British Columbia and Washington trip, Day 1

My dad and I had a lovely father-daughter trip to the Pacific Northwest in April, and I finally made time to edit the photos down to a reasonable amount. Here's the first day of our trip!

We flew from Santa Rosa to Seattle (love that we can do that now!), and drove down around the Puget Sound, west towards the Olympic National Rainforest. Although it was mid-April, the weather was very PacNW-y - cold, grey, kinda drizzly. The further we drove into the sticks (literally, in this case, since we were in lumber country), the more I was reminded of the ride I used to have from NYC through Upstate New York to my teeny little Vermont college. I could've sworn we were in New England in March!

We stopped in Elma, WA, at the Rusty Tractor, which was a mistake (white American cheese is not the same as Swiss Cheese), but could you have passed this up either?:





Hmm... wish that we had. Yuck.

The drive up to our destination, Lake Quinault Lodge (on Lake Quinault, owned by the Quinault Indian Nation), was a bit prettier - and I loved these signs! Why don't we have these on the California coast? Is it because they seem, well... pointless?



Even though it was chilly, we had a nice like walk around the area and saw some beautiful wildlife as well as a lot of uprooted trees from the crazy storms they had this winter.











We saw lots of fat red robins, skunk cabbage, tall trees, and rain... all of which were prevalent through the whole trip. Pretty flowers too! My dad pointed out that some old Super 8 footage we have of my mom eating salmonberries was taken right along the lake where we were staying, in the 1970s. Cute!

Here's my dad at the lake's edge - what a lovely vista:



I definitely recommend the lodge if you're interested in peace and quiet and staying far away from civilization (though I imagine it's much busier in the summer months with "city people"). The food at the restaurant was surprisingly delicious and seemed to focus on sustainable produce as well! The steak I had there was amazing.



Giant chess sets are pretty cool too (although, man, are we both terrible at chess!)







And, though it was cold and the lawn was being reseeded, part of me couldn't help thinking, "what a lovely place for a wedding." Ack!