Day 68 (July 23) – If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again

We decided to try again for the view at Hurricane Ridge.  We headed up through much less fog than yesterday and drove out of the clouds into the parking area of the VC.  While the fog was better, the clouds were still hovering around and below us out over the mountain peaks.  We sat and waited about 45 minutes to see if it would clear.  Finally we gave up and headed back down into town for some antique shopping.  Of course, as we were driving away, we started to see blue sky around us and behind us, but that was no guarantee the view had really improved any.  We planned to come back later this afternoon when it was supposed to be getting sunny.

Lots of fun shopping.  Brad bought Carmen a pocketknife.  She and Audra have started whittling, but their little souvenir knives from TX just aren’t cutting it.  Ha!  I promised I wouldn’t buy anything today since I bought books and clothes yesterday (necessary jeans and shoes…and cookies!).  I then promptly found some Christmas presents for family and had to buy those.  I found a field guide to North American birds for $3 and bought that.  And I bought “A Wrinkle in Time” for $2 for Carmen.  Audra has started it once and didn’t like it, but it was one of my favorites.  I think that was it though, besides Safeway.  Oops.  I’m not a good window shopper.

All that shopping made us really hungry.  Too hungry for the snack box.  Yesterday I overheard someone recommending The Cornerhouse Restaurant for their prices and food (fries!).  It is a diner type restaurant with diner prices, but better than your typical diner food.  We tried it out and it became one of our top restaurants of the trip.  Huge portions and delicious food.  Audra had the soup and sandwich special: turkey and rice soup (tasted like Thanksgiving) and a giant bbq sandwich (on a big fat Hawaiian roll).  Carmen had a chicken tenders kids meal with fries, green salad and garlic toast.  I finally got fish and fries.  The best I’ve ever had (and I’ve had them in England!).  Brad got the clam chowder which he has had at a couple other restaurants out here and it won hands down.  That was a whole paragraph about our lunch, but it was that good.  (for $35)  (and really good coffee)

We dropped our groceries off at camp, regrouped and headed back up the hill to H.R. one more time.  It was a little foggy toward the middle, but at the top was pretty clear.  We could see mountain peaks!  And there were deer all over the parking lot.  I was able to take some decent photos of the mountains.  I kept waiting for Mt. Olympus to come into view.  There was a cloud just sitting in front of it for most of the time, but finally it moved so that I got a glimpse.  The mountains stretch to each side as far as you can see.  It’s not a depth thing where you see row after row, or maybe it is and I just couldn’t see it because of clouds, but the panoramic view was pretty spectacular from that ridge.

We had a picnic supper while looking at all those mountains.  Then we went on an evening hike.  I think it would have been a sunset hike if you could have seen the sun.  The fog was moving back in across the meadow and ridge where the trail went.  Our view was once again flowers and fog and snow.  I’m trying not to be disappointed because we have had such great weather for most of the trip.  I guess since I did get some photos we will not go back again.  Tomorrow we plan to head to Hoh Rain Forest area.
Hurricane Ridge Take 2