Day 12, July 21: Olympic Peninsula and Noll Barbecue

This will be short. We are still in Seattle. Today was mostly a "free" day until the family barbecue tonight. Mary and I went over to the Olympic Peninsula for the day. Sheila went with cousin Peggy to a town name Leavenworth. She'll need to do her own blog about that. She says it was great.

Mary and I rode the ferry over to Bremerton and drove up to the Olympic National Park visitor's center. On the way up we passed the motel where we used to stay when I came out here on business for Vitro. I was amazed that the place was still there and that I recognized it after 30 years. I hope they've changed the sheets sometime in the last 30 years.

The Olympic Peninsula is that funny looking piece of Washington state that sticks out to the West with Puget Sound separating it from the rest of the state. Mt. Olympus is at the center of the peninsula, and our hope was to drive up the mountain a bit. The mountain is something like 90% wilderness, so you have to hike to get to most all of it. Unfortunately, the clouds were really low and heavy over there which meant that we hit thick fog about a mile up the road. We turned around after about another mile. It was so bad we could barely see the road.

We did enjoy the drive on the peninsula. We stopped at a winery run by a bunch of chicks. They sell wines under two labels: Olympic Cellars and Working Girl. We tasted most of their wines and bought a couple bottles of their Shiraz. We also drove around some of the local towns including what appeared to be the main area for the lavender festival. Apparently the peninsula is a big lavender growing area. We did see some large fields of lavender.

This evening the family gathered in a park near here for the family picnic / barbecue and group picture taking. The word is that there are something on the order of 92 family members here. The three remaining Noll siblings (Aunt Judy, Aunt Maureen and Uncle Tom) were all here as well as Aunt Mary from Florida, Aunt Darlene from Illinois and Uncle Jerry from Muscatine). There was an estimated 27 first cousins (that includes Mary and Sheila) and a gazillion of their kids and grandkids. As always, there were many group pictures, lots of food and drink, and a good time had by all. Many of the family members went off to go cart races afterward. Mary and I returned to the hotel to rest!

That's it for today. No pictures posted yet (it's late). Tomorrow we go to church, then turn the car's grille East for the first time in nearly two weeks. More adventures await.