Week 25

Day 168: Jan 25, 2015

Today we went for a nice walk to 10 Mile Falls. Dad took pictures, I just enjoyed the sunlight.

Day 169: Jan 26, 2015

Well, I am out of the village for the second time since arriving there. This trip was not quite as smooth, though. We had to jump my car while we were in the parking lot and we thought the car would be fine after that. It wasn't. We were about 20 miles out and were turning into a gas station when my car died. It seemed as though the car was not charging its battery. So, we waited 2 hours for the tow truck which then took my car to the dealer where it will hopefully get fix tomorrow morning...

Day 170: Jan 27, 2015

My car works!!! It turns out that the battery was totally shot and so were the connections. So, it ended up being less painful than it could have been and we were on the road by noon. We had a long drive but our hotel for the next two nights is right on the ocean so that made the drive totally worth it. Tomorrow we plan on going to Ruby Beach and the Hoh Rainforest. It should be a good day.

Day 171: Jan 28, 2015

I was right, today was a good day. We were pretty much constantly going but I never felt rushed. We started our day by going to Ruby Beach where we saw sea stacks and sea anemones. We had to get a little wet to see what we wanted but it was totally worth it (we had to take off our shoes and socks to ford a creek in order to get to the cool parts of the beach). I even crossed a “sandbar”, that was basically a shallow part that could only be crossed during low tide, to an island. It was a great idea. I saw way more tide pools but it would have been less miserable if I would have had some sort of shoe on. I only brought my hiking boots and had taken them off since I knew that there was a good chance that the waves were going to wash up over my boots. So, even though my feet were very cold and very sensitive to the rocks, I still had a great time exploring. We, then, headed to the Hoh Rainforest. We were hoping to see banana slugs but it was a beautiful sunny day so they weren't out. It was crazy how much moss was on the trees though. I mean, there were maple trees that looked like monsters because there was so much hanging moss on them. It was pretty awesome. We headed back to our hotel around three but ended up walking down to the beach that is right behind our hotel. I think we ended up spending almost as much time down there as we did at the rain forest. There were a bunch of crab shells, cool rocks, cool sand patterns, cool drift wood, and cool shells. I may have ended up with three pockets full of cool things (aka I did end up with three pocket fulls). It was the first time I had ever seen sand dollars on the beach that weren't in a million pieces. I ended up picking up way more than I really needed but I figured that I would give a few to my little cousins and I am sure that some will break in transport. I also decided that I will send about half home with my dad and I will keep the other half in my car until I drive home in August. I feel like they are less likely to break in my car than in my dad's bag. Tomorrow we head to Oregon!

Day 172: Jan 29, 2015

Today was a day filled with eagles, salmon, and beaches. We drove to our next destination and on the way we went on a little driving tour through a national forest. We soon ran out of paved road and continued on the dirt road that ran along a river. Suddenly, the forest opened up and I saw a bald eagle sitting on something in the middle of the river. We quickly got out of the car to get a good picture. As I looked at it I saw another eagle on a nearby sandbar. Seeing two eagles is not too uncommon but I had a feeling that there was something else around. I looked around and saw four more eagles in a nearby tree. Two were juveniles but when you see that many eagles in one place you know that there must be some really nice food source in the area. As I made my way down to the river to check for fish I saw another four bald eagles and at least one golden eagle. At one point, there were six eagles in one tree, four in another, and two in the river. It was amazing. I did, eventually, make my way to the river where I saw a salmon spawning and hundreds of trout. It totally explained the extreme number of eagles.

Our day ended with another wildlife sighting. We stopped at Ecola State Park and went down to the beach to see the sunset. There were some boulders at the end of the beach so, of course, I had to go and climb on them. The tide was coming in but there were quite a few tide pools. There were a ton of mussels, green anemone, pink anemone, and a few hermit crabs. The most exciting parts of the whole afternoon, though, were the starfish sightings. I think they were all the same species but there were red stars, orange stars, and purple starfish. They were so cool!

Day 173: Jan 30, 2015

We headed to Portland today. Once there, we stopped at Powell's books (something like the biggest bookstore in America) where we both got quite a few books. We walked around a little and ran across a yarn store so, of course, I had to go in. Some how I wound up on the hook for making my dad both a pair of socks and a hat. To end the day my dad and I met up with my cousin for dinner at a brewery just down the block from our hotel.

Day 174: Jan 31, 2015

We spent the day hanging out with my cousin. We explored the city and ended the day at the Oregon zoo. They have a really nice zoo that isn't crazy big which I am a fan of.