One evening at dinner, Valerie reminded us that our wedding anniversary was coming up. We were so preoccupied with house hunting we had clean forgotten. Not that we usually celebrated it. YK for some strange reason cannot remember our wedding date. Good thing it is not a barometer of how our marriage has been faring. Most times in the past, we were too busy with one thing or another to celebrate. YK is not romantic and I am not sentimental which conveniently makes for an amicable combination.
This year we decided to make effort to celebrate. Why the change in behavior? For one, we could not use the excuse that we could not find the time. Also being married for more years than we have been single is surely an achievement worth celebrating. Especially when tomorrow is not promised. We have seen good marriages crumbling around us - due to heartbreaking breakups or tragic deaths. If nothing else, it was a good excuse to get out of hibernation. Time to welcome spring and say goodbye to winter.
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So on a cold but sunny day, I got a break from cooking and we went for a buffet lunch. The spread was fantastic and the food was good. We definitely did not eat our money’s worth. Rather than overeat we willingly subsized those with american- size appetites. Fine dining is good but I hankered for something else.

buffet

celebration
The weather was still too wet for traveling but after these months in Seattle, we had learned to ignore forecasts of rain showers. Even if the place we were planning to visit was a super rainy place with a whopping annual rainfall of 130 inches. Praying hard for good weather we set off on a 3-day getaway to the National Olympic Park, which at nearly 1 million acres, is many times bigger than Singapore. It is a World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve. A lot of reading and planning went into the short trip because we had more places of interest than time to visit.
First we had to decide whether to take the more direct route which is crossing Puget Sound by ferry and bringing our car with us , or to drive the whole long detour on land? In the end my ‘chaffeur’ decided to take the 4-hour drive as it allowed us to see more of the Olympic Peninsula along the way. Mountains and water dotted the picturesque landscape. Every city or town was next to a river, an inlet, a bay, a lake or the ocean.
Our first tourist stop was Port Angeles where a visit to Hurricane Ridge was a must do. At 5200 ft above sea level, it promised a panoramic view of the Olympic mountains, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island. The webcam at the visitor center gave the all clear view for the go ahead to the top but the ranger said we could only go up if we had snowchains. So back to town we went. After losing much precious time rushing through all 3 tire shops, we found probably the last set of snow chains in town. Buying also a bucket of KFC, we proceeded up the slopes, anticipating a good picnic lunch with a magnificient view. However not too far along, the fog started rolling in. With visibility greatly reduced, navigating those curvy mountain roads made any scary roller coaster rides seemed tame in comparison. The fog got thicker by the minute while we bravely inched up the mountains. It felt like driving into one thick wall of impenetrable white clouds after another, with each new wall thicker than the one before. Just eight miles away from the peak we agreed that with this sudden change in weather, all we would see at the top was probably more fog. It was better to make the descent while we could still make it. Being stranded on cloud nine was not my idea of fun. By the time we reached a spot clear enough for us to make out our surroundings, it was already 3.30pm. Cold KFC never tasted this good. How often did we get to eat lunch with the clouds swirling around us? Our mission was aborted but it was still quite an adventure. Some day we’ll try to get to the top again.

lake crescent on the way to Fork
After the mountain top experience, YK sped all the way to Kalaloch Lodge because he wanted to be there in time for sunset. He had booked a room at the lodge with a cliff-top view of the Pacific Ocean. We could hear the waves thundering on the beach as we climbed down to the beach. The gusty chilly ocean winds quickly stung my cheeks lobster red. It was not easy to pick our way through the countless bleached tree trunks that littered the beach. They had been washed down rivers swollen with melting snow. YK described the scene as a valley of dry bones (as in Ezek 37). It was an apt description. Later we read that these bleached tree trunks are also called the bones of the forests.
It was too cold to stay out for long and we retreated to our warmly heated room with a view. We had come a long way from our long- ago honeymoon trip to Lake Toba, Indonesia. Lake Toba was all we could afford then and already an extravagance in those days when every cent mattered. But it was beautiful and unique in its own way. This view of the ocean was special because it was the first time I got to sleep in a room right at the edge of the ocean. Dinner consisted of hot cup noodles with our leftover KFC meal for starters. The main meal was the full view of the rising tide in the twilight.

kalaloch beach entry

window framed picture view from room

fat raccoon outside our room
The next morning it felt like someone in the skies had forgotten to turn off the tap. There was no TV or internet to check on the weather but one of the staff confirmed that it was going to be wet and wetter. The restaurant was not opened for breakfast until after eight. We were impatient for an early start but was forced to slow down. Breakfast was 2 poached eggs with potato hash and smoked salmon. When it arrived, YK said it looked like chai tow kway. We polished off the eggs and salmon and left behind two mountains of potato. Not our fault really. How could anyone eat that much potatoes for breakfast.

Chai tow kway??
maybe but not potatoes.

kalaloch restaurant
After overeating, it was back to the beaches for some exercise. After trudging down 2 muddy trails to 2 different beaches we gave up. They were obstructed by more big piles of bleached tree trunks, now made slippery by the rain. Tsunami warning signs with evacuation instructions were posted all over the beaches, in case of earthquakes . An earthquake fault sits nearby on the ocean.

in the valley of dry bones
Enough of inaccessible beaches. Next stop was the Hoh Rain Forests. I was especially curious as to why there was a Hall of Moses in a temperate rain forest. After another long drive up some more mountains, we finally arrived at our destination. Thanks to my blurry eyes – it was Hall of Mosses, not Moses.

Arc of Mosses (Ark of Moses!!)

Where is Moses?
YK could not resist rubbing it in while we walked the trail: why was Moses not present in the Hall of Mosses? Clearly, he forgot his reading glasses! Temperate rain forests are very different from tropical ones. Many of the trees are very old, gigantic and covered with thick mosses. They would make good props for a Lord of the Ring movie. IAll those mosses made the whole place looked very spooky. I would not want to be in these forests at night although the elks would not agree. They live in these forests and we spotted 2 of them. God’s creation is always amazing. He just needs to vary the altitude, latitude, and precipitation a little here or there, and nature would put on a completely different but always spectacular display.

LOTR: fire breathing dragon behind me
After Hoh Forests we decided to cut short our stay. The rain had persisted and was likely to carry on to the next day. It was finally getting the better of us. We stopped at the small town of Fork to refuel the car. The tiny visitor center was swamped with young girls who were there for the Twilight movie tour. The vampire movie was made here and it put the once small sleepy town on the map. Failing to get adequate information on the ferry ride back, we decided to drive all the way again. I was craving for a steaming bowl of Vietnamese beef noodle soup, maybe in a bigger town along the way back. By 2.30pm and still far from the next town, we decided it was time for fastfood. We pulled off into a picnic area alongside Lake Crescent, a 10 mile long freshwater lake. Out came our can of tuna, lettuce, mayo and bread and our sandwiches were ready. The huge lake was shrouded in fog and there was no one else except a pair of hopeful ducks who came begging us for crumbs. No feeding allowed, poor ducks, fine $1000.
After lunch it was full speed back to Seattle, with a shopping break at Silverdale on the Kitsap Peninsula, to stretch our legs. The rain fell in sheets near Tacoma and YK had a hard time driving. We finally made it home at 8.30pm. Home, out of the wet and cold, with a hot bowl of home-cooked noodle soup. is the best place to be.