Washington

We arrived in Seattle around 9pm. We checked in the hotel, surfed and slept. The next morning I called my friend, Zeynep, to see if she was up for lunch. We made a date and went to checkout Pike Place Market.

It was a beautiful day in Seattle, cool but sunny. We walked around the market, going in and out of stores, watching the flying fish, and buying cashews. We walked over to my friend Sarah’s dad’s gallery, the William Traver Gallery, and chatted with her friend Ben.

When I talked to the dept of transportation, they told me to rush and take an early ferry to Bainbridge island so we would be able get across faster. I called and apologetically cancelled with Zeynep and we drove to the ferry. It turned out we were too late and were going to have to wait almost two hours so we chose to drive instead.

The Olympic Peninsula was covered with evergreens and lakes. On our way to the Hoh rain forest we ran into a huge line or cars. Miles and miles of cars. We tu!rned back, trying to find out what went wrong. As it turns out, a cement truck turned over and the road had been blocked since 9am. We decided to turn back and take a small hike in Sol Duc. There was a small trail which was like a rainforest. The trees were tall as far as the eye can see. Moss covered the trunks and branches. Mushrooms spurted out of the ground and bugs covered the forest. It was my first time in a forest like that and I couldn’t get enough of the lush green.

All the guides said not to go to the forests in the weekend due to huge crowds so we decided to skip Mt. Rainier National Forest and drove south to Portland. We stopped in Centralia for the night and are currently on our way to Portland.

Seattle and Washington is beautiful. The weather was really pleasant, the people fun.

Lodging: Fairfield Inn Bellevue@$71 & Centralia Inn@40
Car’s Mileage: 14,642
Gas: $11.54@1.59 & $14.21@1.55
Roads: 2 to Spokane, 5 to 110 to Olympia Nat. Forest, 5 to Portland
Sites: Seattle, Olympic Nat. Forest