Winding Down: Washington, Idaho, and Vampires

So, we lost Isabelle last week. To Québec and music festivals via Omaha, Nebraska. And this has absolutely wrecked us--our hearts are broken. Jokes aren't as funny, skies aren't as sunny...but mostly it has taken a serious toll on the blog. Because, apparently, she was the glue holding it together. Or the disciplinarian forcing us to contribute regular blog posts. And for that, we apologize. Things are winding down a bit--not as much crazy excitement to report--but we still need to follow through to the end. Because, happily, we're not done yet. But, sadly, we will be tomorrow. We are currently in Boise, ID at Linda & Michael's charming B&B (&L&D), and we're planning to set off for Denver tomorrow morning at 6 AM. Ugh.

BUT, happy times are being had. After saying our tearful goodbyes to Isabelle in southern Washington, Sophia and I drove back up to Seattle to visit her older brother, Vince, for several days. The trip included several trips to the movies (including Harry Potter, natch), delicious food, mani-pedis (my nails are now neon pink, Sophia's purple), and seeing Vince's new band play in Takoma (in a dive bar shaped like a giant teapot). It was fun, for the most part, but this trip has made cities mostly unbearable for both of us, so we decided to break up our stay in Seattle with a trip to the Olympic Peninsula (and Olympic National Park).

Because we've seen so many mountains, we decided to drive a little extra to reach the rain forest and coastline further west. First we went to the Hoh Rain Forest, which was incredible. It is one of the only temperate rain forests in the world, and it is green, green, GREEN. I can't adequately describe just how green it is. The trees are enormous old-growth forest, and they are covered with moss. It coats the trunks and drips from branches and even leaves. Apparently this causes no harm to the tree itself--the moss does not collect nutrients from the tree. Because the climate is so wet, it gets all of its nutrients simply from the air. Shockingly (or perhaps not so shockingly, considering our track record on this trip) we enjoyed beautiful weather throughout. Even in the rain forest, the sky was blue and the sun shone down through the green ceiling of trees and moss. Onto green ferns and more moss. It was really, really green. I think you get the idea.

In our planning for the drive, we discovered that the route to Hoh would take us through Forks, WA, a small town on the peninsula that has recently become famous for the Twilight series of teen romance novels. Apparently it has become a tourist destination, with Twilight gift shops and tours springing up to accommodate the vampire-crazy pre-adolescent fans. We felt that driving through such a town required a bit of preparation and research, so the three of us took turns reading the book out loud (with voices) in the car. Note to our readers: Twilight is really, really dreadful. Painfully, shockingly dreadful. Especially when read out loud. But it made our trip to Forks pretty entertaining. Vince, in particular, is really good at voicing the lame vampire Edward and his pathetic girlfriend Bella (his Edward sounds like Megatron from Transformers).

On our second day in the park, we went down to the coast, near a town called La Push and walked to Second Beach. Like the rain forest, the pacific northwestern beach was beautiful in an unusual way. The coast is mostly rugged and rocky, and the water itself stormy and full of angry waves, even in the mild weather. Even when the sky was blue 100 yards from the water, the ocean itself was swathed in low mist. It was really breathtaking. It was too cold to swim, of course, but extremely pleasant to walk down the beach for a while.

After leaving Seattle, we drove to Boise, ID to visit Michael and Linda, old friends from Vermont (who were also on our kayaking trip in the San Juan islands). We've now been here for a few days and its been amazingly pleasant. So far we've floated lazily down the Boise River on a raft, played disc golf in the park, eaten shrimp ceviche (by Michael) and roasted vegetable burritos (at Rob & Zelda's), gone to yoga class (finally!), and woken up each day to a brilliant continental breakfast and hot coffee waiting in the kitchen. We're not anxious to leave, to be honest. I'm not ready to return to Denver, or reality. This trip has been just too amazing, I'm not ready for it to be over.