Simply XSBaggage

Welcome to Lake Crescent

If you ever make a visit to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, you must make a trip out to Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park. I recently made a couple of trips out there (it's about 20 minutes from my home in Port Angeles.) 

On a Friday I drove out to deliver an order of products from my business that will be available for sale in the Gift Shop at Lake Crescent Lodge Resort. As you turn off of the Highway, you're greeted by hanging moss and huge ferns.

It was a sunny, blustery day and the lake had white caps on it. The setting here is breath-taking.

See what I mean?

Lake Crescent was formed by glacial activity. The ridges surrounding the lake are steep, and the center of the lake is as deep as 624 feet!

There are rooms in the Lodge and also quaint cabins for rent. I could have stayed out here for a week, but, sadly, I had to get back to work. 

The gift shop opens May 8th, and I'm going to use the excuse that I need to get some photos of my products, and make another trip to the lake.

Road Trip to Europe...

Well, not really Europe. Actually we took a road trip to Leavenworth, in Washington state. It's a really sweet little Bavarian-themed town, surrounded by Alpine-looking mountains.

You can see in the above photo that there was a lot of construction going on. The city is repaving the streets and sidewalks. One business owner we spoke to told us that the new sidewalks will be heated from underneath, to melt the snow and ice in the winter. How cool is that?! Leavenworth is a very popular winter as well as spring summer destination. And, don't forget fall! They do it up big for Oktoberfest!

We're pretty laid-back vacationers. We don't need a lot of activities to keep us happy. We both lead such busy lives, each running our own businesses, that when we finally get away, we're pretty happy to just not have a schedule. I think a perfect get away for us is waking up slow, then sitting somewhere sipping coffee. Then maybe a little walk or hike. Next is lunch and then maybe some shopping/browsing. 

The self portrait above was taken in the 'Hat Shop'. If you take a trip to Leavenworth, the Hat Shop is a required stop. Really, it's so much fun! You'll find every kind of hat you could ever think of: Flamingo Hats, Hamburger Hats, King and Queen Hats, Furry Chicken (!) Hats, Viking and Pirate Hats, Rasta Hats, oh I could go on and on. There are hundreds, no, probably thousands of hats crammed into this little store. You walk in and immediately hear giggling and laughing throughout the store as groups of tourists try on the silly hats. Good times, good times.

If you look closely at the above photo, you’ll see that they even have a Starbuck’s Coffee. Yay! You can bet we spent some time there.

There were so many nice little restaurants to choose from.

It was sunny while we were there, which made it even more pleasant. We even managed to spend some time sitting around the hotel’s outdoor pool. And even though we were gone only a few days, it felt like we really got away and were able to relax and enjoy some time together. 

[[Man, Typepad is really giving me some grief as I'm trying to post this, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead here. I apologize if the photos and/or text look wonky!]]