posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
Day 2
August 23, 2009
We are ready for the start of our backpacking trip tomorrow. I’m very excited. But, I should go back and tell you about today.
Our bed and breakfast was very charming last night. It was the Solstice Farm right outside Port Townsend. We had a huge bedroom, perfect for repacking and organizing for a backpacking trip. =) Breakfast on the farm was a 2.5 hour affiar. The couple who runs the place has led quite the full and exciting life. They told us all kinds of stories about their travels, different jobs they’ve had, and even all about their farm and lambing. They have about 45 lambs each spring. The food itself wasn’t too long, but the stories that followed were interesting. This couple is very interested in sustainable living and told us all about how they built their house using wood deconstructed and recycled from other buildings. We learned about bringing the salmon back to their creek in the back, and even about a new way of logging sustainably.
After the stories and the repacking, we drove to the small town of Port Townsend. So far the Olympic Peninsula and it’s small ocean towns remind me very much of Nova Scotia. We had lunch at an eclectic cafe called Fountain Cafe and then headed to the harbor for our afternoon whale watching cruise.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather for our whale watching. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the sea was calm. The weather was a chilly 65 on the dock and 55 on the water. We did get to follow a pod of female orca whales with a baby in tow. No males, but the females were fun to watch. We stayed with them for an hour – the maximum time a boat is allowed to follow whales. The whales were in travel mode and just coming up for air every so often. There was no jumping out of the water like at Sea World. =)
Once back on land, we hit up the Elevated Ice Cream Shop for some homemeade dessert and then drove an hour to Port Angeles.
Port Angeles is bigger than Port Townsend, but not by much. We had a yummy Dungeness Crab dinner at the Crab House and are now relaxing in our hotel, The Downtown Hotel.
Tomorrow we will start our 5-day backpacking trip, so no posts from me for a few days. It will be cold at night. Tonight we were chilly walking around in the 50 degree weather outside. The weather is still looking amazingly sunny with just a small chance of showers on Tuesday. We know this is a rainy area, though, so we are prepared for the rain. It looks like the highest high we will see is all the way up to 69 on one of the days.
Have a good start to your week ahead. We will post more in 5-6 days.
I attached a photo of the whale pod we saw.