With my parents in town for a visit, we decided to take a day-trip to one of the crown jewels of the Pacific Northwest, the Olympic Peninsula. Often referred to as "the last frontier," the Olympic Peninsula is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Puget Sound. See Map.

We decided to traverse the northern part of the peninsula, with stops in Port Angeles and Sequim. First we took the Kingston ferry from nearby Edmonds. From there, we hooked onto Highway 101, which circumnavigates the entire peninsula. Our first stop was Port Angeles for some brunch at the Oyster Bar restaurant. Since Port Angeles is so close to the port town of Dungeness, the namesake crabs were abundant on the menu.

After brunch, we headed over to Olympic National Park. Thanks to a 17-mile paved road, we could easily drive to the top of Hurricane Ridge, which is part of the Olympic mountain range and reaches  5,230 feet above sea level. On the drive up, my mom remarked that she felt like she was driving up to heaven. The sun was shining bright, so the views of the snow-capped mountains and green valleys were spectacular.

It reminded me of the movie The Shining, and I wondered if anyone occupied the lodge during the long winter months. According to the park's brochure, there's some great skiing in the area.

We drove back down the Ridge and headed home. On the way, we stopped at the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim and did a drive-through tour. We saw peacocks, elk, llamas, zebras, a rhinoceros, and bison, among other creatures, but the absolute highlight was the bears. We drove by about seven Kodiak brown bears that sat along the road behind a low, probably electrified fence. We rolled down the windows and threw pieces of bread to each of them. Some of them did tricks, like waving or standing up and clapping. One bear waved his giant claws daintily like Queen Elizabeth II. It was a wonderful first, but hopefully last, close encounter I'll ever have with a bear!