OLYMPIA - February 28, 2018

We are making a last visit to the sea by taking a drive around Washington's Olympic Peninsula. It is this land that we see from White Rock BC and the southern tip of Vancouver Island, so we are going to take a closer look. 

Arbitus and gorse bush, cedar and fir. Sedum clinging to the fissures in the granite. Chuckanut Summit drive is stunning with ocean vistas at every curve, and century old concrete bridges spanning burbling mountain streams. In contrast, near Oak Harbour the constant growl of Air Force jets passing overhead spoils the pastoral setting of the nearly one hundred year old Fort Casey now a conference centre for Seattle Pacific University.

The heartbeat of the ocean keeps me company through the wee small hours.

As we travel through the Olympia Mountains, it is disconcerting to be driving uphill and hear the engine labouring while my eyes tell me we are traveling downhill.

What a dichotomy; cars carrying snowboards, skis and surfboards. In the quaint ship-building village of Port Townsend, a wet-suit clad surfer pulls himself and his board from the dwindling surf of low tide. Brant geese, the smaller, darker Pacific cousin of the Canada goose, comb the rocky shore squabbling over bright green scraps of sea lettuce.

Dolphins circle and feed around our ferry while gulls wheel above waiting for the scraps. A minke whale rises repeatedly beside us exposing just enough fin to identify it. All very fitting as we say goodbye to the sea until summer.