Lake Wilderness Arboretum

 

Yet another excursion by public transit, this time to Lake Wilderness Arboretum in Maple Valley. The arboretum has an interesting history.

We took a bus from downtown Seattle to the Renton Transit Center, then transferred to the 907 bus to Maple Valley. This was a cute little metro bus, very clean and with nice comfortable seats (and seatbelts even). It was a pleasant half hour ride from Renton to Maple Valley.

We got off the bus seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but in fact the bus stop was right next to an affluent neighborhood that we walked through on our way to the arboretum.

There were intermittent sprinkles early on, followed by brighter skies and occasional sun breaks. The word of the day is petrichor, which is that pleasant odor produced when rain falls on dry soil.

Google Maps told us it would be a one mile walk from the bus stop to the arboretum, but it didn't know about a trail that cut the distance in half. Fortunately some other walkers we ran into showed us the way.

A big surprise was a unique 'little free library' built into a tree stump in the arboretum itself.

Another unusual feature of the aboretum is the storywalk. Every month there's a new story.

The Native American Garden explains how various plants and trees were used.

The Children's Discovery Forest was nicely done, although we didn't actually see any children there.

The azaleas were past their prime, but according to the signage the Western Azalea Garden is one of the largest collections in the world, containing some 200 varieties. It must be spectacular in the spring.

At least the mountain laurels were in bloom.

We enjoyed our picnic lunch sitting on a bench by the lake. Very quiet and peaceful.

As we approached Renton on our way home, all the phones on the bus suddenly sounded an emergency alert. It was a severe warning of a chorine leak. The location was just ahead of us and we would be going right by it. The crossroad that we passed by was closed off, but we were able to proceed and although we were within a few hundred feet of the leak we never noticed any sign of chlorine in the air.

We got home to Seattle just as the sun finally came out!

Inspired by our circumnavigation of the Olympic Peninsula, we thought we'd try a day trip to Kingston and Edmonds—two of our favorite destinations. Our good friend Irma came with us, which made the trip even more fun.

We started by taking a metro bus from the apartment to the Seattle ferry terminal, where we met up with Irma and boarded the Kitsap passenger ferry to Kingston. At 30 knots, the trip takes barely more than a half hour.

When we arrived at Kingston, the tide was an extremely low -1.7 feet. The dock at the boat ramp was mostly high and dry!

While strolling around Kingston we came upon this colorful inn. Ending up back at the ferry dock, we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch provided by Irma.

Whenever we visit Kingston, we can't resist treating ourselves to a crepe at the little creperie near the ferry dock. Then it was time to board the Washington State ferry to Edmonds. Since we were traveling eastbound as walk-on passengers, there was no charge for the crossing.

We walked around Edmonds for a while before catching a bus to the Lynnwood transit center. A light rail train was waiting to take us back to Seattle.

Total time: five hours. Total cost (two buses, two ferries, and the light rail): $7 each. Coincidentally this was exactly the same as our entire trip around the Olympic Peninsula. Almost all of it was the $6 fare for the Seattle-Kingston fast ferry, but it was well worth it.

Sequim-Seattle

In the caboose last night I had the best sleep I've had in months.Ten hours, with just one bathroom visit in the middle. I think it was the combination of an amazingly comfortable bed and pillow, the perfect temperature and humidity level, complete silence, and a fitful sleep the previous night. And then, as we woke up, we got an extra treasure when we started hearing Les' favorite bird. It's the Eurasian collared dove, which he first encountered ten years ago in Scotland. We heard it in Europe for several weeks before we finally saw one. Its call is an exact rendition of the letter "R" in Morse Code, which signifies OK. Les loved it so much that he made it the ringtone on his phone. The only time we've encountered it in the US was in Gig Harbor a few years ago. This morning several collared doves were calling to each other -- a most pleasant way to wake up.

We decided to walk the two miles to the Sequim transit center. We stopped at Carrie Blake Park on the way, where I was impressed that there were eight pickleball courts being used, with a large group of people waiting their turn. We also passed a wonderful city-run peapatch. While Les had a mocha, I checked out all the stores in downtown Sequim. I was surprised to find an excellent quilt shop. I haven't quilted for ten years; otherwise, I'd have been tempted to stock up on some of the pretty fabrics.

The bus we took from Sequim to Bainbridge, called The Strait Shot, was definitely the fanciest of the whole trip. The seats were super comfortable, there was storage underneath for suitcases, and apparently there was a restroom aboard. The bus is timed to meet the ferry in Bainbridge, but it was running 15 minutes late. When it stopped, we made a mad dash for the ferry, running about a tenth of a mile, with wheeled suitcase in tow. I didn't realize that we could run that fast! We got on the ferry, huffing and puffing, followed by one or two other quick people from our bus, and the gate was closed behind us, and the ferry left the dock.

Back in Seattle, we took a bus home. That was the eleventh bus of the trip. The entire transportation cost for each of us was $7. That's $1 to get from Seattle to Lakewood, $5 for the bus from Sequim to Bainbridge, and $1 for the ride home from the ferry dock; the other eight buses and the ferry -- since it was east-bound -- were all free. (It would be more like $16 for a non-senior.) BTW the Strait Shot express goes between Bainbridge and Port Angeles (it takes two hours), which would make it handy for a car-free trip to Victoria; you could take the ferry to Bainbridge, Strait Shot to Port Angeles, and Black Ball Ferry to Victoria. Also, in the summer there's an almost-free hourly shuttle bus from Port Angeles to Hurricane Ridge.

Google Maps was a huge help in planning our trip. On the other hand, it wasn't always 100 percent reliable, sometimes giving inconsistent and suboptimal routes. We found it was important to cross-check its recommendations against online bus schedules.

Judy B had offered to rescue us if we became stranded. Fortunately, we didn't need to take her up on her kind offer. I wonder whether anybody else has done a circumnavigation of the Olympic Peninsula, starting and ending in Seattle, completely by public transportation. After all, who would even think of doing such a thing, much less actually want to do it?  Les feels we were a bit like the early explorers who undertook challenging expeditions, just to prove they could be done.

Sign on the bathroom door of our caboose!

Kalaloch-Sequim

Sunday we took two buses, Monday we took three buses, and today we took four buses! The first was from Kalaloch to Forks, with a side trip into the Hoh Indian Reservation, which was interesting. We also passed Ruby Beach, where we could have gotten off (but didn't) and explored for a few hours until the next bus. The second bus was from Forks to Port Angeles, where we had lunch in a restaurant. The third bus went from Port Angeles to Sequim. 

Kalaloch Lodge had a feature in the shower that I've never seen before. It reminded me of showers at marinas, where you put in your quarters (US) or loonies (Canada) for every minute. 

We had chosen for our Sequim lodging a place we've previously stayed at: Olympic Railway Inn, with about a dozen converted cabooses. But it's pretty far from the transit center, so we previously downloaded an app to use the Interlink, an on-demand rideshare bus. You have to submit your request online, so we did that and waited about 15 minutes for the van to show up. Its coverage area doesn't extend as far as the Railway Inn, so we walked the last half mile. Les wheeled the suitcase when we were on pavement and carried it when the route was gravel. Like all the buses since Lakewood, this service was free.

It was a long travel day, but very pleasant. The scenery was lovely, especially along the ocean at the start and past Lake Crescent toward the end. 

Our caboose is very charming, and the sun has come out for the first time. It's actually been very cold and sometimes drizzly, so that's a nice development. 

Tomorrow we'll do the final leg.

Olympia-Kalaloch

Well, today was navigationally challenging because of ambiguities in the online bus schedules. But it all worked out in the end. Another nit was a dearth of toilets en route. At Aberdeen we had lots of time between buses, but the restrooms were locked. Fortunately the second transfer point had a (somewhat disgusting) porta potty. 

It took four hours from Olympia to Kalaloch. The route up north was pretty, but all the logging evidence (trucks, clearcuts) was disheartening. It sure was nice to see the Pacific again, though.

Kalaloch Lodge, where we're spending the night, is very nice. Access down to the beach is closed off, however, because of severe erosion in winter storms. And we didn't feel like walking to other beaches because it's cold and drizzly.

Yesterday we had nice music in our room because Les brought along a small speaker to stream our favorite stations. Today there's no Wi-Fi in our room and cell service is marginal, but Les had enough foresight to download some music to our phone before we left home. 

 A sight you don't see too often!

Seattle-Olympia

Our first day went smoothly. We took a bus to Lakewood, where we transferred to a second bus to Olympia. Two buses down, seven to go! 

We left our suitcase at the hotel desk and spent a few hours exploring Olympia. We actually know the city pretty well, because we came down in our boat in 2017 and spent a few days at the marina, and then in 2021 we stayed a few days in a converted school bus through Airbnb. 

We ate a picnic lunch at Percival Landing Park, that I had prepared at home. Then we accidentally discovered a huge and bustling covered farmers market -- what fun! 

After a mocha and pastry at a vegan cafe, we checked into the hotel and had a nap. For dinner we went to a wonderful vegan restaurant a block from the hotel.

Tomorrow is when the adventure really begins. By late afternoon hopefully we'll be in Kalaloch.

Ruby Beach

There's an article in today's Seattle Times about Ruby Beach, which is part of the Kalaloch beach area where we'll be spending a night at the Kalaloch Lodge. According to the article, Lonely Planet named Ruby Beach as one of the world's best beaches—the only one in the United States to make the list.

It's tempting to stop at Ruby Beach on our way from Kalaloch to Forks, but in reality the beach at Kalaloch is probably just as nice.