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Shhh...did you hear that?
Texas.
Howdy, how y'all doing?
I was preparing for a short hike through the Hoh rain forest on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula and some locals caught a glimpse of my plates. It's fun seeing their reactions but, I'm running into more and more Texans up here; guess we all have one common objective, to escape the heat. I hear it's pretty bad there right now. For those curious, I'm hiking in shorts and fleece pullover, so not too cold but upper 60s maybe low 70s daily.
Hiking through the rain forest was like stepping into a Tolkien book, another world altogether. I did a short, moderate hike through the Hall of Mosses and went for the Marymere Falls, a 90 foot waterfall. If you h ave never hiked through the Olympic Forest put it on your bucket list and if you want someone to come along, call me!
Later I checked into another hostel in Port Townsend which is an old army bunker; fun sleeping in those quarters. Every single one of my bunkmates was an old lady with tons of stories...you never know who you're going to meet at one of these places.
The next morning, I managed to get a spot on a whale watching tour: good thing cause this is what I wanted to do if I got this far. After about an hour, we were able to listen for the clicks orcas make in the water to see if they're nearby and talking to each other. Yes to both! A little while later and we sighted them; mostly just coming up here and there and few gave us a tail slap; playful things. A couple males swam right beside the boat and one female came right at us before showing off; no full jumps but beautiful animals still. These creatures don't belong in a tank. A research team pulled up beside us to have a short talk and answer any questions we had; rare treat as they normally don't do that. All this makes me question why I chose teaching; infant to go back to school and get I into some real research of my own.
As it turned out, one guy on the boat who has taught in several different countries got me the information I need. In order to teach mainly math (and not just English) overseas, all I need is a degree in it...done! Apparently, the Iowa University holds a job fair with schools from all over the world; and math degrees are pretty much guaranteed a position somewhere. With the budget cuts going on back home right now, I think the travel bug is biting hard...it may be time for me to get out of the states for a while. I'm going to look into that and keep my options open.
With all that new excitement buzzing in my head, I headed back to the Olympic Forest for a drive up to Hurricane Ridge, some 5,300 ft in elevation. From there, you can see every single peak from the Olympic range...BEAUTIFUL! words and pictures can't do it justice so enjoy the video I took.
From there, I raced to Bainbridge Island to take the ferry into Seattle for the night. Not sure what it is but seeing the city approach like that, I think Seattle could rival San Diego as a potential relocation. I could sense the sleepless theme to it. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to exploring the city. I didn't have time to search for a host so I checked into the downtown hostel for the next 3 nights. Good thing I did; I really need some rest. I'm not sure why exactly, but for the past week or so now, I have not been sleeping well. I get a full nights worth and wake up absolutely exhausted. Hopefully, I won't be sleepless in Seattle.
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