Northwest Day 5: Olympia and the Olympic Peninsula

Friday, July 25, 2014

Odometer: 856

We got a relatively early start today, and drove to nearby Washougal, Washington for a tour of the Pendleton factory there. The tour was much as Kenna and I had remembered it from our 1993 trip, but it was all new for Celeste. After the tour, we spent some time at the factory store and Kenna and Celeste found some amazing bargains.

Continuing north, we stopped for lunch in Longview and visited the Nutty Narrows Bridge, a tiny bridge to help squirrels cross Olympia Way safely. We also stopped by a visitor center for the Mt. St. Helens volcano, but the one that was only 5 miles from I-5 charged admission, and we were short on time.

Washington State Capitol, Olympia

Going through Olympia, the capital of Washington, we of course stopped at the State Capitol. Again, there was pleasantly no security we had to deal with. After a short stop for ice cream, we continued up toward the Olympic Peninsula.

We intended to camp at a state park on the way to Olympic National Park, but several we tried were all full. It was getting late, so we called a hotel in Sequim that turned out to be full, but referred us to another that has just reopened after renovation. We called, and got a reservation.

The Olympic View Inn in Sequim was nothing fancy, but the recent renovation made it a nice place to stay. After checking in, we consulted Yelp for a dinner recommendation and found Blondie’s Plate, a local restaurant specializing in tapas (small plates). We each ordered one or two, and had a fabulous meal, the best of the trip so far.

Today’s mileage: 260 miles

This article is part of a series about our recent driving vacation to the Pacific Northwest. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.