Pacific Coast Highway Day 9
Pacific Coast Highway
Day 9 - April 25, 2003 - Astoria, OR to Mercer Island, WA
We left the hotel at 8:15, it was sunny and 46 degrees, a great day to travel in the Northwest. The big news of the day was that there were two earthquakes today, one in Portland and one in Seattle.
On the way out of Astoria, we found a car wash and got some of the dirt, grime and sand from the dunes from the car. We traveled over the huge bridge over the Columbia River mouth, to the other side, taking photos. We are now in Washington, the Evergreen State, which is certainly green this time of the year.
People have been telling us that they are over the average rainfall by about ten inches. We are traveling through areas of forests, wildlife preserves, rivers, bays and coves. All worked by the lumber industry.
We traveled through South Bend and Raymond and saw many saw mills and canneries. Along this road and through the towns, there were many unique metal sculptures. Silhouettes of animals, birds, and people.
Most of the land belongs to the Weyerhaeuser forest industry with large signs telling the year that the stand of trees has been initially cut then replanted and the next generation to be harvested. Interesting. I guess you have to think of these as fields of trees to be harvested, not national treasures, hard to do for us who worship trees!
We stopped Aberdeen, Washington to get gas and to call 1-800 information number to find out the times for the ferries. The sun was still out and it was 53 degrees so we decided to put the top down. With the clear blue skies we could see the Olympic Range of snow capped mountains to the north and east of us.
Route 101 north of Aberdeen has very few towns and there was little traffic, except for the double semi logging trucks going to the saw mills in the south. We went through the Olympic National Forest, then the Quinault Indian Reservation, with huge avenues of trees and signs directing tourist to the rain forest where they receive over 140 inches of rain per year.
We were very lucky to have arrived here on a beautiful sunny day to drive through this area. At Ruby Beach we left the coast and stopped to take one last look at the Pacific. We are still on 101 but going inland on the western side of the Olympic Peninsula on the way to Forks, Washington. We stopped at Sully’s Burger for a greasy spoon lunch.
On the shore of Lake Crescent we put the top back up as we are climbing higher and back into the clouds. The temperature had dropped in the mid forties. Just after Port Angeles we got off 101 and took Route 104 to Kingston to catch the ferry to Edmonds.
We just missed making the ferry that was loading, so we waited about 20 minutes for the next boat. We were in the second row and the radio report told us that there was not an unusual amount of traffic going into Seattle on the ferry - we are not into the tourist season yet.
We were the first car off the ferry to go down Route 104/I-5 south to Seattle. Traffic was relatively heavy but certainly not unusual or terrible for Friday night at 5:15. I-5 was a very rough road for the S2000.
We arrived at Eduardo and Jane’s beautiful house about 6 PM. After talking a bit we went out to dinner with them and their daughter Erin. When we got back we saw their son Grant, who had been working at school on a major project. What impressive young people!
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