Visiting the Olympic Peninsula

First Brodie - I bought a battery operated food delivery system and have it set for 2:30p every day. It will drop 1/2 cup (can drop 1 1/2) of food with his pill wrapped up in something yummy.  He has gotten the hang of it and now about 20 after will take his place near the machine and wait for the drop. I love this as it frees me up from having to rush home to give him his pill (he HAS to have them on time).

My friend of almost 50 years, Cathie, visited from GA. I really enjoy her company as we are so much alike, and yet so different. She is calmer, much more 'together' than I am, and she can cook!!! I did cook quite a lot while she was here, so that gave me confidence to keep it up.

Above is Lake Crescent on state highway 101 in the Olympic National Forest.  We were on our way to Forks, WA. Once we reached the lake the smoke cleared up. It was SO BAD IT HURT TO BREATHE!

We were on our way to Forks, the town written about in the first book of the Twilight series. Stephenie Meyer chose Forks for the setting for her books as it is a small town and is one of the rainiest places in the United States. It wasn't used in the movies because, according to a local, the governor would not give them a tax break, so they filmed in Oregon instead.

He said that when the book came out using Forks as the setting, the tourism picked up 200 fold and it saved the town which was on the brink of disaster.  It is a tiny town for sure, and I for one am glad they are safe for now! I bought a Twilight T-shirt just to help out their economy.

They now have a Stephenie Meyer Day and I guess she has visited a couple of times. They love her!

This is a resident peacock at the Olympic Game Farm in town, not too far from my home. One of MANY.  The Game Farm was basically supported by Disney, who used their animals in films, and retired their animals there, too. Now they don't from what I understand.

I don't know the history behind this bear, but he was very congenial and almost waved. I think he actually does wave at people who feed him. There were lots of bears, tigers, lions, zebras, etc.

I believe this is a Yak…and it looks like he had an accident with his horn! All the other Yak had horns that went up like the one on the right.  They were very friendly and would stick their faces on your windows hoping you had food to drop them.  We passed up driving through the Bison area as were told it is mating season and they can get mean or amorous with your vehicle!

These are the prettiest deer! Remind me of Bambi! I have never seen any so white with such beautiful sable, freckled saddles.  

They also had tons of rabbits all over. They were so so so cute! Clean and pretty and colorful!  Running loose all over near the Bobcat enclosure and where they have wolves and coyotes. 

All in all is was a pretty nifty experience.

Early on Cathie and I went over to Sequim Bay.  We parked at the John Wayne Marina and walked out near the shoreline to check out rocks. As I understand it his family donated the land. It isn't 18 miles east of Port Angeles, but more like 22 miles or more. Why they leave out Sequim from the directional info I don't know, but it is in the Sequim city limits and in Sequim Bay.  Maybe because it is part of the Port Authority.

This is part of Port Townsend and you can see the cliffs of Whidbey Island.

This is Cathie…we traveled over to Port Townsend to see if we could pick up some "sea glass" which was, of course, pretty picked over.  We did find some tiny round pieces and looked long enough to fill up a small baby jar (almost) of the glass so she would have a conversation piece on her shelf.

Since we started with Brodie we will end with Brodie. Sometimes he can be so breathtakingly handsome!

Sometimes he is just an ornery boy!