Wow, I am running behind on posting. After spending a long time doing the last marymom and Clark and Lewis posts when I wanted to be doing other things, I went on strike. Now it seems that the only loser in this was me. I need to keep current or else it becomes overwhelming. I don’t know whether I will get back to writing Clark and Lewis stories because they take so long. Damn you punctuation!
Anyway, we leave the house in Westport and look to find things along the way to Forks, Washington that we want to see. Our first plan is to go to the Polson home and museum in Hoquiam and to see the tall ships including the Mary Washington of Pirates of the Caribbean fame in Aberdeen. As it turns out the Polson stuff is closed on Tuesdays and the tall ships are out of port. Sigh. Then I remember seeing a sign for a rainforest other than the Hoh so we decide we will find it.
We stop in Hoquiam at the Visitor’s Center. Jean, the nice lady there, gives us a ton of ideas of things to do and lots of pamphlets. (John loves to save this stuff!) We start by taking a look at the “Historic Aberdeen Mansion” which looks like a biggish Victorian house. There are nice trees and plants there, though.
We stop in Hoquiam for lunch and I take an election photo. I wished I had taken a photo of the one for Takko. We amuse ourselves making stupid jokes about their names.
After lunch we find the Quinault Rainforest and hike a short interpretive trail.
There are many large trees along the trail. I especially like the nurse logs which are fallen trees who support the growth of new trees. The new trees form a colonnade along the log and their roots wrap around the old trunk. The log serves as a repository of water during dry times for the new trees.
Down the road a bit is the World’s Record Sitka Spruce. We cannot miss this!
It’s down a trail that has lots of beautiful foliage.
Then we get to the tree itself and it is immense!
We are staying a cute apartment type inn a few miles outside of Forks, Washington.
The Quillayute Resort is so picturesque with beautiful flowers and the river right outside the door.
