derekl_1963

After nearly six hours on the road, we finally reach the coast. (Actually we've been paralleling the coast more-or-less the whole way, just well inland.)

Almost immediately on hitting the coast, we found a small park with some picnic tables. (And bathrooms!) This was the lovely view we enjoyed while strolling along the beach after lunch.

We left Clallam Bay, headed up to Neah Bay, then retracted our steps to pick up 112 and come back to Sequim via the coast.

Across the Straits of Juan de Fuca lies Vancouver Island (in Canada). Here Mother Nature puts on hell of a show with the water and sky...

Norwegian Pearl in the Straits of Juan de Fuca

We also saw a parade of cruise ships headed towards Victoria, B.C., that's the Norwegian Pearl (which we sailed on last year) shown above.

Almost all cruise ships that leave Seattle to cruise Alaska visit Victoria because foreign flagged ships that cruise routes that originate in US ports are required to visit a foreign port before returning to the US. (A very old law intended to protect US companies sailing between US ports.) Victoria is a natural choice because they can dock there in late afternoon, depart after midnight, and arrive in Seattle in the wee hours. This lets them get a head start on unloading trash and luggage and on loading supplies while the passengers snooze.

This has been a lot of posts to cover a single day... and about three or four more left to go before we get home for the evening. I hope I'm not boring anyone! I post only a few each day, because it's easier to edit a handful at a time and because many Flickr groups (the equivalent to LJ communities) only allow so many pictures to be posted per day.