Olympic National Park

On Monday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, packed the room, and headed out.  I went to Walmart first to get some rain ponchos.  We ended up not needing them, but the weather forecast said rain, so I thought it was better to be prepared.
Then we drove back up the road to Olympic National Park.  We went to the Heart of the Forest trailhead just inside the park.  It was a beautiful hike (obviously), and this time pretty flat.  A lot easier for Ben!

Brigham found a gigantic tree fungus the size of a dinner plate.

See, really the size of a dinner plate!

Brigham is king of the giant rotting fallen tree!

The boys kept saying they almost expected a dinosaur to come tromping through the forest at any time.  It seemed really primeval like that.

YUM!  A giant yellow banana slug!  Joseph is really amazing at finding creepy crawly creatures (he didn't actually eat it, although he did ask me if I dared him to lick it.  NO!!!).

Ben and me resting a while (well, Ben was resting, I was waiting) while the boys explored around the forest.

Mosey's turn to hold the banana slug.  Soon he wanted to go of and climb some trees, so he gave it to me with the order, "Don't let it crawl off and get away, mom!"

Mosey posing with a bunch of tree fungus.  Fascinating and disgusting at the same time.

Too soon it was time to go back to the car and make our way to the ferry terminal.  Once there, Ben walked with the boys to get lunch at Dairy Queen while I waited with the car.  This was the same ferry company (perhaps the very same ferry?) that I remember riding when I was a kid.  I was 9 years old the first time we went to Victoria on Vancouver Island.  I remember that we had a few hours in Port Angeles before our ferry crossing, and my parents took us to see "Goonies" at a theater there.  We drove by the very theater, actually, and I pointed it out to the boys.  I remember being a little scandalized by the movie as a 9 year old.  Did my parents take all of us?  The twins were only a year and a half that summer, I think.  I can't imagine they took them, so one of my parents must have stayed out with the babies.  Anyway, it's a fun memory.
The ferry ride over was fun!  A little wavy, but not nearly as much as it was the 2nd time I went across on that ferry, this time as a 13 year old (I think).  I remember the boat rocking so ferociously from side to side that I was afraid it would capsize, or at the very least that all the cars downstairs would be dented up.  However, all was fine.

 Brigham giving me his best dazed and confused look.  :-)

 Joseph on the upper deck of the ferry.  We had the best view from up there, although it was cold!

 Cutie Mosey.

 Look at Mosey's crazy teeth!  It's so funny how baby teeth come in all perfect and straight, and then the adult teeth (at least for my boys) come in totally skewampus.  I'm really hoping they'll start straightening up on their own, or else we're looking at some serious orthodontist bills.  :-)

Mosey posing on the top deck in front of the retreating Port Angeles coastline with the Olympic mountains in the distance.

We made it into Victoria by about 4:00 PM and drove out of the ferry into a beautiful sunny Canadian afternoon.  We drove around Victoria for a while, got some money changed (and were really dismayed to see how much the American dollar has been devalued...), and then parked behind the Parliament building while Ben used his Blackberry to find a hotel.  The boys played on the lawn while we waited.

We found a great hotel for an even better price (thank you expedia.com) right downtown, drove there, dropped off our stuff, parked the car, and then headed out on foot to explore the city.

Victoria is seriously so beautiful mid-May.  It probably is all year, but the city was bursting with blooming tulips, flowering trees, and blossoms of all colors everywhere you looked.

 (It's hard to take a focused picture while being whisked along in a wheelchair)

Here's the Parliament building by the light of the afternoon sun.  So pretty!

We walked around for a while, admiring the fancy hotels, the sparkling ocean, the cute little tourist shops, until we started getting hungry.  I thought we would be able to find a small little cafe where we could order some fish and chips, but there really wasn't much in the way of easy food, at least not on the roads we were walking on.  In general, I noticed quite strongly how many fewer eating establishments there are per square mile (or kilometer, I guess) in Canada as there is in equivalently populated areas of the US...  I could be appalled by that, I guess, but I'm thoroughly American, and I kind of like my eating choices to be easy and varied!  :-)
Anyway, we finally settled on a seafood restaurant right on the water.  We were seated in the back with a great view of the sun setting over the water.  The boys had fish and chips and Ben and I shared beef wellington, which I have never had, but seemed appropriately British for British Columbia.  It was good!

By the time we were on our way back to the hotel, dark had fallen and we had a great view of the Parliament building lit up at night.  What a cool effect!

 The moon was full that night with just a few scattered cirrus clouds.  So beautiful!  This is the view from the side window of our hotel room as we fell asleep that night.  Great day!