A Sunday Drive

It was a gorgeous day here in the Pacific Northwest yesterday. One of those rare days that you really feel lucky living here. A friend had been inviting me to visit her church with her so yesterday morning I got up and drove 30 mins north to Bothell. On my drive back home I was loving the warm, sunny weather and got the itch to just keep driving. I know, I spend hours trapped in a steel tube hurtling though the atmosphere and here I am wanting to spend time in my tiny car. But I made a decision and it was off the to Olympic Peninsula for the afternoon! So I swung by my apartment to thrown on a skirt, spray my left arm with some sunscreen, cause that baby was going to be hanging out the window a lot, grab my camera and I was off. After making a few phone calls to see if anyone wanted to tag along, no, I rolled the windows down, turned the radio up and let the wind blow through my hair. It was awesome. Then I did something unthinkable. I turned my phone OFF! I know right? Crazy stuff. Wait, it gets even crazier, after that I got out my atlas. Remember those things? For you younger readers only familiar with GPS' an atlas is a large collection of maps. A map is a GPS in paper form. I know, archaic, right? But I LOVE maps in general and love tracking my progress during a road trip on the map. So, I've got my map, my peace and quite (well except for the wind roaring by) & my sunshine. Now all I needed was some good tunes. Out came, gack, cd's! It was like taking a road trip in the 90's, I know. I threw in one of the best cd's ever, Maroon 5's Songs About Jane.
So now I am doing superb, very happy and loving life. As I drive on, farther away from Tacoma, I enter part of the state that I haven't been to before. I am stoked to pass over a drawbridge! I love it! I live in a place that has drawbridges! So cool. So I'm puttering along and I keep seeing all these signs for lavender farms: The Purple Scent Lavender Farm, Bob's Lavender Farm, etc. Hum, that sounds interesting, I'll spot at the next one. But in between thinking that and seeing the next sign I realized if I stopped I'm most likely buy some stuff that I didn't need so I kept moving on. Maybe next time.

Now, the one thing that kept coming back to me on this whole 9 hour drive was nostalgia. The landscape make me think of so many places, especially in Montana: Lava Lake, Storm Castle, the entire Gallatin Canyon, the area from Big Sky to West Yellowstone, The Lamar Valley, Hyalite Canyon & Boone, North Carolina. It was amazing. By the time I made it all the way out to Forks,WA I was on an emotional high. Lots of good memories. 
The drive took me up past Bremerton, across to Sequim, to Port Angeles, which was a lot bigger than I was expecting, and down to Forks. I had aspirations of making the whole loop down to Aberdeen and back through Olympia, but I was not ready to be in the car for another 6 hours. So once I got to Forks I turned around and came back. The drive takes you through part of Olympic National Park, around Lake Crescent (which reminded me of Lava Lake) which was beautiful.
For those of you who would care at all that I was in Forks, WA, you know the significance of that little town out in the middle of no where. For the rest of you I will explain and show what a dork I am. Forks is the town that the Twilight books are set in. I'm not ashamed, I am a proud Twilight book fan, movies, there ok, but the books were really, really good. That woman can really write. I know I am not the only one who holed up on my couch for two days straight reading all four books as fast as possible. They are awesome. So here I am in this little town that has sadly been taken over by Twilight mania in a way. I stopped at the Thriftway Grocery store for an apple and a Port Angeles brewed Creme Soda, and even there there was Twilight stuff. But it was just a small little mountain town with super friendly people. I did stop and take a photo for the 'Welcome to Forks" sign. I really felt like a dork then, even though there were about 4 other cars of people doing the same thing. 

But alas, the fun had to come to an end so I turned the car around and heading back home. At Port Angeles I stopped by the water front to try and get a glimpse of the ferry that goes over to Victoria, BC, but it must have been out as I didn't see it. That would be a fun trip, going over on the ferry.

 I also noticed on the way that dungeness crab is super popular over there. There were signs everywhere advertising it. Sadly, none of them seemed to be open on a Sunday night. I also found it odd that as I scanned the radio stations I heard a lot of French stations. Must be a lot of French speakers in the area. I didn't know that. So as I made my way slowly back, enjoying another good album, Dave Matthews Stand Up
And now, the start of something new. At the end of every post I'm going to add a random fact &/or quote. Just for the sake of doing it. Today's we will do both:
Random Fact:
Canning came about after Napoleon offered a cash award of 12,000 francs to any inventor who could devise a cheap and effective method of preserving large amounts of food to help feed his army.
Today's Quote:
"I intend to live forever, or die trying." ~Groucho Marx