We then proceeded out of Forks south to the Hoh rainforest. The whole area is so very lush and green, but there is an actual rainforest area and as we drove off the main road onto the road headed into the rainforest visitors center, the foliage only got more green and dense. Utah boasts some very beautiful landscapes and I think I have been a little spoiled by it, but there were so many times during this trip that the beauty of the landscape took my breath away! We gathered at the rainforest visitors center and went in, looked around a little and got to talk with a lady forest ranger. She was very nice and told me that while they had seen a little more traffic in the forest, they had always had lots of tourists in the forest, more and more of the tourists coming through were twilight fans.
Group 5 decided to hike a relatively easy hike, The Hall of Mosses. It was absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen so much moss, let alone draped on everything it could drape itself on. Our huge group of somewhere close to 60 people quickly thinned out and Laura & I mainly did the hike together. I have posted pics below of the forest and if you click on them they should expand to larger sizes. At the very beginning of our hike we crossed a bridge that had some green plants in the water below it. The plants were amazing because they looked a lot like strings of feathers under the water. The whole forest was just so beautiful. There really aren't better words.
On the way out of the forest we stopped to take photos of the river that runs along side the road. I believe it is the Hoh river. Jackie actually climbed down the embankment and out into the river to take some pics. While we were taking pics, one of the other ladies offered us her marker to mark up the windows on our rental car. So we chose "We did the Hoh!" and wrote it on the back window.
We drove back to the motel and picked up Misty, who hadn't been feeling well that morning, so didn't go to the rainforest and continued on our way down to the beach. Initially we were going to go picnic on Second Beach, but when we reached the gas station on the way to La Push, some other moms informed us that there was no way to really get down to Second Beach, so we scrapped that beach and decided to go get a look at First Beach.
I have to mention here that I was pretty vocal about the weather before going to Forks and even on the first day. I met a woman in the Thriftway who was very nice and thrilled to meet the twilightmoms and I asked her "where are you keeping the crappy weather?". She laughed and said we had picked the best four days the summer was going to have to come to Forks. I was bummed. However, when I woke on the second morning, I could tell that the light wasn't right outside to be sunny, so I went to look and sure enough it was a murkey, overcast, misty day that I had been hoping to have! Hurray! (because everyone knows that vamps don't come out on sunny days!) Anyway, eventually the sun burned off the mist and the day became beautiful blue skys, which I was fine with because it was warm and beautiful. Well, those beautiful skies extended to approximately 2 miles up the road from La Push! ha ha...as we drove down to La Push, it became murkey and gross just like the morning had been. It was perfect and I enjoyed every minute. You will notice in my pics that the morning was so beautiful, but all the beach pics are just terrible weather and then the drive to Port Angeles is good weather again. Strange weather out there, but I loved it all! The doom & gloom and the sunny blue skies were both just fabulous!
We played at La Push for a little while, eating a little bit and playing in the cold surf. I don't know how anyone could come to this beach and feel anything but peaceful calm. The views were gorgeous with the small islands out off the shore a little bit. I just fell in love with this whole area. We didn't stay too long because we did have to drive to Port Angeles for dinner, so we played for a little bit, then went back to the motel again to change and were quickly on our way to Michaels Divine in Port Angeles for dinner...laughing all the way! I don't know if it is allowed to have as much fun as we did while driving in the car!
We arrived for dinner around 5:30 and it took forever to get our food! Unfortunately there was only room for four at a table, so Laura decided to sit with Jerri and a couple others, but Jackie, Chelsea, Misty & I sat together and laughed the night away! In group 5, we were playing a "hide the Ferrari" game all weekend long. Basically, you passed the small car from one unsuspecting victim to the next and if you got caught with it at the end of the weekend....well, you just didn't want to be that person. So our leader Tara came over to our group while we were waiting for our food and tried to hide the car in Misty's shirt nonchalantly...but that didn't work! Which prompted more laughs. It didn't help that the restaurant had the same leg lamp from The Christmas Story movie! I was taking pics next to the lamp, when a waiter walked by and said "fragile!" (in italian accent), well, I am not very familiar with the movie so I replied with "What?" and he said "Fragile!" and I said "Huh?" and he said "Fragile!" and so I grumbled and thought what are the chances they got an Italian as a waiter here in Port Angeles! Ha ha ha...the girls later explained the joke to me!
We ate dinner, finally, and then desert...which was not only small, but not that great because the chocolate sauce was made out of the bitter chocolate and those truffles needed a warning label, because when I picked mine up to eat it, I must have accidentally breathed in, coating my sinus cavity with truffle dust! Ewe...not fun! Once done with dinner, we went and retrieved the rental car and went back to pick up Laura from the restaurant, all the while hanging out the windows yelling "Snack Box?! Where are you snack box?!" and laughing at top notch. I think it might have been a little confusing to most, but we thought it was hilarious! I was looking for the hottie from the night before, but was unfortunately able to find him. You would have thought that he could have heard me from anywhere in Port Angeles!
We drove back to Forks and after so much fun and laughs...you couple that with an hour long or more drive and it just wears you out! Unless you are me that is! Ha ha. Misty & I dropped off Laura, Chelsea & Jackie at the motel and met up with Genell, Lisa & Selle at the cabin group 2 was staying at. We played twilight family feud and were having a great time until we received a special performance from Dana and Jazz or Vampilla Ice I should say! Their twilight version of Ice Ice Baby was fabulous! I fell in love with it and it was so good that we had group 1 drive over in the middle of the night to see it to. While waiting for group one we also had an impromptu dance off! It was a terrific night! Misty & I rolled back into the motel around 3am and quickly went to bed...the tide pools hike was scheduled for 5:15am...so we needed our beauty sleep! :D
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