Friday July 31 (Olympic Game Park)

Well, what can I say, yet another gorgeous day weather wise. I have been so very lucky this week as even a cloudy day would have meant some disappointment. 

Our first destination was the place where Eagles are often spotted. We stopped at the Eagle place, a beautiful setting, and saw a few Eagles, we did manage to catch some in flight. I did capture an adult teaching a juvenile to find food for himself. 


 We also saw Blue Herons and Cheryl caught an Osprey when I was in the car checking my camera. We then carried on to our second destination, Olympic Game Park. 

We hit a traffic hold up and it was because the Hood Canal Floating Bridge was obviously open to let ships through. We had quite a long wait before traffic started to move and we could cross the bridge. 

We saw two ships heading upstream on the opposite side of the bridge we had a good view of Mount Baker in the Cascades. 

The Olympics were ahead and to the left of us and we were on the Olympic Peninsula.

We joined highway 101, which goes round the Peninsula and carries on all the way down the coast to California. It is a very scenic highway with some very picturesque bays, one being Sequim Bay. There is a huge Indian presence on the Peninsula and that was evident with many of the buildings and Totem poles we passed. This area is also home to the Dungeness Crabs.

We drove through Sequim which is a very pretty town. This area grows a lot of lavender and there is also a big festival weekend. The Olympic Game Farm is a couple of miles beyond Sequim and eventually we found it.

We ate our lunch and I went for a wander through the Gift Shop. There is a world map on the wall and people leave pins in their own country. There is also a blown up map of the USA so people can put a pin in more accurately. Much to my surprise, there was a cat asleep on one of the window sills!

I then went outside and decided an ice cream was in order. I ordered a large, thinking two smallish scoops, well the scoops were so big I pushed one of them into the tub she had given me. Cheryl and Jim ate that for me, lol!! I have never seen such large scoops! 

We then got into the car and drove through the entrance into the drive through farm. It covers a huge area and we saw - Sika Deer, Prairie Dogs, Llama, Fallow Deer, Zebra, Yak, Kodiak Bears, Elk, Bison  and European Fallow Deer.

We also drove through an area containing individual small areas each containing a predator. There were examples of the following species - Wolf, White Tiger, Tiger, Lion, Bobcat, Cougar, Lynx, Arctic Fox among others. 


This area saddened me after seeing the other animals and I do wonder why the Farm has these animals, it is not necessary. I did not take any photos of the predators due to the poor conditions they were living in. 


The areas where the animals were free roaming were good and there were quite a few cars driving through and feeding the animals. Only 100% whole wheat bread can be fed. The Llamas were fun and one was following a car determined to get more bread, we fed some bread to the Llama and Yak. The Bears were mostly resting in the afternoon sun although we did throw some bread to them. 

The Elk were all lying down until I threw a slice of bread at one of them and he decided to come over for more, others followed.

 The Bison were really funny, they would put their whole head inside the car looking for bread. They were quite aggressive and there were some very large animals, lol! We did survive although one of the Bison left a scratch on the driver's door of the car. 

We fed the last of our bread to the Fallow Deer. All the way round we saw lots of crows, seagulls, swallows and peacocks. I have never seen so many peacocks in one area. There were many peahens as well and I saw one baby. 

We then started the drive home and not far along the way we found ourselves in a traffic jam. It was about two miles long according to Waze, and a motor home had skidded and was off the road against a bank. 

A Park Ranger vehicle had been back ended so may have somehow caused the accident. There were three police cars attending the scene. It looks like a long night ahead for the occupants of the motor home.

We continued on our way to have dinner at them Manchester Grill although we took a slight detour to see Gobi the camel! As we walked out of the Grill after our meal, it was to a beautiful sunset. We could see Seattle and Mount Rainier bathed in pink. 


There were quite a few people round all waiting for the Blue Moon to rise, we were told it would come up over Blake Island directly in front of us. I managed to take a series of photos of Seattle, across the water, from daylight to nighttime.

We did not have too long to wait and it was a pink/orange moon that climbed fairly quickly into the evening sky. 

The different colours of the moon and the surrounds as night fell were spectacular. Soon, we could also see the reflection on the water, it was beautiful. I took many photos of the moon as it rose into the night sky.

When we got home, the moon was hidden behind the trees but later it appeared in the night sky. All in all another wonderful day out and the spectacular weather certainly helped to make the week one that I will remember for a long time.