Short Vacation With Nikki

We haven't hardly seen Nikki since she moved to Tacoma almost 3 years ago because our schedules just never lined up. Curtis and I decided it was finally time to make something happen so that we could spend some time with her. He took two days off of work and rented a house through VRBO over in western Washington about an hour north of Tacoma in Hoodsport. When we were down in Nampa for Spring break I had asked my mother-in-law if they would be willing to come that weekend to help out with the other kids at our house and she said they could. Not only did we want to spend a couple of days with Nikki, but both Curtis and I had to turn around and drive to Idaho for different reasons right after we got back. I needed to take Garrett to his cardiologist appointment and Curtis has work stuff going on in Boise.

We left Thursday morning on May 1st to drive to Tacoma and pick Nikki up. We stopped for lunch at a Sushi place called Sumo Sushi & Grill AYCE that Curtis really wanted to go to. Nikki and Curtis like sushi but I don't. The only reason I agreed was because they had a few other options on their menu that I would like such as teriyaki chicken.  However, I did try one sushi that had mango on top. Yeah, still not a fan. It was fun because they have these robots that bring your food out to you, but I didn't get a picture. They also had a buffet of items that you could walk up and get. After stuffing ourselves we drove up to Hoodsport. It was a beautiful drive. Our VRBO was close to the Hood Canal (not like an irrigation canal). 

The view from the dining room.

The living room where we watched two of the Twilight movies.

Small triangular kitchen.

The Master bedroom.

The other bedroom where Nikki slept.

Our view from the back porch. That's Hood Canal.

Enjoying the back porch.

We were all pretty tired and it was evening by the time we got there so we just rested for awhile. Then Curtis and I went to the grocery store in town to get some food while Nikki kept sleeping. Her meds that she started taking recently make her tired. We bought some goodies to eat for while watched the first Twilight movie. We're only a few hours away from Forks, where the movie/books are based on. They happened to have the extended versions of the first 3 movies, so we watched the 1st one on that first night. We bought microwave popcorn, Twix candy bars, and pecan cookies. The popcorn did not pop well in their tiny microwave since it couldn't turn properly. I burned half of the first bag. The secone one I took out earlier but it had a lot of seeds that didn't pop. We ate what we could.

The next morning we slept in a bit, but Nikki slept in a long time. We finally had to wake her up around 10 or so if we wanted to have time to go do something. Curtis did some searching on his phone and found a viewpoint called Hurricane Ridge and a waterfall that had a short hike called Sol Duc Falls. We decided to go to Hurricane Ridge first and ended up paying $30 for a pass because it was a national forest. Luckily, that also got us into the falls as well since it was part of the same national forest. It took about 3 hours to drive from Hoodsport to Hurricane Ridge, but it was a scenic drive. We didn't have to hike at all to get to this look out. I originally thought we would, but you just drive right up and park.

It was a very beautiful view!

We walked over some snow and up a short path in the opposite direction to see a different side. It was also very windy up there as you can see my hair blowing back. It was a little chilly but not too bad. I wore two jackets.

We saw lots of deer. There were 8 in this group, and they didn't seem very scared.

On the drive back down we saw people pulled over looking at something, so we stopped in the middle of the road (since no one was behind us) and saw what they were looking at, black bears! It was a mamma and two cubs climbing up the hill. This is our first time seeing black bears in person in the wild. That was probably the highlight of that excursion.

We did stop at another viewpoint on the way down as well. There were a couple of deer walking in that area also. 

This helped us know what we were looking at, parts of Washington and parts of Canada.

We drove back down to Port Angeles to get some lunch to eat at Subway. I wanted to prove that we had been in Port Angeles so after we ate and were driving toward the waterfalls, I saw a sign while at a stop light and took a picture. It's not much, but it's proof. Ha ha

By the time we headed up the other side of the mountain to find the waterfalls, the clouds started to roll in and it began to rain. It came down hard sometimes, but we just kept driving. At one point, Nikki and I stuck our hands out the windows to feel the rain. I got a snap shot of that.

It was still raining when we pulled up to the head of the trail but what do you expect when you're in a rainforest? So, we went on the hike anyway. I did have a small umbrella with us and Nikki wanted to use it, so she carried it. 

For some reason, this sign had the name spelled differently. Soleduck instead of Sol Duc.

This big stump had a tree growing out of it.

Covered in moss and looked cool.

There was a shelter where you could stop to get out of the rain. It was built a long time ago.

By the time we got here it wasn't raining much.

Looking down from the bridge where the water rushes through after the falls. It is so narrow down there!

View of the falls from the bridge.

Moved around to the side to get a head on view.

Right at the end of the hike back to the van, Nikki found the perfect hiking stick. A little late for that, lol!

We wanted to go all the way to Forks, but we just didn't have the time. It is about an hour from Port Angeles, and we had a 3-hour drive back to our VRBO as it was. It was about 8:30pm when we made it back and watched the 3rd Twilight movie. (We skipped the 2nd one.) The next morning we woke up a little earlier since we had to get out by 10am. We drove back to Tacoma and Nikki showed us this mini mall called Freighthouse Square. It was originally built in 1909 for the train station but now has lots of little shops inside and a food court. Curtis got a spicy curry from an Indian place while Nikki and I shared some cod fish and chips and shrimp. It was pretty tasty.

We drove Nikki back to her apartment and said our goodbyes. I think we were all adventured out by then and just ready to go home. We got home around 4:30, which was definitely earlier than we thought we would be. I think Nikki really enjoyed our little trip even though she slept a lot. School started for her that next Monday, the 5th, and I'm sure it helped give her a little boost to finish her last semester before graduating. It sounds like she will come live with us for a little while after she graduates, at least until she can find a good job somewhere. She's hoping for animation or maybe graphic design.