Salt Creek Revisited, WA - Jul 2009

Well, we are back at Salt Creek Recreation Area near Port Angeles, WA after a beautiful week spent in Port Townsend (see posts.) We will probably stay here for a couple of weeks. The main reason is so that we can enjoy the Lavender Festival in Sequim, but we also like this park not only for the views, but also because it has 15 first-come-first-serve sites, so we are pretty much assured of having a spot to plant over a busy weekend. Plus, at $24/night for a water/electric site, it's cheaper than anything else around. We also decided that we will most likely head over to the west coast of Washington next, so this is right on the way.
Yesterday was foggy and kind of dreary, but it looks like the sun will be back soon and it should be great weather for the Lavender Festival.
We've been holding out on going to the coast in hopes of the weather getting a bit warmer. August is supposed to be the "warmest" month -- although "less cool" might be the more appropriate way to describe the temperature here. We have been on the Olympic Peninsula for almost five weeks now and it's been warm enough to wear shorts (that's about 70 degrees for me) on only a handful of days -- and then, only for a few hours in the afternoon.

Mind you, I'm not complaining! After nearly 25 years of blazing hot Texas weather where air conditioning is a must for six months of the year, I'm absolutely enjoying the fact that here it is -- the middle of July -- and I have to put on a jacket every time I go outdoors.

Now, I grew up in San Diego and Frank & I lived in Santa Barbara for many years, so we're both familiar with marine climates, but it's been a long time since we've enjoyed such cool weather in the summer. While we've been here, the weather has alternated between cloudy/cool and sunny/warm. The temperature varies little with overnight lows in the 50s and daytime highs in the 60s. On sunny days it reaches up into the low 70s.

We've had a few foggy days and several damp days that aren't quite rain - more misty actually. We've only had a couple of days where it's rained enough for the ground to get wet. The dreary days don't seem to keep the locals from getting out and enjoying nature and when a sunny day happens -- well it's like a holiday and just makes everything better.