Weekend in Paradise

Last Friday through Sunday, Carole and I joined up with Chris, Ellen, Conrad and Julie for a trip to La Push. We stayed at a nice comfy cabin right on the ocean and spent the days hiking in the Hoh River Valley, watching sunsets, playing frisbee on ocean shore, roasting bananas on the campfire, cooking great meals and NOT thinking about worklife in Seattle. (Editor's comment: All links in this post are to pictures from the event hosted on Flickr.)

The first great thing we noticed is that our cell phones stopped working somewhere around Sequim. That meant an even higher level of isolation, which was just fine for everyone. It meant that we couldn't easily communicate with the other car (we had to take 2) but it also meant one less source of distraction.

Just past Sequim we stopped to enjoy the great produce at Sunny Farms Market. We stocked up on some organic raspberries and such. Then we made for Crescent Lake where the water is an eerily luminescent turquoise color. I dragged Ellen and Julie along for a 4 mile hike out to the Devil's Punchbowl. Here Julie climbed up the 35 foot cliff to ponder the height, and then dramatically... jumped! Once again, Julie Dillon proves her status as Stave It Off Diving Expert.

As we approached La Push, I spotted excellent rural machinery and forced Ellen to put up with another detour as I rushed off to shoot some photographs for my Rusty Metal series.

Saturday we drove down to the Hoh for a picnic and a couple of short hikes. The remarkable deep lushness of the rainforest enveloped us. Here Conrad ponders what kind of aperature setting would best capture the texture of the canopy. Here's a serene stream scene deep in the middle of the rainforest. Many massive mossy mounds mottle the rainforest floor. Along the way, I caught this shot of Chris hiking. After the deep woods, we came to the shore of the Hoh river where we played around for a while before heading back to the car and our waiting picnic. We attempted to play frisbee despite the strong winds and constant danger of losing our frisbee to the river current. Meanwhile, Ellen "cooled her heels" the old fashioned way.

Then it was back to the ocean beach, where some people appeared to be having even more fun than us. This guy for example was surfing in a kayak. We spent much of the afternoon playing frisbee, drinking beer, walking the waterfront and enjoying another feast (this time Ellen's green curry dish.)

The morning of departure, we all went back down to the beach for a final look-see and a few photos. After figuring out the complicated 10-second timer function of my camera, I caught one of all of us posing like an album cover for Flock of Seagulls. _Photography