Westport WA 1/24-26/2020

After finding out that some of my family members were planning a trip to the coast on my birthday weekend, Dave and I agreed that this would be an awesome opportunity to crash their clamming trip for some ocean and family time.  On Friday after work, we headed to Westport, WA.  We hadn't picked the destination and had never been there but my cousin recommended a dog friendly hotel, and we were up for the adventure.  We stayed at the Mariner's Cove Inn - it was not on the beach, but was dog friendly (for a fee), and the owner was really nice.  It was also pretty cute, with a stream flowing through the property, a covered bridge and lots of outside seating.  I should have taken some pictures of it.  I would stay there again - it was in a nice central location.

My birthday was on Saturday, and started with a nice early espresso from the Cptn Jack's Espresso, yum!  Then, as soon as it was light, Dave and I took the dogs to the Westport Lighthouse State Park.  They have a really nice paved trail through the dunes, with some social trails to the beach, little lookouts, benches and social trails into the woods/wetlands on the other side.  Lots of exploring is possible here.  We just walked down to the end of the paved trail and then back on the beach.  It was so fun!  Here are a ton of photos!

After that we went shopping downtown in some of the little gift shops and had a delicious breakfast at the Blue Buoy.  We could hear sea lions, but didn't see any - we did see this cute seal in the harbor.  I love that it is off season.  I don't love crowds.  I also loved that although it was supposed to be rainy and windy this weekend, it was just cloudy and mild.  We really lucked out and could spend almost all our time outside.

Another cool feature in this rustic little down is their aquarium.  The two docents working there, were incredibly knowledgeable and friendly.  They really made our visit there the best, since flood waters had clouded up the aquariums a little.  It was almost eerie seeing the cool local fishes swimming through the gloom.  The other cool thing was they allowed dogs in.  Cedar was more excited about trying the shrimp and small fishes they were feeding the resident fish (and we got to feed them too! it was fun!), but Luna actually looked into the aquariums at the fish and was interested in seeing them swimming.  Her favorites though were the 3 ducks that live at the aquarium.  She was polite to them, but I think she wanted me to let her in there with them haha.  I wish I had more photos of the aquarium too!

That night we went to the clamming beach while it was still light just to check it out, and I left my fanny pack on a bench at the parking lot there.  We realized it was missing when we got back to the hotel and drove back to the beach.  By then it was dark and we were trying to find two large trucks that were in the parking lot when we were - we drove down the beach where there were dozens of other vehicles driving and parking so the people could get out and go out into the wet sand at the edge of the waves to dig razor clams.  It was wild seeing all those lights bobbing around everywhere. Amazingly, Dave flagged down a ranger and the people had not only found the pack (which had in my money, ID, and credit card as well as my camera), but had turned it in!  It was such a relief and good ending to a nice day.  We found them and they tried to refuse a reward.

After the we ate delicious pizza and had a beer at Blackbeard's Brewing Company.  I had a really unique and yummy mead drink there instead of a beer.  It was a great ending to a really busy and fun day!

On Sunday we drove down the coast to Tokeland.  There we had breakfast at the Tokeland Hotel and Restaurant.  There were deer on their grounds and hummingbirds coming to their feeders.  Great and unique food!  Then it was time to check out the ocean one more time and part ways.  What an incredible weekend!

Double Bluff Offleash Beach Park 12-31-13

Today was a warm gray day but not raining and a perfect day for a beach walk.  Cedar and I got on a ferry to Whidbey Island and headed for Double Bluff.  I was hoping to see seals, sealions, eagles, herons and whales, and much to my surprise saw everything but the whales! 
Walking for an hour along the bluff watching wildlife and beachcombing with the waves lapping the shore I didn't want to turn around and go back.

There was all sorts of interesting flotsam on the beach.  Cedar and I had fun with the set of stairs we found.  I dragged them over to a log and then he tried them out.

I'm not sure how many eagles we saw.  At least 3.  The most interesting thing was that one of them was carrying a stick in its talons.  I guess they work on their nests in the winter! 

There were a few sand dollars on the beach.  I only saw live ones, so I left them where they were and just took pictures.

Herons always look so grumpy.  haha  They are beautiful and impressive birds though and remind me more of pterodactyls than any other avian.

Here is one of the many seals I saw!  I love harbor seals.. they have such neat spotted fur.  I saw a male sealion also, but my photo of the top of his head just isn't clear enough to post.  I never would have seen him if I hadn't been balancing on a log into the water when he went by.  Just another reason to get out there and don't just look.. play!

 

Speaking of playing.... Cedar and I added to someone's artwork stump on the beach.  They had put little bits of wood in the cracks of the stump and then used those to hang shells.  Very cute.  Then I found a part of a frame and had to make some beach art also.  Hahaha

I read that even at high tide that this beach is quite passable, but the tide was not all the way high when I was on my way back and this photo shows just how close the water was to the bluff, so if you go out there be careful and watch the tide tables! 

ADVENTURE! 

Ozette-Cape Alava Triangle 8-17/18-2013

This hike was in the Olympic National Park, and is a loop (triangle) that starts at Lake Ozette, and goes to Sand Point along 3 miles of trail which is mostly boardwalk through the forest, north along 3 miles of shoreline to Cape Alava, and back to Lake Ozette along more beautiful boardwalk trail for 3 miles.  Or you can do it the opposite way.  I had only done the hike in to the beach and straight back out as a day hike, but Dave and I packed up the big packs and tent and went on an overnight trip.  It was fantastic!!
We stopped in the little fishing town of Sekiu on our way in for a quick lunch.

 

Dogs aren't allowed on National Park Trails, so Cedar got to spend the weekend with Grama Ruby.  We got our backcountry permits, our entry fee and started off on our adventure!

 

Here is some of the boardwalk on the trail.  They are putting new synthetic boards into part of it, but I think some of the boards are the ones I stepped on when I was little.  Nice old mossy boards. 

There are so many kinds of moss in the Pacific Northwest.  These were like little pink moss-flowers on a really thick pelt of moss.  They looked Dr Seussian.

It didn't seem to take long and we arrived at our camp area, Sand Point.  We found a great campsite just above the high tideline, and this was the view from it!  I wish I could share the sounds too... waves, seals, eagles... it was amazing!

It was low tide when we got there, so once we set up camp we wandered around the tidepools.  Walking through all the rocks you could hear the shore crabs scurrying under the rocks.  It was a cool but eerie sound.

purple shore crab

After poking around in the tidepools, we climbed up on top of the little rocky hill that is on Sand Point and looked out at ocean, sea stacks, rocks, and shoreline.  We were super stoked to see whales!  I don't know what kind they were. I thought maybe humpback, but the ranger we visited with later thought maybe sperm whales.  There were two of them and were pretty close to shore.

There were seals hanging out all over the place.  They were so cute.  They barked and splashed and sunned themselves on top of the rocks.

This photo is full of seals, but if you look to the upper right you'll see an eagle also! I didn't even see it when I took the picture.

This friendly little cottontail wandered into our campsite and munched on the meadow.  Dave went and sat down about 4 feet away from him and he didn't seem to mind at all.

This handy table came with our campsite.  I think the table top must have been some sort of flotsam or jetsam, but neither of us could figure out what it was.  It was too heavy for us to flip it over after it rained, and it had electrical wires like embedded in parts of it.

After dinner we heated up some more water and poured it into our bag of dehydrated apple crisp, and took that and our bowls and spoons back up on top of the hill to watch the sunset.  It was beautiful!

The rain pretty much held off in the day, but sprinkled on our tent at night, which was perfect.  I love the sound of rain on the tent, but prefer not to get drenched while walking around or trying to cook on a camp stove.  After some hot chocolate and cookies for breakfast, we packed everything back up and said goodbye to our gorgeous campsite, and headed north along the beach.  Curious seals watched us as we walked by.

 

One of the attractions along this hike is referred to as the "wedding rocks" which are petroglyphs about half way between Sand Point and Cape Alava.  Dave thinks they fell from the rock face above, and if we had any extra energy we would have gone up to look.  From the way they lay at different angles and facing different directions, etc I think he is right.

There were a couple places along the shore where you have to leave the beach and go overland if there is a high tide.  I was worried that they might be long stretches where you could get into trouble if the tide came in faster than you were expecting, but they were pretty small areas and easy to identify. We got around the first one, but had to go up and over for the second one.
Another thing of interest along the beach was this whale carcass. Someone had burned it and the ribs were missing.  I also didn't see a lower jaw.  I would have looked at it a bit more, but the wind shifted and almost made us both sick. 

When we finally reached Cape Alava there was a woman trying to get her little boy to come look at a deer.  He wasn't interested, as he was very involved with a rock and a tidepool.  She said "fine," and then asked us "do YOU want to see a deer?"  We were more enthusiastic, so she pointed to where it was and we took a break there.  She was completely unconcerned with people around, ignoring children that ran right by her to the privy and she walked right up to us on her way to the beach.

This is a cool island off Cape Alava.  I would have liked to check it out, but I think the tide would have to be super low and imagine it would be pretty easy to get stuck there!