On Tuesday, the 28th, we left the hotel in Forks early to drive to Rialto Beach. We briefly got lost, but eventually found our way to the right area. There were a lot of tree skeletons and what I think was kelp on the beach. We walked for about a mile and a half north on Rialto Beach in order to find the "Hole in the Wall," which was literally a big hole carved in a big rock over thousands of years of erosion. It was a really pretty beach, with Pacific Ocean, sea stacks (rock formations sticking out of the ocean), and lots of greenery behind the beach.

The only way to get inside the hole is to walk slowly on the slippery, rounded rocks. I'm proud to say I was the only one of the four of us that didn't fall on the way over there. It seemed like it took longer to walk back than it did to get there and it was already starting to get warm.

The next stop was the Hoh Rain Forest, which unfortunately was a lot warmer and drier than we thought it would be. Since there hasn't been much rain lately, most of the moss on the trees was brown. We went on a short walk and stopped and ate some fruit that we had. There were some neat grass fields under the little pond near the visitor's center.


After that, we went to Ruby Beach on our way home, which was pretty similar to Rialto Beach but busier. But that might have been because we were there later in the day. We had to climb over a bunch of logs, which was kind of fun, but I could see how it would be difficult for some people to navigate. It was neat seeing the mist come onto the beach from the Pacific Ocean.

On the way home we got pretty hungry since we didn't really eat lunch. We planned to stop at a Dairy Queen in the next town, but were stopped for 30 minutes or so by road construction. We eventually stopped in Aberdeen where Troy and I shared a Butterfinger Blizzard like we always do.

We finally made it back into Seattle at around 6 and were really hungry. My Dad had been asking us since we moved here if we found a good Italian restaurant. We've been to a place called Mamma Melina twice before and liked it, so we decided to go there. I had forgotten they don't have lasagna on the menu, but they have several other good dishes that are reasonably priced. I got the rigatoni with mini meat balls and Troy got the linguine with clams. The clams came in the shells, which was a little weird, but he said they tasted alright.

We drove through the U district on the way back to the apartment. Overall, the Olympic Peninsula was impressive, though it would have been prettier had we gone at a different time of year when it wasn't as dry. Two days isn't enough time to see everything. We also skipped a few things, like Lake Crescent and the Sol Duc Falls, so we'll have to go back some other time to see. We'll definitely do more hiking too.