JULIE'S JOURNAL

You may follow along in our journey by visiting Julie's Journal page. It will include photographs, suggestions, mishap adventures and our experiences on the road and back-country trails.

If you would like to know more about the history of our adventure click here for the history page. How we planned, saved money, chose our equipment and prepared for ten months on the road.

These are some other web sites we found useful and/or have recpical links with.

Port Angeles, WA
Olympic National Park, WA
Seattle, WA
June 13 to July 18, 1999

Written by Julie Hackler and Dave Fink

In Port Angeles itself we spent time at the towns beautiful pier and marina. Main Street had several shops where you could browse for just about anything. On the Forth of July the town had a great fireworks display as well as live music and tours of a Navy Ship. I think the whole town turned out to the pier for a great show. Dave and I visited the local micro-brew pub, simply called the Pub, a few times over our visit. They have a good selection of dark and light beers, if you're a beer lover you are sure to find something to suit your taste.

When we weren't spending time in the town we were enjoying the beautiful countryside. Playing in the pond and catching tadpoles, lying in the sun (when it was out), and walking the streets breathing in the fresh northern air. Dave and I both witnessed the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen: a full rainbow! When the rains stopped in Washington and the sun broke through the clouds we were able to see wonderful colors of blue, green, purple, orange, red and yellow from end to end. The rainbow arched over the house like it was only meant for Dave and I to see. It was one of the most beautiful things I ever laid eyes on and completely made up for the three weeks of rain and clouds.

We also visited several spots in Olympic National Park during our stay. We first went to the famous Hurricane Ridge. We had been there before but the clouds blocked the magnificent view. This time we were able to get the full panoramic view and boy was it breath taking. You could spin in circles and see the entire Olympic Mountain Range. There was even enough snow left at the top for Maria, Dominic and myself to go sledding. We had a blast sliding down the snow over and over again until we were exhausted.

We hiked a few trails in Olympic. Our first attempt was in the Lake Crescent area. The Marymere Falls was a 2-mile hike round trip that brought you to one of the tallest waterfalls in the park. We took lunch and enjoyed the scenery when we reached the top.

Another nice hike was to the Sol Duc Falls in the Sol Duc Valley. These falls were larger and fell with more force than that of the Marymere Falls. The hike was just as pleasant and only 1.6 miles. We really didn't do any strenuous hikes in the park, only nice pleasant strolls. Sol Duc Valley is famous for their natural hot springs, so we decided to check them out. We had expected more of a scenic overlook and maybe a large whole in the ground where you could feel the hot water from the spring. What we found was a hotel with a resort that charged $6.75 to enter the large area where they had a swimming pool and three hot tubs that were supplied water from the hot springs. It looked more like a swimming club then a spot for a natural hot spring. We were disappointed, but with the amount of people that were paying to get in the pools it seemed we were the only ones.

We also visited Seattle while we were in Washington. Seattle was quite impressive. I particularly liked the Pikes Place Market where there were fresh flowers, seafood, fruit and vegetables, and a ton of crafts for you to enjoy. The Real World show on MTV made one fresh seafood market famous and all the tourists gather around to watch the men toss the fish, sing songs and entertain the crowds. I loved the smell of the fresh flowers. I would buy a bouquet every week if I lived in the city. The Downtown shopping district has all the name brand stores such as Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy and Tommy. We took a look at the Space Needle, but did not ride to the top. The Aquarium, Space Museum and Art Gallery are all things you should visit if you have the time and money. We unfortunately didn't have either. We took the Bambridge Island ferry to Seattle as foot passengers. It only cost $3.50 round trip per person. So it definitely beat driving to the city or taking our car over the ferry. Almost everything was in walking distance and if it wasn't you could hop on public transportation very easily, so I recommend leaving your car behind. To wrap up our visit to Seattle we hung out at the waterfront, kicked back a few beers and ate well.

Washington was a very beautiful place. Due to the extensive days of rain and clouds I would probably only want to visit and not live in Washington. But, one never knows. From here we head home. We are out of money, so it is time to end our Ultimate Life-Altering Journey and head back east.