10th July - Kalaloach, WA to Salem, OR

Kalaloch is beautiful. lovely apartments and beautiful surroundings. I'd love to go back there (although I'm saying that about everywhere we've been so far!).

Another early start from Kalaloch as we back-tracked to go to La Push, home of the Quilalute Reservation and lodges (where we would have been staying if the resort took single night bookings during July. Have to say I'm glad we weren't staying there - it was a bit drear and run down, although it did have a fantastic sign at the 'treaty-line' (you'll see it in the photos and it will make sense after I tell you about Forks.

We then drove back through Forks 'Home of Twilight' as they filmed a lot of the film around Forks and La Push. Nearly every store had some reference to Twilight in either their name or sign - I have photos of some of them. We also passed one building called Almar Building so i had to take a photo for Almar!

We stopped for breakfast in Forks, a decent little diner with very good service. I had french toast with sausage and an egg: served with a scoop of whipped butter - overkill so I tried to avoid it. Other than that, it was very nice.

After Forks we were back on the road, back past Kalaloch and then down the 101 and finally out towards Portland and ultimately to Salem.

It was a beautiful drive down the 101 - really rather chilly until the fog cleared and then it was beautiful views of the Pacific and the Olympic National Forest. Spotted a lot of eagles - wish I'd brought my binoculars and had done some revision on identifying the species we'd be likely to see. I've become such a bad ornithologist!

The weather, after the fog, was fantastic and we had the top down. I managed to get a bit pink on my shoulders but after a long cold shower and lots of moisturiser they were much calmer!

Once we'd checked into the hotel we headed out for dinner and found a fantastic diner with lots of '50s memorabilia, and the most amazing sign (see photos!). Then it was a night to chill out in the hotel and have a relatively early night.

Photos