by Liz

We don’t think Aberdeen deserves its nickname – discovered yesterday evening as we googled what to do here – as the hellhole of the Pacific Northwest but visitor attractions don’t abound. Yesterday we passed signs to the museum and were keen to visit and find out about the history of the area but it burned down last year. So our first rest day has included lots of rest. 

After a lazy start, some laundry and catching up with close family, this afternoon we headed out to find the harbour viewing tower 2.5 miles away. Having dragged our heavy bikes up a flight of 16 steep steps to get them into the apartment yesterday we weren’t about to ride there. So we walked through the residential streets and enjoyed the colourful weatherboarded houses along the way. As we got closer the pavement and crossings petered out – they definitely weren’t planning for anyone to go there on foot. The harbour was pretty to the south and industrial to the east. 

If we’d had time to do more research we might have stayed at Quinault for two nights and explored the rain forest and hills but they were just names on a map. However it’s been a lovely sunny day and we’re staying in a pretty blue building up high, overlooking the park and town so it’s actually been a good place to rest up. I’ve finished the remains of my torn up book and Philip is cleaning the bikes. We polished off the classy out-of-date biscuits a couple of days ago – I miss them, see poignant photo of the last two – so from now on we’re on the hunt for some American cookies. Tomorrow we expect to reach the Pacific west coast. It will be our last night in Washington state, which has made an incredibly beautiful start to the trip.