With the pine covered craggy shores, rocky beaches, and chugging fishing boats, I could easily be anywhere in Maine right now. Puget Sound looks so much like my favorite bay in Midcoast Maine. With an entire day all by myself with no hotel room, I meandered through Point Defiance Park. This large wooded area of Tacoma is a microcosm of woods and water that made me feel so at home, but instead I was in the middle of a city with almost a quarter of a million people.
While I have been warned not to get sucked into the glorious weather of August, it is glorious here. Friday we hiked twelve miles in Mount Rainier National Forest. The forests here are more fir and there is some very old growth. What is unique is the swatches of old growth sliced together with new growth. In one small stretch of trail, the trees might go from 20 feet to 220 feet.
In less than a two hour drive we got to the Olympic Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean. This was a HUGE deal for me because I had never seen the Pacific and I love to check off places I've been. While there was a large state park parking lot, everyone seemed to just drive their cars onto the beach; hundreds of cars by mid-afternoon. There was a much larger prevalence of sand dollars than I have ever seen on a beach although we weren't able to find any unbroken ones. The water also had a bit of a brown tinge to it. However, I couldn't resist a foot dip (had the air temperature been warmer, I probably would have taken a real dip). One more ocean down!
Saturday and Sunday I got a taste of Seattle life. While it is a large city, it seems very casual and manageable. It felt good to be navigating city streets feeling overwhelmed by the many options. We walked around the Seattle Center and Pike Place Market area at dusk then ate a late dinner at the Space Needle's revolving restaurant. A little kitschy but an experience. The food was actually excellent, and as long as I didn't look at the windows, I didn't really feel the movement. We made it about one and a half times around by dessert. This afternoon we returned to Pike Place Market to see it in action. The most impressive thing were the vibrant bouquets - prettier than anything I have ever seen and for less than 20 bucks. It was not just ordinary grocery quality flowers thrown together; they were like samples out of a dutch painting. And the food! Crazy displays of fresh seafood, fragrant fruits and vegetables, good coffee, and AMAZING pastry (Piroshky Piroshky). The most rich flaky and hazelnutty thing I have ever consumed.
The thing I like most about this area is that despite the obvious urban setting (there are three major cities in a 60 mile line on I-5) the urban is so seamlessly intertwined with the forest. It also helps that Puget Sound provides a waterfront to every city and you never have to look far to see Mount Rainer looming off in the distance. I have never seen cities with such extensive parks and Seattle has two lakes! This afternoon we met some friends near where they live in the University District and kayaked on Lake Union. Here we are amid hundreds of boaters, under an interstate, paddling away. And it was peaceful and beautiful. Even many of the apartment buildings in Seattle are nestled in the evergreen trees. Oh, and did I mention the houseboat used in Sleepless in Seattle is on Lake Union!
Here is good. I don't want tomorrow to be my last day.
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