08 May 2012

Babymoon: Part 3

Part 1
Part 2

When we left off, George and I had taken a Sunday afternoon detour along the Washington-100 loop. From there, we picked up the 101 again and continued north. This was, by far, the most boring part of the roadtrip because the drive takes you through sadly dilapidated towns, such as Aberdeen, and logging forests.




Eventually, we made it to our destination: Kalaloch Lodge. We visited Kalaloch (pronounced Clay-Lock) in the winter of 2009 and seriously considered having our wedding on Kalaloch's cliff overlooking the Pacific. During that visit, we told ourselves that we'd have to come back and stay at the lodge, so this return to Kalaloch was making good on a promise to ourselves. We had fair weather while we were there (overcast, dry skies on Sunday night and a downpour on Monday morning) and spotted a couple of bald eagles and several hummingbirds amongst robins and ravens.


View from the honeymoon suite (our splurge)


Kalaloch's Beach

Kalaloch's Beach


On Monday morning, we set off again, continuing north on US-101. First, we stopped at Beach 4.

Nurse log

Fern!

Just a bridge to the beach...

Beach 4


Then, we stopped at the Big Cedar Tree.




Then, we stopped at Ruby Beach.

Ruby Beach

Ruby Beach


The 101 cuts through the heart of Forks, Washington, made (annoyingly) famous by the Twilight series. I could go on about how Forks has capitalized on its new-found fame by naming everything in town Twilight-this and Bella-that and Jacob-this, but instead I'll show you one of the more clever Twilight references we saw:




Just past Forks, we took a minor detour to Rialto Beach, the beach opposite the Quillayute River from La Push, also made famous by Twilight.


Rialto Beach to the north

Rialto Beach




From there, we continued north and eventually left the 101 to head for Monday night's destination: Neah Bay. We rented a little cabin right on the water at the Hobuck Beach Resort. The weather had turned foul, so we hunkered down for the evening beside the electric fireplace while the wind and waves crashed outside.

On Monday morning, we checked out Hobuck Beach a bit.

Hobuck Beach to the south

Hobuck Beach to the north


Then, we drove out to Cape Flattery to check out the northwesternmost point in the lower 48.* It was pretty neat to see the rugged beauty of nature rage all around. The trail ends at the lookout, and it truly feels like you're right at the end of the earth. It was really neat.




Cape Flattery

Cape Flattery

Cape Flattery

Cape Flattery

THE Cape

At Cape Flattery (32 weeks)

Cape Flattery


With the weather turning ugly again, George and I decided to pack up and head home on Tuesday afternoon rather than waiting until Wednesday as originally planned. We agreed that we'd continue to be "on vacation" and lay low on Wednesday, and that's exactly what we did. I don't think we even opened our curtains.

It was a good babymoon, quite different from what we originally planned (Barcelona), and exactly what we needed. You know you've picked the right partner when, after a week of focusing only on each other and having constant conversations, you just want more of the same. Hopefully this will keep us refreshed when we're soon up at all hours of the day and night with our (screaming) little one.



*Curiously enough, we went to Key West, the southernmost point in the lower 48 on our honeymoon.
Darn it, foggy lens...

1 comment:

Janie said...

I have enjoyed all the pic's and David loved all the woodsie-ones. So glad you took the time off and enjoyed the sights AND one another. Now, in five years you can do it again and hold a little hand and walk along the same beach. Oh what fun....