I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. Forgive me. It’s just that I don’t feel much like writing lately. Mostly I blame COVID-induced malaise. And the fact that I’m rarely without my mini sidekick who is always asking for things from me which leaves little time or headspace for writing . . .
Today I found time though! First, a little update on life, then I want to share some beautiful pictures from our week at the Olympic Peninsula and San Juan Islands. As a refresher, we left Mumbai due to COVID concerns on April 4th of this year, which means we just crossed the 6 month mark last week. It’s been a LOOOOONGG time to be without our home, although we’ve been grateful for the abundance of family time.
If you’ll remember, we spent April and May in Bend, Oregon. We then did a cross-country road-trip to Minnesota. We lived at my parent’s cabin in Wisconsin for June and July and sent Nick back to Mumbai in late June. On August 1st Nia and I transferred back to Bend, Oregon (via airplane) for August and September. Although Nick had only been in Mumbai for two months, he was required to come back to the US on home leave for the month of September.
(Side Note: We extended for a 4th year in Mumbai, so we were required to take a home leave at the two year mark, which we just hit).
Nick had to return to Mumbai at the end of September and although we initially intended on going back with him, we ultimately opted not to given how high the case numbers still are in India (between 70,000 and 85,000 a day). Nia and I were ready for a change of pace too though, so the day after Nick left, we flew back to Minnesota. The plan is to stay here until mid-November, at which point we will finally return to Mumbai. I’m still working remotely and Nia is still doing virtual school. So there you have it! Now you’re all up-to-date. :)
Our Escape Trip
As you probably heard on the news, the wildfires in Oregon and California were out of control this year and the air quality was atrocious! The AQI hit 500 in Bend one day, which is DOUBLE the worst we’ve seen in Mumbai. So during Nick’s month home in September we decided to hit the road and head up north to the Olympic Peninsula to escape the smoke.
For those not familiar, the Olympic Peninsula is just West of Seattle. It is the Northwestern-most part of Washington State and is named after the National Park that exists there (Olympic National Park). Fun Fact: The forests of the Olympic Peninsula are among the rainiest in the world and claim the honor of being the only rainforest in the continental U.S. I’ve circled the Olympic Peninsula area on the map below.
Here’s a more detailed look at what’s on the Peninsula.
To the east and northeast of the Olympic Peninsula is Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. It encompasses many islands including Bainbridge Island by Seattle and the San Juan Islands to the North. We spent 3 nights in Port Angeles and then 5 nights on Whidbey Island in the San Juans. Nick’s Grandma and Uncles live in Port Townsend and Port Ludlow. His mom grew up in Everett and his Dad in Mukilteo.
Now that we’ve got our geography lesson behind us, let’s move on to my favorite part…the photo sharing! We started our road trip with a stop at Ruby Beach. It was pretty hazy (hard to say if it was fog or smoke) which made it have an otherworldly feel to it.
There was all sorts of driftwood to climb on . . .
and little creatures hiding inside shells or in the tide pools. Discoveries abounded in this place! Nia was in heaven. Daddy too!
The Beauty of Olympic National Park
From Ruby Beach, we settled in for a few nights in Port Angeles. If Canada would have been open to Americans right now, we could have taken a ferry over to Victoria for the day. We found plenty of other things to do instead though. We spent two days exploring parts of Olympic National Park. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. So lush and GREEN!
And the trees! Just magnificent and soaring to the sky. Here is Nia standing by one to give you a comparison.
There were lots of fun things to be found in the forest too. Slugs, fungi, and lichen were a few of the fun discoveries we came across.
Our Stay at the Horse Farm
For our final 5 nights we transferred to a Bed & Breakfast on a horse farm on Whidbey Island (part of the San Juans). To get there, we had to drive our car onto the ferry and take a 45 minute ride across the Sound. The place we stayed was called Wildwood Farm B&B. It used to be a breeding farm for racehorses but about two decades ago it was sold and is now used to board 50+ horses and host the B&B.
One of the benefits of staying on the horse farm was that we could interact with the horses all day long. They all went out to pasture between 7 and 8 AM and came back into the barn between 4 and 5 PM. But even after they were in the barn, we could still go visit them up until 10 PM. We each fell in love with our own favorites and developed a routine of walking the barn and saying goodnight to them all each evening.
We also worked it out so that Nia could do a mini horse camp while we were there. She did a total of 12 hours of classes over 3 days. It was so perfect for Nia. 1-on-1 attention from a cool 19 year old. Jen, the instructor, taught Nia a myriad of things. She learned how to put all the tack on her horse & what the name was for each piece of equipment. Nia was also responsible for untacking the horse at the end of the lesson and brushing it.
She learned lots of cool new skills like how to do an emergency dismount, how to post and trot, and how to identify different types of horses.
It was such a win with Nia. She was in absolute heaven and you could see her confidence growing by the day. Big props to Nick for discovering this amazing opportunity. I have no doubt we’ll be back again in a few years for another visit…
