Port Angeles Weekend
I write this from the driver’s seat of my car as I wait a few hundred yards from the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal. It’s a little difficult to type. I don’t think the Toyota Corolla engineers considered this use case when designing this car. There’s not enough room between me and the steering wheel for the laptop, so I have placed the computer on the passenger’s seat while I twist at a 45 degree angle and type. The woes of the modern age. Fortunately, a slew of cars are heading the opposite direction, so there’s hope that I won’t be here for long.
Meagan is in Port Angeles, WA for a few weeks this summer as part of her training, so I spent the weekend visiting her. I’m a little sad returning home, but we had a fun weekend. I left work a little early on Friday to get a head start on the drive (and run a few errands, including finally purchasing a tripod and ballhead for my camera).
After catching the ferry to Bainbridge, I drove across the Peninsula and pulled into town a little before nine. We were both hungry so we headed to Bella Italia, one of the restaurants in town that we were advised would be open late. The dinner and bottle of wine were very nice, but mostly it was nice to be together after the three hour trip.
[Update: We're moving again and I am now ticketed and in line for the next ferry.]
On Saturday, we slept in late and then went to the Little Oven bakery. We drove past it the first time, and if we didn’t have the address, would have done so again. Fortunately, we found it, because even though it’s a hole in the wall and doesn’t look like much, their goods were fantastic. I had a croissant and half of a ham, salami, and cheddar sandwich. The salami was from Salumi’s, which was also on the menu at Bella Italia and Saturday night’s dinner at the Alder Wood Bistro, an indication both of the reach of Armandino’s empire and of the types of places we like to eat. The cheese was from Beechar’s (ditto). Both items were delicious, as was the chocolate chip cookie I decided to purchase after downing the croissant and sandwich. The croissant was easily the best I’ve had in a few years - nice crunch on the outside, light and buttery on the inside. Yum. I got another one (and a blueberry muffin) to go since they were closed on Sunday.
After the bakery, we stopped at a local farmer’s and craft market, which was really cool. We then made our way down to the waterfront. We drove around for a bit - it’s an old industrial town, but the port town had some cool shops. We walked around the pier before refueling at Thai Peppers Restaurant.
Full from two meals in a short time, we made our way west towards the Olympic National Park. We drove aimlessly for a little while before pulling into a trailhead and ranger station near Lake Crescent. We hiked a short while up to a small waterfall (Marymere Falls), taking a few pictures along the way. It was a pretty mellow walk, which matched our spirits for the day nicely.
After descending, we made our way back to Port Angeles. We chilled at a local coffeeshop Bella Rosa (Meagan was stoked to find a place with free wifi to hit up in the future) and then headed back to get ready to go out.
Dinner on Saturday was at Alder Wood Bistro in Sequim. It was a small outfit run by a local couple. We had read good things and liked their organic, local menu, and we weren’t disappointed. We started off with some mussels, and Meagan had the black cod special, prepared with Greek accoutrement. Opting for the comfort food department, I chose the Oregon beef meatloaf wrapped in bacon. It would have been awesome even without the bacon - the addition put it over the top. We saved a little room for dessert, and chose the lavender-infused creme brulee. That, too was fantastic.
We left stuffed. Despite being past nine-o-clock, there was a little sunset left in the Northwest summer sky, and I was keen to test out the tripod that I purchased earlier, so we headed for the Sequim waterfront. By the time we meandered our way to the shores, there wasn’t much light left, but I was able to snap a few shots. Nothing fabulous, but it was nice to at least play around.
After packing the camera, we wove our way through Sequim backroads and then on our way to Port Angeles, watched a movie and then headed to bed.
Sunday, after sleeping in again, we ventured to town and tried to find a breakfast spot. We didn’t have much luck, so we had our leftover pastries from the day before and stopped back at Bella Coffee for some more carbs and coffee.
We picked up some picnic supplies from the market and headed for Hurricane Ridge, which is in the National Park a few miles south of town. It was a little difficult to hike around as the top still had a fair amount of snow in places, but we enjoyed our picnic, surrounded by a few deer over the ridge who were behaving much like golden retrievers, licking their chops in hopes of a handout.
Finishing our late lunch and descending back to town, we returned to the coffee shop for a little while before heading back to Meagan’s house to relax. Before I ventured back to Seattle, we grabbed a burger to go from Frugals, went back to the house, pondered who might own the truck with the “BEERFAT” license plate, enjoyed our dinner, and said our goodbyes.
I’m now on the ferry, which is docking at the Seattle terminal, finishing up this post, and looking forward to a return trip to the Peninsula next weekend.