Months ago, Chris suggested that we take a weekend trip to the Olympic Peninsula. He explained that we could ride a ferry (while in our car!), sleep in Port Angeles, and drive to the Northwestern tip of Washington (which so happens to also be the most NW point in the US). It was a chance to see the mountains and the forest during the height of fall. I graciously accepted the invitation.
image via Travel Washington
Our trip began on Friday evening with the short ferry ride across the sound from Edmonds to Kingston. We had been looking forward to this trip for weeks, but as excited as I was, the thought of leaving for the weekend left me uptight. When would I be able to clean our house before work on Monday? What about the gata, not to mention my homework?? Thankfully, these thoughts were silenced the moment we walked out onto the upper deck of the ferry - the cold air coming off the water jolted me awake and as the city lights faded behind us, so did my stresses from the particularly long week.
As you can see, the upper deck was deserted. I needed the silence and appreciated the hazy, almost eery light.
Once we arrived in Kingston, we drove another hour or so to Port Angeles and checked into the Olympic Lodge. The king-sized bed was a welcoming place to rest my head after a glass of wine and long, hot bath. I dozed off while Chris watched an episode of Gangland on the History Channel.
The following morning, we drove to downtown Port Angeles for brunch at First Street Haven. As we settled into two seats at the bar, I couldn't help but note that this very small, charming place frequented by old people, reminded me of diners back home in South Dakota (namely the Grainery before its renovation). We loved it. And, aside from it's nostalgia, the place served the tastiest brunch. The meal began with a freshly baked, warm cinnamon roll. The viscosity of the carmel in the roll was perfect - not runny and not so thick that it stuck to our teeth. Chris followed with a french country scramble and I the Dungeness crab omelet. Downtown was teaming with people for the Dungeness crab festival and I had to get my fork in some of it.
Cleverly, the restaurant provided Pacific Northwest Lonely Planet travel guides for customers. What piqued our interest was a popular trail leading to Marymere Falls on Crescent Lake.
We found ourselves alone on the Marymere Falls trail, I suspect because it was raining. As we began our hike, I recalled that the last time I had been hiking, it was more by happenstance than anything else; myself and two girlfriends found ourselves lost just outside Barcelona, Spain on Mount Tibidabo, near sunset with no equipment to handle a nights stay. This hiking experience was much more to my liking.
Here are some things I discovered on the trail:
1. Certain shades of green take on an almost neon quality when it rains. The sky is overcast, the air is heavy, but there is still plenty of light to illuminate color.
2. I was being overly conscious of where I was walking. My head was forever down, making certain that with each step, I wasn't going to trip over a branch or get my shoes wet in a puddle. From that point on I made sure that my head was up, looking around, and exploring the forest.
3. "Thorny Leaf" - a larger-than-my-face leaf with an absurd amount of thorns underneath the leaf and its stems.
Chris noted how the trees were the largest he had ever seen. They were certainly the tallest I had seen too. We stood for a moment and stared up at them, I had to put my arms out for balance. That's when I noticed a single rain drop fall from one of the trees. I followed it with my eyes, trying so hard to resist the urge to close them as the drop gained momentum toward my face. Chris was doing it too and we giggled. Why was it so hard to keep our eyes open?
That's when a song came to me. I hummed it out loud without realizing it.
"Rain is falling looks like love."
It's a song I overplayed years ago by the Stars. The chorus goes like this:
you're cold, maybe you just missed the sun
you fall, feeling like its just begun
so far, keeping it together's been enough
look up, rain is falling, looks like love
The rain continued to pick up as we made our way out to Neah Bay for the second hike.
"Do you still want to go?" Chris asked as he parked the car.
I thought for a moment: At this point, the rain was coming down hard, we were already soaked, and we had absolutely no proper hiking equipment. But, after what I learned from our last hike, I couldn't let wet feet stop me from exploring with my love.
"Okay, let's go."
This must have been when Chris got nervous because when we got out of the car, he quickly opened the trunk, mumbled something about wanting to take the flip camera, furiously removed our other cameras from his messenger bag and shut the trunk.
"Why do you need an entire messenger bag for the Flip?" I reasoned from under my umbrella. "It's just going to get soaked and the Flip is small enough to fit in my coat pocket." [For those of you who have never seen a Flip, it's virtually the size of a cell phone.]
He jumped into the back seat of our car, rearranged everything in his jacket, and left his bag behind. I assumed he was frazzled because the rain was coming down so hard and too cold and wet myself to see anything suspicious going on around me.
Once we started hiking, I forgot about the pouring rain and was back to having a great time. The half mile trail to Hole in the Wall was flooded but there were small tree stump steps available to walk on. The rain let up enough for me to set down our umbrella and begin taking video of the waves with the Flip. Because I have shaky hands, I leaned over and stabilized the Flip on the railing. 20 seconds into filming I felt Chris's hand on my back. "Hey love," He trailed off a bit, trying to get my attention. I kept filming.
He placed his hand on my back again, this time resting it there. I was thankful because having his hand on my back stabilized my shot. "Love." He said. I stood up and he took the camera from my hands. [The video below is of the Hole in the Wall, as Chris took my Flip]
He put his arm around me, told me that he loved me, reached in his pocket, and got down on one knee. I'm pretty sure I was crying before he said another word.
As you can see from our smiles, I SAID YES!!
Chris is my best friend, nothing would make me more proud than to be his wife!
Engagement weekend continued: We headed back to our hotel to change into dry clothing, called our family with the good news, and closed down an Italian restaurant that night for our engagement dinner. In the AM, we ate another incredible brunch and drove to North Beach in Port Townsend.
I've decided that I enjoy beaches most when it's chilly. Also, I did some rock collecting.
I began by merely taking pictures of the rocks. "Look at this one, Chris!" I pointed at one rock and snapped a picture. "Oh, and look at this one!" I squealed. They were curious shades of purple, green, and pink - some were speckled and others marbled.
Then I gave in and starting picking them up to take home. Before I knew it, all my pockets were full and I had to recruit Chris to help carry them.
"It's great to see someone enjoying the rocks here," a smiling, middle-aged women walking her Jack Russell terrier commented. She proceeded to explain the geological significance of the area and how the rocks exhibiting different qualities were formed in specific geological time periods. That's when I noticed she had a local science center sweatshirt on.
Look at us with the rocks!
After Port Townsend it was back to Seattle, back to reality. Only this time I was headed home with some serious bling, things would never be quite the same again.
Nov 22, 2010 
