{ two weeks ago at this time 6.17.12 }

:: Sunday, June 17th ::

Wake up.  Oatmeal for breakfast.  Pack up shop.  Say goodbye { and Beth rattled off her list of favorite things from the site to the ocean }.  Back on the road!

We had just started venturing down the 101 when we had our first real dilemma of the trip.  Cut inland to Forks Washington, or keep on down the coast on the 101.

Guess what my answer was?

Yup.  That just happened.  I was pretty beside myself to finally see Forks WA!  It was pretty freaky to see exactly HOW MUCH presence Twilight had on the town.  Think lots of stars, cut outs of the actors/actresses on sides of buildings, signs like "TWILIGHT CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!"  But hey - I bet it was, and will still be, the biggest thing to EVER happen to that town!

The thing I love and miss oh so dearly about Washington/Oregon was how beautiful, stunningly, beautimus, fantastical, gorgeously, wonderfully schmunderfully green and lush everything was!  There was moss growing on the trees, which multiplied by the dozens.  

After driving inland after our Forks venture, we found our way back to the coast, and stumbled upon the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  Ruby Beach!

This beach was so windy, rainy and cold - but easily my most favorite beach we came across on our trip.  

There were hundreds of thousands of millions of river rocks, piles of logs and fog for days.  I think my favorite part of Ruby Beach was how rugged and ugly the waves were.  They were so angry, loud, big and just wild - it was memorizing to watch!  It just had this extremely enchanting feel to it - like it was giving you a great big hug.  I know I probably sound like a coocoocachoo right now, but man alive was it wonderful being there.

I have to smile whenever I talk about our campsites, because we thought we were so organized with our maps, and looking ahead on Google Earth to see where all the good campsites were.  Every single site we visited that was found on a map etc., we hated.  Don't get me wrong - they were all beautiful, but just too over populated with RV's, tents and noise for our liking.  Hunter kept saying "A good campsite finds you."  And holy shizuka, that couldn't have proven to be more true!  This next night's site we found by taking a last minute turn off the road to try and find a Ranger Station to get a better idea of where we could call home for the night.  Turns out we didn't need the Ranger Station after all, because our home for the night most certainly found us.  

Every night, I would ask Hunter "Okay, which campsite has been your favorite so far?" to which he would always respond "How could I pick?  Every site has been perfect for that particular day.  There is no way that I could pick just one favorite." 

Damn.  That man is smart.

This particular evening, we found ourselves calling a rainforest home.  Yes, rainforest.  And yes it was as beautiful as it sounds.  We had gotten here earlier than we would get to our campsites most days, so we had a little extra time to dink around before it was time for dinner.  So what did I do you ask?  Set up the damn hammock and read my damn book!!!

This particular moment proved to be the most relaxing, peaceful and glorious moment that I had experienced in a long while.  I was reading Cutting for Stone { do not get me started on how amaze this book is.  Just a warning if you pick it up, make sure you are locked in a room alone for the final like 50 pages, so you don't have to look at your boyfriend with tears gushing down your face as you are sobbing and gasping for breath while trying to find Kleenex in the car. }, the lake quietly crashing off in the distance, cuddled in tight with a quilt, watching Hunter tinker around with the tent and other misc outdoorsey things.  Ohh...hello, happy place.

After about an hour or so of that, we got ourselves ready for a hike!  The trail wasn't far from where we were staying in the slightest, so off we went.  

After 5 miles of that, and about 3 waterfalls, 1 swamp, 2 old men, dozens of wild flowers, and gazillions of trees later, we made our way back to camp.  On the menu that evening was pasta with salmon and brussels sprouts.............with vino of course.  We fell asleep to the crisp air and light pitter patter of rain on our tent this evening.  So lovely.

Pitter...patter...

pitter............

..patter.

....pitter...

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patter.

zzzzzzzzzzzz