"Wait...did you say WEST of Seattle?"

Sometimes when telling someone from the other coast about the area here, I'll start with the phrase, "Well, to the west of Seattle is..." At this point I almost always get a strange look and I know exactly what's going through the listener's head:

"Hmmm, he must have misspoken. Seattle is a Pacific port city so it must be as far west as you can go without being waist deep in Pacific Ocean. Yes, he must have misspoken. I'll correct him."

"Are you sure you meant 'west' of Seattle?"

Well, for those of you that know the area or have already looked at a map, you can ignore the next paragraph. Now everyone has seen the waterfront skyline of Seattle on Grey's Anatomy, but this is actually the Puget Sound, more specifically Elliot Bay, that fronts the city. In reality, to the west of Seattle, prior to hitting the Pacific Ocean, there exists, in no particular order: a bay, a sound, a mountain range, a national park, an 8,000-foot peak, an Indian reservation, a rainforest, and the setting for the Twilight movies. What's most amazing to me is that all of this sits within an area of only about 3,000 square miles, roughly the combined size of Rhode Island and Delaware. It's the Olympic Peninsula.

The reason I write about this is because we've been out there, but have so much more to explore that we figured an introduction was necessary for those that are uninitiated. I recently read an article about how two buddies crossed the Olympic Peninsula, 110 miles east to west, on foot and inflatable raft in five days, through Hayden Pass, which is about 5,400 feet. Kudos. We have no inclination to do this. However, between all of the aforementioned things the area has to offer, plus over 100 hikes, we can keep ourselves busy there for a while.

Our first jaunt to the peninsula was last September for a relatively short hike to the top of Mt. Zion. We had to find a hike that was somewhat close, relatively low impact per Lisa's request, and allows dogs. We packed a lunch and headed out. Although the day was sunny when we left Seattle, there was intermittent cloud cover in the mountains, but we forged ahead. The clouds hung around, so the payoff at the top was not what we had hoped, but Fozzie had a blast. He would sprint ahead a hundred yards or so up the trail and then back to us, repeating this all the way to the summit. His payoff at the summit came in the payoff two other dogs that came with the three hikers we met at the top. The dogs spent their time chasing each other around the clearing and into and out of the surrounding trees. After lunch, we made our way back down and headed home. All told, we drove for about three hours and hiked for about three hours.

So now we have a great list of things to do on the peninsula, from hiking, to visiting the rainforest, and even visiting the Pacific Ocean, which amazingly enough, we've not done yet. More on the Olympic Peninsula to come.