I am thanking my lucky stars that the weather-gods delivered cooperative weather on the Washington coast. Not a single drop of rain. Yay! The clouds even cleared out enough to go star gazing on the beach at midnight ^_^
I stayed in a little, day-dreamy cottage at the edge of the vacation village, Seabrook. It was a tiny place—but utterly charming. Red shutters, minty-blue walls, white-lace curtains, window seats, a lazy porch and stacks of poetry books. It felt soooooooooooooo good to sleep-in and wake-up to the sound of the lulling ocean and the coffee pot percolating. On Sunday, my parents and I meandered up to a diner overlooking the beach for breakfast. Yummy oatmeal loaded with hazelnuts, cranberries and molassesy brown sugar was the perfect way to kick-start the day.
The day before, my family drove inland to Lake Quinault with a few family friends also holidaying in Seabrook. We decided to go on a quick hike through the state park before lunch—which turned out to be an epic journey…. Everyone started out on the trail together, but by the end of it, the 17 person group had whittled down to a brave six.
My brother and his amigos went one way. My fellow uni students turned back 15minutes in. Two of the adults broke off to find a short-cut back to the lake. And I continued on with three of the adults and Alex (another student my age). If anything could wrong, it probably did.
At least until we arrived back at the lake, we lived in ignorant bliss.
The woods were teaming with huckleberry bushes and other shrubbery. We saw both the highland (blue) huckleberries and red huckleberries along the trail. Usually, the highland variety only grows at higher elevations—as their name suggests. Yet there they were, snuggled right next to their red-berried cousins. The blue huckleberries taste incredible. Almost a cross between blueberry, current and blackberry. Over in Montana, they make pies, jams, ice cream and fruit-studded-sweets with the highland huckleberry. Huckleberry preserves could easily give Marion berry jam a run for my favorite :P. Which is really saying something (especially, for everyone who knows me well). I am a girl who is serious about her Marion berries.
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| I <3 this smiling stump. It made my day! |
Anywho, after the six of us remaining hikers hit the highest point in the trail, we broke through the trees to a gorgeous lookout over a waterfall. The half-our tramp in the humidity was worth completely worth it. Alex did a little off-roading around the falls, while the rest of us took in the view from the bridge over the river/stream.
When we finally made it back to the lake it was well into the afternoon. Snack bars and water can only get you so far… thus we all beeline for the restaurant at the lodge. Unfortunately, the restaurant closed at 3.00 and it was 3.45. Poo. (And they even had a PB&J on the menu!) No one else from the original big-group was at the lodge, which meant they either hadn’t made it back yet, or went on another adventure. Traveling in groups sometimes turns into herding cats.
Alex and I found the rest of the Uni students down by the lake snooping on a wedding and the parents managed to locate my brother + company in the lodge restaurant waiting for someone to show-up to pay their bill. Now the only party members MIA were the two adults who took a “short-cut.” And we all know how short-cuts turn out.
As soon as we scraped together a search-party to send back up the trail, a car pulls into the lodge parking lot. One of the kids shouts, “Wait! I think those are my parents!” Low and behold, his parents had hitchhiked their way back to the lodge. Apparently, the two took a wrong turn and followed a trail the long way along the lake ending up some 2 miles from where we started. Oh-well. All we could do was laugh.
Later that evening I went stargazing with the adults. We headed out to the beach in attempt to see the Northern Lights**, but ended up taking turns looking through a pair of binoculars at different constellations. Cassiopeia and Hercules took center stage, along with Ursa and her cub ;) I love looking at the stars. They walk that fuzzy line between magic and science. All the little pin-pricks of light left their home thousands of years ago, yet their celestial history is such a permanent part of our present and future.
To cap off the night, we raided the fire-pit at the park in Seabrook. I made a smore with Mexican Spicy Chile chocolate from Theo’s Chocolate. Mmmmmmmm. No one can say Kaite can’t stay up until 1.30 in the morning!!!!
Anyone else been to or headed out to the coast this summer? Any star-gazing stories or quick hikes to share?
Cheers, kaite ;]
**Supposedly, the red aurora of the Northern Lights could be seen over Seattle this Saturday (6 Aug). The only catch was, you had to get far enough away from the light pollution congesting the Puget Sound skyline to see them…
