so we walked on. We spent about an hour on the hike and even took a bit of video above the clouds.

Like Climbing To Heaven

Once we reached the Hurricane Ridge peak, we took another hiking trail and saw a lot more black-tail deer roaming about. We even had a close encounter with one in the snow-covered woods.

View from A Hiking Trail Atop Hurricane Ridge

We marveled at the old ski-lift station atop the ridge and enjoyed the amazing views as the sun began to settle into early evening. The experience really made me want to visit the Alps someday, as I feel certain the sights would be equally, if not more, awe inspiring.

Back in Port Angeles, I collapsed on the couch while Kip snuggled into the hot tub for a bit. It was a great vacation! Tomorrow, we head for Seattle and the CAPLAW conference.