One of our favorite day trips, here in Northwest Washington State is a ferry ride and drive to the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge on the Olympic Peninsula.  In the afternoon on Friday, we headed down to the Edmonds Ferry Dock, to take our ferry ride to Kingston on the Kitsap Peninsula for the first leg of our journey.  We were aware that the ferry system is down two boats, both in dry dock for repairs, and we might have a wait.  That turned out to be the case.  But it was a gorgeous, sunny day, and we were not bothered at the 1.5-hour wait in line.

We also were aware of the existing federal regulation (actually simply an “executive order” by the dementia-plagued president), mandating all travelers on any form of public transportation to wear face masks.  Well the Washington State Ferry System is definitely a mode of public transportation, so we expected all sorts of prominent signage, reminding all passengers to wear their masks when outside their vehicle. [note: the residents of Western Washington are the most-compliant of slaves, and about half still wear their face-diapers even when they do not need to, like outdoors].  So, we were somewhat surprised to see almost no such signage.  Nothing at the tollbooth, nothing on the ramp up to get on the ferry.  When we drove onto the ferry, we parked the car as indicated by the crew-member, who was not wearing a mask.  The first thing to catch my eye, through the railing of the boat, was one of the hard-rubber bumpers on the piling that keeps the big boat in place at the dock.  Many people over the years had stuck various stickers on that piling.  Here it is.

Our people here love the outdoors, and are mostly Leftist, both of which are reflected in the various stickers.  So we got out of the car, and went up to the passenger deck, where we saw a very strange sight.  More than half of the people in the enclosed cabin, and out on the deck, were not wearing masks, leaving them open to reprimand or whatever penalty our betters in DC have decided to issue for Covid scofflaws.  Wow!  We have a bunch of revolutionaries around, who must know of the federal mandate, but simply don’t care.  Like us.  I did not pack a mask for the journey, and was never asked to wear one.  Ahhh, Freedom!

I made for the outside deck, where I could stand in the sunshine, gazing at the beautiful Puget Sound.

I mostly stood outside on the deck, my phone ready to take pictures.  We saw a really cool sailboat, with a bright red sail.  I took some still pictures.

I also took some video, which I posted on my Rumble site.  Take a look, here.

We arrived in Kingston, and had a bit of lunch before driving on, across the Hood Canal Bridge to the Olympic Peninsula.  We arrived at the refuge at around 5:30PM.  I was delighted to find that my Senior Park Pass gets us free admission, and then it was down the path through the forest, to the spit below.

A short distance down the path, we came out of the forest to get our first view of the Spit.  We stopped at the overlook.

The Spit is 5-1/2 miles long, with a lighthouse at the tip.  You can walk all the way to the lighthouse, but it is a very strenuous hike.  No hikers that day, as the spit was closed, a short way down the beach.  The Spit runs roughly north-east, and there is a lagoon on the leeward side.  We walked down the path, to the beach.

If you turn around, this is the beach on the south-west side of the Spit.  It was a very hazy day, so you can just barely see the Olympic Mountains in the distance.

If you keep walking down the beach, you would end up in Port Angeles.  But we started to walk up the beach.  I love this beach, since it is never the same twice.  There are lots of big driftwood logs on the rocky beach, and you can also see clamshells, and seaweed.  I came across this kelp.

We turned around, and climbed over the driftwood to see the lagoon inside the Spit.  We couldn’t go very far, since there was a sign indicating the inside lagoon was closed.

In past years, we have seen flocks of Terns fishing in the lagoon.  There weren’t many birds out this time.  We did see some very beautiful driftwood logs.

One thing most people can’t resist on this beach, is getting flat rocks, and piling them at various places on the logs.

A little way up the beach, we saw a very interestingly-shaped driftwood log, with the part that was the roots standing up.  I had Hubby go stand by it, for scale.  This would have been a very big tree!  Hubby is just under 6 feet tall.

You can see in the background of this picture, the light is different.  About 45 minutes after we arrived, the fog started to roll in.  Here’s the beach in the fog.

The wind was really coming up, causing the waves to get bigger.  I took some video, and you can see it here.  And, looking down the beach to the south.

We simply got too cold, so decided to call it a day.  The bluffs on the left are treed, and you can see the fog rolling in!

We were very cold from the wind, so the walk back up the path was good to keep warm; the wind was blocked by the trees too.  It was a fun day, and we found an Applebee’s in Sequim to have dinner.  We didn’t arrive home until after midnight, but it had been an excellent day.