Olympic National Forest

Okay, more about food. Yesterday we went to Rod's mom's house and she treated us to dinner. She was originally supposed to cook dinner but we heard about this burger place so she decided she wanted a burger. That was fine with us, we love burgers. Off we went to the Eighth Street Bridge's Grill. I thought the name came from being in between the bridges but it's actually the name of the owner. He is kinda on an "island" in between the two bridges in town that connect one side of the town to the other. After the Minnesota disaster they were ordered to be inspected and they didn't pass so they've been closed for repairs ever since. They were supposed to open on November 1st but that's not going to happen. The guy who owns the restaurant decided to have a contest after so many people asking him when the bridges were going to open. The first ten people who guess the correct date that the bridges will open get a free meal. According to the paper it won't be until January or February. Rod's mom guessed November 18th. We'll see. Anyway, the burgers were absolutely fantastic. We'll probably go there again before we leave here.


Hmmmmmm, what to have?


Today we stopped in the little town of Forks (pop. 3,100) on our way to the Olympic National Forest. We wanted to go to Forks because I had never been there before and my daughter Michele has been reading this series of books by Stephanie Meyer based on people who live there. The books are about a girl named Bella Swan who is in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen who live like a normal family in Forks. It has pretty much put Forks on the map. Tourists go there all the time just to photograph places from the book. I don't know anything about the books but the guy in the Visitor's Center knew all about it and even gave us a packet that had all the places to look at. So these pictures are for you Michele. There also is a movie coming out next month.


Bella's family's home


Edward's family's home has been turned into a B&B but the name is on the mailbox


Bella's father is the Chief of Police


I don't know what the significance of this is but it was on the map about the book. I think it's where they went to school


Lake Crescent was also on the way to Forks. Rod had been hoping to go fishing here when we first got up here but we found out it is now a "catch & release" lake. At least the part that's in the National Forest. Part of the lake is not but I think you have to have a house on the lake to gain access.

The lake is gorgeous


The leaves are definitely changing


We also drove to Sol Duc hot springs. This used to be a very popular resort with a huge lodge and now it's little cabins but still pretty popular. There were quite a few people there.




They used to have to take a ship from Seattle then somebody would drive a caravan to the hot springs


After that we drove to the Sol Duc River to watch the salmon spawning. There weren't very many but we did see a few jumping up the falls. Pretty cool but there was no way I was going to be able to get a picture at just the right time.