No....I Didn't Forget! LOL!

Oh my gosh!!! What a busy week I have had! And it's not over yet! Besides having to sew over 70 ornies for various orders, I've had my nephew, Alex, visiting me from North Carolina. It has been wonderful having him here these last couple of weeks and I will truly miss him when he flies home tomorrow. I've been trying to show him some of the sights around here and still try to get my orders out, so you can imagine how hectic it's been!

Yesterday I took a break from sewing and we drove over to the Hoh Rain Forest in the Olympic National Park. (Gina...I waved at you as I drove by the turn to your little town!) Anyway, it was a long day, with our heading out on the Bainbridge Island Ferry early morn.

This is a view from the ferry...that's our football and baseball stadiums in the distance. Below is our beautiful city of Seattle. It started out very cloudy during the morning, but turned out to be a rather pretty day.

This is the first time I've ridden the ferry since these guys started escorting them. A little intimidating, but since 9/11, so much has changed. The ferry system here is highly patrolled due to its susceptibility to terrorist attacks. They've only recently started doing these ride alongs.

The rain forest is way over by the ocean and a good 3 hour drive after getting off the ferry. But it's well worth the trip. What beautiful scenery over on the Olympic Peninsula! Our first stop was to picnic on Lake Crescent! This is the most beautiful lake I have ever seen. The lake is over 600 feet deep and because of its depth it is a deep blue color. It looks almost unnatural because of its color! However, the water is crystal clear. You can see how clear the water is where it is shallow, but where the blue starts is where it begins to drop off quite dramatically!

The photos below were right by our picnic table. The whole area is covered in moss and big beautiful ferns!

From there we headed on to the Hoh Rain Forest, but first we had to pass through the remote little town of Forks, Washington! Now, I'm sure many of you know what Forks is famous for! This town and surrounding area is the setting for the Twilight series. As we road through the town, it was very apparent they were taking advantage of their 15 minutes of fame! There were Twilight rooms at hotels, Twilight tours, a Twilight florist and even Twilight punch at the little burger joint (I'm sure it's probably red punch). But one of the reasons Stephanie Meyer chose this location for the setting of her books is because of images of the rain forest. This is such a beautiful place and I always bring family here when they come to visit. Here are a few photos. Although I've never read the books or seen the movie, I can see a vampire or two roaming through this eerily beautiful moss covered forest!

I love the serenity of this forest. Every turn in the trail brought more beauty. We eventually came upon the Hoh River where we discovered a herd of about ten elk and their young. There had been warnings posted at the Visitor's Center about Elk charging people who were getting too close. However, these were a nice, safe distance.

Then we ran across this ugly little creature creeping slowly across the trail. He had to have been at least five inches long! Yuck! I'm glad the slugs in my yard don't look like these!

Near the end of the trail you walk in between two fallen trees. The Sitka Spruce here grow to over 300 feet tall. They were spectacular!

This is my handsome nephew, walking out on one of the fallen trees. OMG...he looks SO much like my brothers!

And finally, when we left the rain forest we headed back to Port Angeles and then up to Hurricane Ridge, another part of Olympic National Park. Dusk was setting in and so were a few clouds. It is a 17 mile drive UP. Such beautiful scenery up there. And usually August weather provides us with blue skies. But not this year. But I loved seeing it with the clouds throughout. And as I stood at this overlook I couldn't help but feel like Julie Andrews was going to come running up over the ridge and start singing "The Hills are Alive!" LOL!

So, today it was back to Pike's Place Market and the flying fish. You may remember that from a few weeks ago when I took my niece there. Alex leaves in the morning and I will miss him so much. So will my son, Sean. Alex is the closest in age to him. Tomorrow night we're driving up to Bellingham to celebrate my daughter's birthday. She turns 21 on Saturday and will be celebrating with many of her friends on that day. So we'll get her a day early. And then we leave for vacation on Sunday for a week at the Oregon coast. So, you see, this hectic pace is not over yet! Oh how I'm looking forward to vacation!

FINALLY.........so sorry for making you wait so long..........but FINALLY on to the most important thing here. Okay...yes, I had Harley pick the winning name. But he wouldn't stick around for a picture. Hehe! Anyway, the winner of the giveaway for my fall gathering is.........

CWA of "Coming Home Again"

Oh...and I TOLD you Harley was a smart cat. Check out her Coming Home Again blog and you will see she has cats! And cute ones, at that! LOL! Nice pick, Harley! ~~Annie