TAKE AN EXIT! ANY EXIT AND SEE WHAT YOU FIND!





The trail that leads down to the spit.

   Spit?  Where? What?  I'm embarrassed to say I had never heard of a spit before. Go figure there would be one in the State where we now live. Coming from the Southwest, "spit" is something that comes out of your mouth! Who knew it was a growing piece of sand.

While traveling to Sequim, WA to attend the Lavender Fair, we noticed a exit sign that said Dungeness  Spit. SURPRISE! We would never have guessed this 631-acre refuge was that close to the freeway. When you're just driving along,  you never know what is only a few miles off the road.

This is the longest natural sand spit in the United States, it is 5.5 miles long, extending into the Strait of Juan De Fuca, growing about 15 ft. a year for the last 120 years. Out on the tip is a light house. It's been said that they have seen 200 or more species of birds encompassing this area.

Adjacent to this refuge is another 216 acres of shoreline that you can hike. Only thing is we wished we had found the spit earlier in the day, because we were only able to hike out on it a few miles due to  the tide that was coming in, and it was getting harder and harder to get around some areas on the spit. It's a good 10 mile round trip hike.

So now I know...and you know....and you know, that I know what a spit is. HAH

WHY TRAVEL TO PARIS? WHEN YOU CAN WALK THE LAVENDER FIELDS OF SEQUIM, WA?



This is one of my favorite photos I took on our trip.



 Ooh La La. Wineries, berry fields and rows of Lavender. It looks and feels like Paris. Well the pictures of Paris anyway. But here in the Pacific Northwest we have Sequim. We loaded up our trailer and off we went to the Sequim Lavender Festival.

This was our first time attending, and were told by a good friend ‘Mike’ that this place was the driest area in Western Washington, which I thought was interesting because we actually stayed at the KOA in Port Angeles eight miles west of Sequim. Everyone who is a Twilight fan knows Port Angeles is where Bella and Edward had their first date. As luck would have it, the weather did not live up to the theory that Sequim has a blue hole in the sky over it. We woke up our first morning to rain. Not wanting to let the rain stop us from exploring the area we took on our adventure. There were about 14 farms open to the public for tours. We just happened upon the greatest farm which not only had lavender, it also had acres of every berry your mouth would want. My kids loved that we got to pick our own.

 

Each of the farms had some kind of activities from u-pick fruit to lavender, music, crafts, and some of the farms had demonstrations on cooking with lavender. And last but not least was their own gift shops with everything and anything to do with lavender.

Here is a recipe that was in the offical program guide for the event.

LAVENDER ICE CREAM

4 cups whole milk                              8 white fresh lavender top

1 cup sugar                                          Fresh raspberries

1 cup honey                                         Fresh lavender buds

In a medium saucepan cook milk over medium heat to almost boiling. Remove from heat; stir in cup sugar, honey and lavender tops (each about 5 inches long, or 2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender). Cover and steep until mixure has cooled to room temperature (45-60 minutes). Strain milk mixture; discard lavender. Freeze mixture according to ice cream maker manufacturer's directions. Serve with fresh raspberries ( or fruit of choice) and sprinkle with lavender buds.

Recipe provided by Mrian Platt