'40 (that's her <- and 39 - that's me -> )

***Miles travelled today: 220

***Total Miles:

***States travelled through: Staying in Washington until we leave for the East Coast

OK, so I quite like the title - just for today, I agreed to 'agree with Linz most of the time' which of course, to anyone who really knows me - would know the struggle I endured until 8pm tonight! Anyway, the day started with family phoning from overseas to wish Linz a Happy Birthday which absolutely made her day before it had even begun (Linz is now winding down and thanked everyone for their emails, blog entries and phone calls). Susie had also sent us an email saying she had been camping in the New Forest this weekend and said we, 'should find the New Forest on our map and put a sticker on it!' A little bit of our own medicine although she had us in stitches.

During breakfast we'd decided to take an exploratory drive of the west end of the Peninsula that allowed us to visit this trail (Hall of Mosses Trail) I'd been told about and then researched. The trail is found within the 'Hoh Rain Forest', a temperate biosphere settled between mountains and the ocean. Given it was a rainforest, we expected it to be humid and smell dank; but it was neither which made the walk easier (we could've chosen a hike). The only way to explain it is to describe the moss hanging from the trees as a 'canopy', that the walk one takes is through dappled sunlight and that it's over before you realise. This is where the film 'Twilight' was made and it was easy to imagine how the vampires moved between the trees and pounced on their 'prey'. Walking through here as well as the neighbouring town has made us decide to watch the film we'd avoided and then perhaps we'll understand why it was so popular. At times we giggled at the crowds of people lining up to do the 'Twilight Tour' - mostly because it was young teenage girls and their mothers.

Having enjoyed the temperate biosphere, we headed out to Ruby Beach where the weather was overcast but allowed us to wander and rest amidst the beach-logs. These beach-logs are phenomenally enormous as they've been washed down the mountains when the snow has melted. There are various points on this peninsula where it seems the logs gather, either because of a nearby river or due to the fact the ocean has swept them onto the shore from unknown origins. This was just a place where you could lose yourself to the softness of wood and the lull of the waves. It was so good that we decided later to return so I could go down again and take more photos....

Linz decided she wanted a birthday lunch at Kalaloch Lodge (which in Native American means 'Bay of Clams' - you'd be forgiven for thinking it sounded Scottish). It is a lodge formally built from the local beach-logs and which looked out onto a cove, again adorned by logs and children playing in tidal pools.

We finally got back to the hotel, some 200 miles of exploration later, only to hear there was a jazz / blues band playing live on the pier. We figured that we'd drop our things off and take a drink on the pier and just tune into the music, but on arriving at our room, the music was so clear and the seats on the balcony extra comfy that we didn't move. So, the blog tonight is from the balcony and it's a pity that neither of us know how to download the music we're listening to as it would've been great for you to listen too, whilst you read.

Sus - no stickers today as we're still on the Peninsula.