vacation: Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park, Washington and Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
The very best thing about B&B’s is, of course, the free gourmet breakfast. What would have cost $20 a person in a normal hotel was being served to us for free: fresh fruit, yogurt, tea, coffee, French toast, juice, and sausage.
We packed up the rest of our cheese and freshly picked blackberries and headed out towards Hurricane Ridge. First, we stopped at Lake Crescent. The waters were completely transparent amongst the mountain peaks. You could see the stony bottom of the entire lake. We would have loved to go for a boat ride, but unfortunately there was not a huge amount of time before our ferry today.
We did decide that there was enough time to stop at a local winery along the way. We were totally ready to taste some of the worst wine we had on our trip. I had even looked at their website in route and decided we could get away with just buying chocolate if the wine sucked, and not seeming like dead beats that just wanted some free wine. But, the wine was actually very tasty and we ended up walking away with a bottle of the house white.
The ride up to Hurricane Ridge was excruciatingly painful. At 3 stops along the 12 mile stretch it was down to one lane. You would wait 20 minutes for the stop sign holder to turn their sign to slow as you followed a pilot vehicle up the mountain. A twenty minute journey quickly turned into an hour and a half, which just kept counting down the amount of time we’d actually get to spend on the top of the mountain before coming down.
It was all worth it though. The view from Hurricane Ridge was spectacular. Snow capped mountains and lush meadows. Tom accidentally spilled our chili dipping oil while preparing our picnic on the side of the mountain, which attracted the local wildlife. There I was, eating a tasting bit of cheese and cracker, and Tom started going “Oh my God! Stay still, stay still, stay still.” Either the largest bug in existence was sitting on my head or a deer had wandered up over my shoulder. Luckily it was the later.
The deer stuck around, even though her two babies waited on the hill in the distance, and sampled our crackers and various bites of fruit. Just as Tom was complaining that he hadn’t seen any wildlife all trip, there was wildlife as real and approachable as anything we had ever experienced. This was completely worth the long ride up and the eventual long ride down.
When we got ready to board the ferry, we took a little detour into downtown Port Angeles to kill the wait. Surprisingly enough, we found a local wine bar serving tasty jasmine flavored IPA and bubbly local Syrah. The waitress, who had gone to University in Victoria, recommended some great spots for us to visit that night.
Victoria is awfully quaint. It’s like a Canadian version of Charlevoix or Mackinaw, except quite a bit bigger. We walked along the water, passing by sailboats and hanging gardens, passed the capital building and the moss covered Empress. We arrived at Pagliacci’s, an Italian restaurant recommended by the wine bar waitress. The lines was out to door and around the corner, so after smelling the delicious smells for a few minutes, we decided to walk a little bit further to Cafe Brio.
Expensive, yes. Amazing, doubly yes. We had amazing agnolotti filled with fresh fish and crispy duck covered in wine sauce. I discovered the incredible candy flavor of Elysian Black Muscat. Everything tasted exquisite.
On the walk back Victoria was lit up like a Christmas tree. This was a magical city.
Tomorrow: Vancouver, British Columbia
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