Kalaloch

I was about to book a family vacation to Victoria BC but stumbled upon a gret deal on two nights at a cabin at Kalaloch Lodge. So I booked that instead. I chose a "partial view" cabin and on arrival, we discovered that our "partial view" was actually on unobstructed view of a stormy Pacific Ocean. Simply breathtaking and if we head back, I will be requesting Cabin 25 again.

We had a small kitchen so I cooked all our meals. We also had a woodstove and were able to enjoy a nice cozy fire. The weather was windy and rainy but we knew to expect it. In fact, it made being huddled up in the cabin that much more fun. There was no phone, tv or internet. No cell coverage either. It was nice.

We decided to kill a few hours on Tuesday by heading to one of the national park visitor centers and then to Forks. Disclaimer: we're NOT Twilight fans. In fact, we like to make fun of Twilight people. Which explains our need for a picture at the welcome sign. We put on our best "let's mock all the Twilight nerds and look as excited as we can" expressions. And then we quickly put the tripod and camera away and sped off in the car, because we didn't want anyone to see us!

The drive home was nice. We took a detour around Lake Quinault and weren't disappointed at all. Much of the road was unpaved and completely islolated. We saw elk, a beaver and a couple of bald eagles. Some beautiful waterfalls too. I'd love to do some backpacking there sometime. I could have easily spent hours (or days) sitting by the river with my camera. We stopped by the Lake Quinault Lodge and found an Olympic NP medallion to add to our family hiking stick.

We'll definitely look at making Kalaloch a new winter tradition. Time stood still there, and it was nice to be away from the holiday hustle and bustle.