We arrived here on the 5th of May to explore the Olympic National Park. This is our first stop in Washington but our fourth stop on our trip. We will stay a total of seven days to work and see the sights. The park also has a hotel located in two areas on the property. In front of our RV there is a separate house just for the hot tub. It is really beautiful with windows looking out to the water.

Photo by Albert de Bruijn

We were unaware of this but this area is known for their oyster farms. I talked to a couple of ladies and their families come here every year for the oysters, shrimping and clams. Since the land is mostly owned by the indians they get to fish for shrimp two weeks before the white people. The shrimp nets are put out in the waters just like crab nets but just like fishing there are limits to their catch.

They also have a beautiful Deck that we enjoyed sitting on with a glass of wine and just enjoyed the peace. When we first got here the guy at the front desk told us that the orcas are here. That same day we walked over to the deck and saw orcas across the water. We had our cameras and our big lens but they were just too far out to get any good shots.

We are going to be putting a rating scale up on our parks later one but I think this one will be up there. Tomorrow we will be getting up early to see if the Orcas come back and if they do will they be close enough for us to shoot? Will keep you posted. I think we need to check out the hot tub as well…..

                                                 Photo by Albert de Bruijn

Allegedly, one regularly sees Orcas around here, but to our disappointment, we never caught sight of any. Maybe we will see them in our further travels. Seeing these beautiful creatures in the wild is so different than the movies or books.

We walked down to the pier to get a glance of the beautiful starfish and what else we could see. The tide was going out but the starfish were too far out to get any good pictures but we did see all the oyster shells that are thrown on the beach. They don’t allow you to throw them in the garbage because it is better for the environment to put them back in the water. The hard surfaces of oyster shells and the nooks between the shells provide places where a host of small animals can live.

The beaches are full of oyster shells.  At some of the places it makes it very hard to walk. No flip flops on this beach. Take a close look at this picture. There is oyster shells and a few rocks but mostly oyster shells. And they are sharp, Ouch, no bare feet allowed..

We have been experimenting with video and plan to include more footage into our blogs as we get further down the road. Here is a really cool video that Albert did with his drone flying over our RV park and pier.

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We’ve read just about every travel planner about Alaska we could find, looked at umpteen maps, made copious notes and have finally decided on a route we believe will give us the safest passage with little or no compromise on scenic beauty. At least, that is what we hope.

We plan on following what is called “the Gold Rush Route”, which starts in Vancouver, follows the Gold Trail north through central British Columbia, branches to the North West onto the Cassiar Highway which will take us into the Klondike Country and then, finally, into Alaska to Fairbanks, Denali and Anchorage. We plan on side trips to the Fish Creek in Hyder and to Juneau along the way in the hope of taking photos of bears, fjords, a glacier and orcas. We are expecting to return with a massive amount of photos, an ebook and, in Linda’s case, several completed watercolor paintings.

Getting ready

Getting ready is quite the ordeal, packing up your “stuff” is not too challenging, but preparing the house for en extended stay away requires careful consideration. We organized our banking facilities, cancelled things like the newspaper and cable TV service. The neighbors will park their car in our driveway and we installed a home security system that not only lets us “arm” the house, it lets us control lights, the thermostat and even the sprinkler system.

I think we are ready!

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