July 28 - 31: Seattle and Olympic National Park

We spent a beautifully sunny Monday exploring all the tourist sites of Seattle. Elliot Bay Bookstore (which Nader remembered fondly from his summer spent here in college), Pikes Place fish market, the new library and new sculpture park in town. Having spent most of our traveling over the past several years in more rural locations, we reflected on how fun it was to have a day of urban exploration.


That night we had dinner with Allison's cousin Chester and his girlfriend Kate on their cute little houseboat.... They then showed us the new house they just bought where Chester is going to design their dream home. Damn, Chester now owns TWO houses and we can't get our act together to buy one! Well, on with the travels :)

After a low key regroup day on Tuesday, we headed to Olympic National Park on Wednesday morning where we hiked into Olympic Hot Springs for the night. The hot springs were glorious and our campsite was great... Met some folks from Portland, ME and Denver while we soaked. Yes, the urban exploration was fun but we are still mostly in love with our time spent out of doors....