Maui

My brother generously invited us along on his company's huge annual Hawaii vacation, so we got to spend 8 days in Maui last month. It was our first time traveling to Hawaii and we had an awesome time. My Instagram feed has lots of photos of the trip, you can find them all with the tag #fishparadeinmaui (Dustin tagged his pictures as well).

Here are some of the pictures I took with my Lumix GM1, you can find the rest of those in my Flickr album Maui 2015.

Olympic Peninsula part 3 - the rest!

I have been negligent getting the rest of our Olympic Peninsula trip posted, so I'm going to do one big last post with highlights from the remainder of the trip. We visited three more beaches and a gorgeous rainforest (Hoh Rainforest) before heading back to Seattle. The giant driftwood tree pictured was right outside of our cabin on the beach at La Push Beach.

(For the rest of my pictures from the Olympic Peninsula check out my Flickr album of our trip.)

Olympic Peninsula part 2 - Second Beach [in fog]

For the second part of our Olympic Peninsula trip we met up with some friends and stayed at in a cabin on the beach at the Quileute Oceanside Resort, located on La Push Beach in the Quilete Reservation on the west coast of the peninsula. La Push beach is pretty great, but a couple of miles down the road is a place even better: "Second Beach," a victim of some utilitarian naming scheme that completely fails to pay homage to its otherworldly beauty.

You have to hike down through one mile of temperate rain forest to reach Second Beach. The beach is very flat so water creeps up slowly toward you for dozens of feet with every breaking wave. Our first visit to Second Beach was shrouded in fog, which made it all the more glorious.

Second Beach will always be First Beach in our hearts. <3

Olympic Peninsula part 1 - Colette's Bed and Breakfast, Salt Creek Recreactional Area, and Lake Crescent

After our wedding we headed to the Olympic Peninsula to spend some time exploring the various beaches and forests in this gorgeous area. We spent the first two nights at Colette's Bed and Breakfast which is on the northern end of the peninsula along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Colette's was really gorgeous - each room has a private patio and private ocean view area on teh grounds of the huge garden surrounding the building.

While in the area we visited the Salt Creek Recreation Area (a former military camp) and climbed around its rocky beaches. We also drove over to Lake Crescent, the second deepest lake in Washington. Lake Crescent is also exceptionally clear due to a lack of nitrogen which inhibits algae growth. We had surprisingly good coffee from the lodge by the lake and enjoyed some scenic beauty for a while before getting dinner at a local gastropub in Port Angeles.

Constellation Park beach visit

Stand-up paddle boarder on the calm sound.



Snails and anemones on the low tide beach by Constellation Park.



Starfish! These were about 7 inches in diameter.









The houses and apartment buildings here have awesome views of Puget Sound, with the Olympic Mountains and North Cascades in the background.



View of Queen Anne hill and part of downtown from Alki Beach.