Travel by the Book ~ Lake Quinault

Welcome to Travel by the Book. I mentioned on a Bought, Borrowed, & Bagged post one time that many, many of my vacations with Hubs have been inspired by a book. Hubs is kind enough to indulge me and take me to said places. So I got the idea to share those books and vacations with y'all. This will be a monthly feature and I hope y'all enjoy it!

***The Book***

When I first moved to Colorado (1999), I joined a moms group and started a book club. It was for that book club that I read The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. If any of you have read it, you know it's a story about finding out who you are, where you come from, the bonds of friendship, and the difficulties that can strain a mother-daughter relationship. Sidda escaped to Lake Quinault after a falling out with her mother, Vivi. While there, Vivi sends her a scrapbook entitled "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and in it, Sidda discovers a lot about her mother and herself...while sitting on the banks of the lake, hiking the trails around the lake, and swimming in the lake. Despite the fact that the story is really more Vivi's and takes place in the heat and humidity of Louisiana, it was the peace Sidda found at Lake Quinault that struck me. After the location was first introduced, I put the book down and told Hubs, "I want you take me here." We got out maps to figure out the exact location and planned a trip...which was taken several years and a couple of kids later. :)

***The Travel***

In June, 2008, we finally made the trip. I have to tell y'all that the Olympic Peninsula in June is GORGEOUS! We had mostly sunny skies - okay, there was a day where it was mostly cloudy) - and I found Lake Quinault to be just as peaceful as Sidda described it. Lake Quinault is on the Quinault Indian Reservation. It's very remote - no cell service or wifi. It's lush, quiet, and the perfect place to explore the rainforest or just sit by the lake and read.

We stayed in the historic Lake Quinault Lodge. It's rustic, charming, and served wonderful food!

Here is a photo of the back side of the lodge. The lawn gently rolls down toward the lake.

Doesn't this look like the perfect place to relax with a book?

Okay, so we did actually spend a lot of time on the lawn here. We could relax, read, and play bacci ball. :)

But we did take advantage of seeing a few of the sights in the Quinault Rainforest...like seeing the World's Largest Spruce tree.

And these wild blackberry bushes/trees. Y'all these bushes are taller than me! The Lake Quinault Lodge restaurant served a great compote made with these.

Can you believe the size of this tree? Or my incredible display of strength?!? *snickers*

And proof that things in the rain forest just grow to abnormally large sizes...look at this slug! But it is such a pretty shade of green.

So, my hubs and I really enjoyed our trip to the Olympic Peninsula (it wasn't to be our last) and the Lake Quinault Lodge. I absolutely can see what Sidda would want to escape to this peaceful location. And I'm grateful I got to make the journey.