May 28 - Olympic National Park and onto Seattle

We made the decision the day before to head directly to Olympic National Park instead of Seattle like we originally planned. This would reduce some of our driving time and give us a little more relaxation time in Seattle. 

Leon got us up extra early (daylight began before 5:00) and we were on the road before 6:00. We ran into traffic in Tacoma and continued to the park, charging at a Wal-Mart just before we arrived. At the visitors' center, we spoke with a volunteer and came up with a plan. We learned that the massive size of the park and the distance between points of interest meant we couldn't do or see the highlights in the six hours we planned to be there. So we had to adjust our plans and expectations accordingly.

First, we did a scenic drive to the high point in the park. From there we could see far away destinations including Mount Baker and Vancouver Island in Canada.

 

We enjoyed our picnic lunches, then headed back down to a hike to see the Marymere Falls off Lake Crescent. While they were cool, they didn't hold a candle to the Silver Falls we saw the day before in Mount Rainier. 

At this point, Haley was suffering travel fatigue, so we called it a day and headed towards Seattle. We got a quick charge at the Wal-Mart again and headed towards the ferry landing to take the ferry across Puget Sound and avoid the traffic. We arrived ahead of time and enjoyed watching some small sailboats doing a course while we waited for the ferry. It was massive, probably 10 times the typical ferry size we have in NC. The ferry over was very scenic, with views of downtown Seattle, Mount Baker, and Mount Rainier all visible on this clear afternoon.

From the ferry landing it was a short drive to our VRBO just south of downtown. We made a quick stop then walked a few blocks for dinner in a local brewery, where the food was really good (and we did not try the beer). We had tapas and they were all good. We walked back "home", unloaded the car, started laundry, and relaxed a bit before we went to bed around nightfall.