Friday, July 25 Lavender, Seafood, Dungeness Spit at Sequim

 Friday, July 25 

60 degrees this morning as we enjoy the hotel breakfast and coffee.  Now onward towards Olympic National Park.  We are going northward along Puget Sound.  First stop is Triton Cove,  where we walk a bit on a beach that has tons of oyster shells and barnacle-covered rocks.

Beth speaks with a local man who has just arrived with his son to do some standup paddle boarding. He says when you hunt for oysters, they ask that you shuck them and leave the shells (It's a law, actually.) Oyster larvae, called spat, need a hard surface like shells to attach to and grow, so leaving shells here helps maintain and restore oyster reefs.  Additionally they provide some shoreline protection.  He is hoping to catch a few dungeness crabs today.

I comment on some pretty pink flowering plants with some sort of beans.  He says they are a wild sweet pea and are actually an invasive species which has spread for many years.  The beans aren't edible, but some people eat the leaves. 

He also comments that the people in boats are probably fishing for salmon this time of year.

There is a great blue heron nearby and he also says this is a popular birding area, especially in winter.

A father & son doing some clamming.

We stop at a small grocery store for a few supplies and they are selling fresh seafood outside.  Looks great!  Gas was $4.35 which is pretty good compared to what we've been paying! 

We begin going a bit west, and come to Sequim and the Jardin du Soleil lavender farm. There are several farms in this area and some houses and businesses we pass also have smaller displays.  It is beautiful and in full bloom - there was a big festival last week.  

Lots of bees enjoying the flowers.  And they had a set of bee boxes nearby.  A few chickens wandered the grounds as well and this one decided the bird bath was a good idea.

Smells great.  We pick up a few items in their gift shop and even buy some lavender ice cream - sounds iffy but tastes pretty good with just a hint of lavender in a creamy vanilla.  Funny, the lady running the shop was from Texas and spends a few months each year up here.

Sequim was home to Joe Rantz, a member of the Washington rowing team that won gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  Our book club had recently read The Boys in the Boat, which told his story.  There is a sign at the entrance to the town that says it was his home and I read that they are trying to get a statue made and also create a home for orphan boys in his name (he was pretty much abandoned by his family when he was 11 or 12).

We decide to camp for the night at Dungeness Recreation Area county campground where we score the last available FCFS site!  It is nicely treed and well-maintained.  A little pricey at $40 for non-residents but they do have showers. The place I'd originally looked at - Heart of the Hills - was totally booked as we are at the edge of Olympic National Park.

We take a hike to nearby Dungeness Spit - largest in the US - but don't walk the whole way out (5 miles) to the barely-visible light house at the end.  There is a very cold wind on the exposed spit.  Greg picks up a pretty piece of driftwood, which is abundant.

The lighthouse

The card reader recently purchased is no longer working, so we check locally and return it to Walmart for a new one.  Thankfully it was close by and returning is simple.

Dinner is worsts and baked beans and chocolate chip cookies, which tastes good on this cold day.

Beautiful sunset and nice quiet night.  We laugh, because once we take out our hearing aids for the day, it takes quite a bit of noise to bother us - a silver lining if ever there was one!