Monthly Archives: January 2016

Washington State: Day 6

0904cliff
9/4/2015

After a few days in Port Townsend, we wanted to get outside. On the recommendation of a friend, we went to Dungeness Spit, near Sequim, Washington, a town known mostly for its lavender farms and retirement homes.

A spit is a sand promontory that extends off the coast. Sand is blown along a beach and deposits at the end. This process, continuing over decades, can form a spit. So basically its a beach with no inland area, and the Dungeness Spit is the largest of these in the US.

German apple pancake. This is after it's "deflated" - it starts out hot and filled with air

German apple pancake. This is after it’s “deflated” – it starts out hot and filled with air

But we didn’t start there. Sequim has the single best pancake place I’ve ever been to, Oak Table Cafe. They serve German apple pancakes, which are voluminous and gooey. I’d been here before but didn’t properly remember just how enormous they were. Alex and I ordered both a pancake and an eggs benedict.

0904pancake_done

Needless to say, we left with our plates empty and our bellies aching. If we were to survive, the hike would be a necessity.

Typical view of the spit

Typical view of the spit

Luckily, it was just down the street (a street named “Kitchen-Dick Road,” for the record), as part of a national wildlife refuge.

We hiked out the spit and back, and let’s just that 5.5 miles on the sand is longer than it looks like – we only made it halfway, and because the spit curves we looked no closer to the lighthouse that terminates the spit at the end of the hike, than at the start. Luckily, the weather was beautiful, warm with clear skies.

Driftwood bear? Maybe?

Driftwood bear? Maybe?

As a huge extended beach, one of the defining features is the extensive amount of driftwood of innumerable forms.

Looking landward

Looking landward

Eventually we had to call it quits – we had an appointment back in Port Townsend for mid-afternoon and couldn’t spend the whole day, but we both had a good time.

Lighthouse at the end of the spit

Lighthouse at the end of the spit

We’ll have to reach the lighthouse next time.

0904light

On the way in and out from the parking lot, there’s a short 15-minute hike in a stunning Pacific Northwest forest, the kind where the air itself feels green.