Thursday
What a change in the weather. This morning was 20 degrees less than yesterday and with an off-shore flow of clouds. Quite honestly I really prefer this over the 90 to 100 degree days. We have a visitor coming about 2 this afternoon so we are going to stay pretty close by. Our visitor is an insurance adjuster from GMAC. She is coming to take a look at our fire damage and get us all set up to get it repaired. We drove the 2 ½ miles down to Hoodsport, just to look around. Totally there were 4 shops that sold just about the same “stuff” as the other one. That’s OK because we were “just looking”… 2 o’clock arrived and left and so did Brandy…everything is going forward. Now it’s time to head out and do some hiking. About 6 or 7 miles from our campground and at the end of Lake Cushman, is the hiking trails going up “The Staircase”. The road followed Lake Cushman for about 6 miles and then eased away on a dirt road for another 3 miles before coming into Olympic National Park and the start of the Staircase trail. Our trail followed a beautiful river and some “old growth” fir and cedar trees for about 1 ½ miles before it came to an abrupt stop…the bridge was washed out. The huge ferns, tiny flowers, mushroom, the hanging moss, and then of course the “Giants” of the forest that I mentioned earlier. It was common to see trees that were 6 to 8 feet across and, gawd how tall is it ??? OK, now let’s get home and get ready for that CRAB… Our Patio Dinner was just as I had pictured and the meal, one that we will remember for a long time.