Happy Forks of July

It’s the 4th of July and to celebrate our independence we’re going to the town of Forks Washington for their old fashioned 4th of July festivities.  Everyone we talked to said the parade was something not to miss and that we just HAD to enjoy lunch from the traditional salmon bake.  We pulled into town only about 10 minutes before the parade started so thought for sure all the parking would be gone.  But we easily found a spot just across the street from the city park where the parade ends and the salmon bake begins.


Back home in Longmont we see a lot of parades.  There are parades for everything it seems and they are usually pretty big and impressive.  So, while the Forks parade might be big to them it seemed pretty small to us.  Not really that many floats.  Only one band of about 8 people in the back of a truck.  Lots of logging trucks, tractors and all of the cars that would be part of the demolition derby later in the day.  But it was still fun to see this small town celebrate.

We’d heard that the salmon bake usually sold out so we left the parade early to be sure to get some.  Everyone got salmon except Dacen who got a couple tamales and some free french fries instead!  They were grilling the fresh caught salmon right there and it was served up hot along with beans, coleslaw and a roll.  It was really tasty!  Here are a few pictures from our little outing in Forks.

 

After lunch we decided to check out one more beach while we were on the Olympic Peninsula.  And what better beach to visit on the 4th of July than….Beach 4.  In the Kalaloch area of the Olympic National Park the beaches are numbered 1-4.  Only Ruby Beach has a proper name.  Once again as we neared the coast we dropped into a coastal fog and were in the thick of it by the time we reached the parking lot.  But unlike our previous beach visits out here the parking lot at Beach 4 was almost empty!!  We walked down the steep hill to the beach and we were nearly all alone out there.  We decided to let Sheba off the leash and she had an absolute ball sprinting back and forth as we walked along the shore.

We approached a big set of rocks that were sure to have tide pools and when we got there we saw one other person.  A ranger was walking back toward the parking lot.  We asked if this was a good place to find tide pools and she confirmed that it was excellent.  She also confirmed that the clouds would probably be burning off very soon and low tide was in about 30 minutes..  This was the perfect spot to be at the perfect time and we had it all to ourselves.  It was AWESOME!!!  We found so much more sea life here than at Hole in the Wall.  There were so many star fish we couldn’t keep count.  We explored, examined and experienced the tide pools for about an hour during which time the clouds burned off and it was perfect blue sky.  We ended up on a little piece of sandy beach where the kids made a big pile of sand and mud.  The incoming tide worked against their efforts and eventually obliterated the pile which brought about much cheering from the kiddos.

We went back to the rig for dinner and Brielle crashed.  Her head and stomach hurt and she just wanted to rest.  I think she may have just had too much sun.  Everyone was tired and we decided to forego another trip into Forks to watch the fireworks and instead stay home and watch a movie together and rest before our travel day tomorrow.

God, today was awesome.  Thank you for the men and women who have served our country.  Thank you for this wonderful country we have to explore.  Thank you for this beautiful family.  And thank you for keeping us all safe.

Here are our pictures from Beach 4.