The Olympics

Last night I went to "Northern" in Olympia, which is an all ages venue. Jeremy Jay, a dude on K Records, was playing. One of the groups was pretty good, called Good Neighbors, kind of like The Blow meets Ani DiFranco. Jay was not that exciting.


This morning I started feeling the effects of my cold. I went to the hot tub with Clara and Devin, and was out the door by 11am. I headed up 101, to the Olympic Peninsula, for a couple day adventure. There were a ton of state parks and recreation areas along the way with great vantage points of rivers that had salmon jumping. I also saw a seal eating one, and a river otter.


When I got to Port Townsend, I stopped at Old Fort Townsend State Park, looking for sea birds. When I got to the beach, it started pouring on me. A few birds in a Pacific Madrone, caught my attention, and there turned out to be four VARIED THRUSH, hopping around. I then headed to Fort Worden State Park, which as a cool spot. There's a hostel and a lighthouse here. I went to the dock which had a Marine Science Center on it. It started pouring on me again out here, but within five minutes, I found both a close-up, messy looking MARBLED MURRELET, and a sharp looking, but far out PIGEON GUILLEMOT!


In Olympia, there are AMERICAN CROWS and NORTHWESTERN CROWS, and some that are hybrids. I wasn't able to deduce a NORTHWESTERN CROW until today, since they are incredibly similar, but there are no AMERICAN CROWS on the peninsula.


I stopped at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, but daylight savings had something to say about it. I had to leave as it got dark and they were closing at 5, and now I've just gotten to Port Angeles.