Tiffy Visits, Seattle, Olympic Peninsula, Wine Tasting

Wow! November already! The weeks seem to be flying by over the last few months, and soon enough we will be out of our quaint little beach house, home for the holidays, and then hopefully in Arizona somewhere for the winter.

Last weekend, our friend Tiffany came to visit us from Philadelphia. She arrived late Thursday night, entertained herself most of the day Friday as Amy and I had to work, and then we started off the weekend with a little party at our house. We had a great time hanging out with our co-workers and other friends that we have met here. We’re lucky to meet so many good people and make good friends along our travels. We were really lucky to have an absolutely beautiful sunny weekend, probably the last one of the season, so the next day, we took Tiffany on what I call the “Brandon and Amy” Tour of seattle, as we have taken our last 4 guests to the same locations, in the same order. We usually start with Dim Sum in Chinatown (Tiffany wanted to see me order food in Chinese, which is probably to the extent of my Chinese anymore), the Fremont Troll, Gas works park/Lake Union, Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill for a great view of the city, then we park downtown, walk through the shops downtown, walk down to the fish market in Pike Place market and wander around there, venture to pioneer square while walking past SAM(Seattle Art Museum), walk down by the water to the piers and into the space needle and seattle center. We then follow that up with a monorail ride back downtown to the car. We figured that these were our top things to see in Seattle, and have made it efficient enough to see everything in a day. Flyers will be distributed to all downtown hotels for Brandon and Amy’s special Seattle tour in a day. Not much else to elaborate on, as we have been to all those sites, and have accounts of all of them. The next day, we decided to head up to the Olympic peninsula where they have the Hoh rainforest, the only rainforest in the US, along with breathtaking views of the Olympic mountain ranges. The drive was long, as we had to drive south and then all the way up west to the Peninsula. We left early and decided to head to a site called Hurricane Ridge, which is probably one of the most popular sites to visit. It was cloudy/foggy in the AM so we were not sure how scenic our views would be, but by the time we got to the visitors center at the bottom of the mountain, the guide there told us that we would be well above all the clouds and would have beautiful views. She also said that it was a pretty easy hike, a 1.5 mile hike on paved road to the very top of the mountain. We made our drive up to the top of the mountain while stopping a few times on the way up at scenic viewpoints to take pictures, and as we climbed, the views became more spectacular. For the first five miles the road climbed from 400 feet above sea level to just under 2,000 feet at the Heart O The Hills Ranger Station. Over the next twelve miles we climbed up the narrow road and through three different tunnels. As we drove, western red cedar, big leaf maples, grand firs, Pacific yew, and sword ferns gave way to sub-alpine forest and wild flowers. The road passes by a number of scenic overlooks with the Double Parking Overlook, located about two miles past the third tunnel, being the best. We finally arrived at the topmost point for vehicles, packed our snacks and water in our bags, and made our ascent towards the top of the mountain. When the guide had told us 1.5 miles on a paved trail, I was thinking it was going to be a cake walk. Hell, we had done the grouse grind 1 mile vertical hike in Vancouver, and a 12 mile hike in Portland(which I’m still paying for), this should be easy! Even though it wasn’t as difficult as the last 2 hikes, the 1.5 mile hike at a varied 2%-7% grade was a nice moderate hike for all of us. Even Tiffany, who had been running regularly was pretty winded when we got to the top; it was however, over 5757 feet in elevation at the to. The hike was gorgeous, and we also stopped sporadically to take pictures(and to catch our breath). Along the way to the top, we also saw a wild deer walking along the top of the mountain. Finally, we made the last incline upwards and was thrust into a 360 degree view from the mountaintop. Snow capped mountains filled the background to the south and to the west, the trail we had come on roped above and around the mountains to the east, and to the north you could see the coast line of the peninsula, over the straight of Juan de Fuca, and to Vancouver island and Victoria, British Columbia. We were at the same height as the all the other Olympic mountains, with clouds thousands of feet under us. It felt as if we were on top of the world. The view was unparalleled to any hike or view we have ever seen. Amy was still partial to our hike in Hawaii, but this was totally different. We were all in awe of the amazing views, thinking that our pictures weren’t doing justice to the views we bore witness to. It was amazing! Afterwards, the hike down was a breeze, and we soon drove down the mountain, thoroughly content with our trip thus far. I had also planned on doing some quick hikes to a few waterfalls, and to another popular site the Sol Duc hot springs, but I underestimated the time it took to drive/hike to Hurricane Ridge, and the extra time it would take to drive to the other sites. Even though I watch the show Survivor Man, I didn’t want to get stranded on unfamiliar trails, in cold weather, with dusk approaching. The girls were a bit tired anyway, and were interested in hitting a couple of the wineries that we had passed along the way, so we opted for that. We hit 2 wineries on the peninsula, and the girls had a great time tasting and buying multiple bottles. They liked it so much, in fact, that we had planned our entire Monday wine tasting! After wine tasting, we started our drive back home. We drove through Poulsbo, and took the bridge across Bainbridge island to cut our drive down and take the Ferry back to Seattle, and have dinner at the Crab Pot Restaurant on Pier 64. It was cold on the water, but it gave Tiffy a nice chance to see the seattle skyline at night from the water. We departed the ferry, parked, and went to the restaurant. The Crab Pot is famous for its seafood pots, where you choose a variety of different seafood,(mussels, clams, oysters, Dungeness crab, shrimp) they steam the seafood, and then literally dump a heaping portion of above mentioned seafood onto your table. They leave you with a mallet, crab fork, and bib, and you basically go to town on the food. The idea is more novelty and attracts more of a tourist base because of the way the food is served, not necessarily because the food is the freshest, or prepared well. Overall, it was a fun experience. The next day we (the girls) wanted to go wine tasting. Yakima valley was a little too far, so we decided to go back to Woodinville, where we took Amy’s friend Jen, when she visited. I planned things out the night before, and Amy and Tiffy ended up tasting at about 6-7 wineries (I was the DD). I think Tiffy left Washington with her weight in Wine. Afterwards we hit 2 breweries, had dinner, and watched the Phillies game 5 get rained out. Tiffy was totally plastered by the end of the night, passing out on my chair in the living room. Overall, it was a very busy weekend, but great to see Tiffy again. This weekend, we are cleaning up, running errands, and Amy is going shopping while I watch some football tomorrow. We only have 6 weeks left, and then I’ll be visiting Amy and her family, my sister, and friends in Pennsylvania for a bit, then going home for Xmas in Florida. Hope all are doing well! The blog updates may get more sporadic as I feel we have enjoyed the best season Washington has to offer, we have no more visitors coming, and we have exhausted things to do here. So, until the next time we do something interesting……