Vampires vs Werewolves

This last week we went camping on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. We stayed at our all time favorite place in the world: Kalaloch. We stayed at the group campsite, and Alex's parents stayed in a cabin. It was a fun week with lots of card games, campfires, beach explorations, and day trips around the peninsula.

Here's a few Kalaloch pictures:

Jen sitting among bunches of baby sea anemones (the little grey guys next to me). This is on Beach 4--the best tide pools ever.
A violent unseasonal storm left tons of cool junk on the beach. Here's some rope.

This is the view from our campsite. Seriously people, this place is paradise.

So...our first day trip was a "Twilight" tour. I'm re-reading Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series in preparation for the new book coming out in August. I decided to re-read them a little earlier than I wanted so that I could read them at Kalaloch. Forks, WA is just 35 miles from Kalaoch. We visited Forks. It was small, boring, and rainy. She describes it quite well! I didn't even take any photos--I just didn't think about it.

But...the next stop was La Push. Wow. Um, does it sound too trite to say it was one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen? Because it was.

This is a very bundled Jen (did I mention that it was SUPER windy and cold in La Push?). I'm pointing at the bald eagle in the tree. This is the harbor in La Push. You can see the breakwater (the waves are huge with all of the wind), St. James island on the left, and lots of sea stacks in the background.

Here is another view of some of those sea stacks. It was really gray and windy--but still so beautiful.

This is First Beach (the one that Bella and Jake walk on in the books). What you don't see is all of the drift wood, old beach fires, and driftwood forts. It looks like, despite the constant hurricane winds, lots of people hang out on First beach.

It was really fun vising the Twilight locations. Alex even decided to pick up the series (for the first time). I don't know if he likes them or not (granted, they aren't the most sophisticated books), but the books are compelling enough that he has been reading during every possible moment since he started. (Those of you who have read them know what I mean...you forget to sleep, eat, and have to make yourself get up to go to the bathroom or be social.)

***I know...this post is getting long, but I just had to include a few pictures
from day two of our day trips.***

We went up to Cape Flattery, Neah Bay, and the Makah Indian Museum. (I know, they are Native Americans...but they refer to themselves as Indians...so, whatever). The Makah's are really cool. They are a whaling culture. They carved huge 8 man canoes out of a single tree and hunted whales. They also hunted seals and gathered plants and tide pool creatures. They built boxes, played what appears to be badminton, and used metal that washed up from Japan to make tools before any contact with non-natives.

Cape Flattery is the most northwestern point in the contiguous United States. Here is a quick expert from my journal about our trip there:

"When you are out on the point, you feel like you are on the edge of the world. You stand on these platforms atop towering cliffs, looking out at the mouth of the strait between Canada and the US. To the right you see Canada, to the left…endless ocean. Below us were dozens of nesting cormorants tucked into divots in the rock face. The pounding waves in the cauldrons surrounding the cliffs have carved caves deep into the rocks below us. Sea birds fly in and out of the caves and when the swells recede, you can see starfish and tide pool life clinging to the rocks beneath the waves. From this point, the Makah watched white men search for the Northwest passage. From this point, Makah women likely watched their men return from whaling trips. It was amazing."