What’s there to do in Sequim, one might wonder? That’s what we wondered, too…
Since our vacation fund did not fare so well in the economic meltdown, our Hawaii plans also quickly melted down to Sequim…
First the fun stuff – We went to a place called the Olympic Game Farm which is right inside town. It is the kind of place that would be created if I had a few unemployed friends, about 50 acres of land, a bunch of animals, and $1,000. You drive into the farm and stop at the drive-thru shack to pay your admission and buy loaves of bread for $2 a pop. We bought 4. We also got a single warning – Zebras bite. (Haha, I thought to myself… like they’d have zebras at a place like this… ) After driving in about a 1/4 mile, we saw a big animal… it could have been a yak, an ox, or a bison. It had big horns. When we stopped, it seemed to give a sigh, slowly stand up and made its obligatory walk over to our van. It opened its mouth as if we knew what we were supposed to do, so we fed him some bread. We’ve never been so close to such a big animal before. It was pretty exciting.
Next, we drove down a hill, and 3 Alpacas came up to us. Two of them came up to a window on each side, and one blocked us in in the front. We joked that these Alpaca really know what they’re doing. We started feeding them some bread, but after a while, they started to stick their head into the van, and we no longer felt obliged to comply to their advances. I slowly moved toward the Alpaca in front giving him the signal that we’re going to move through him if he doesn’t move. He gave in and moved aside. We noticed the other Alpaca continued to walk beside our windows. I accelerated to try and lose them.
If the reader has not seen an Alpaca run 12 inches beside them going 25 miles an hour, you are missing out. That alone was worth it. They were fast. And their neck moves in a funky way that makes them look very funny. Not able to lose them, I slowed down, and one of the Alpaca cut me off, and the other two, came by our front windows again. By now, we felt scammed. The Alpaca were like velociraptors (a gentle, vegetarian version). They were extremely smart and coordinated. I no longer felt afraid that I was going to run them over. If they’re smart enough to box us in, they’re smart enough to jump out of the way, when I squeal out of there. I sped through some gates that had metal bars on the ground which apparently prevented hooved animals from getting out of that area.
Further down the road, we also saw lions, tigers, wolves, coyotes, foxes… but unlike conventional zoos, they were in kennels. (This is why I would need $1,000 to build this zoo.) We also saw a rhinoceros, and several bears. They were in much more spacious accommodations. The bears would wave at us for food. Apparently, a lot of these animals were trained movie animals that have retired… It was a bit sad to see, honestly… These glorious animals shouldn’t be begging for food… they should be tearing through our cars and eating whatever they want…. (I suppose what’s sad for them is good for us…)
We also finally saw the zebras. They walked right up to us. They are magnificent creatures. Caleb was a bit freaked out because of the single warning we received from the admission shack guy.
All in all, this was definitely the highlight of our Sequim trip.
Now the bad – Hurricane Ridge was closed due to construction and weather. We thought that Hoh rainforest was a bit too far of a drive. We tried to go clamming, but most of the beaches, including the one our house was on was tainted with some bacteria. We did wake up early to go to a beach that was deemed untainted… but that was perhaps because no shellfish lived there…. It was a beach full of rocks…. Very difficult to dig through rocks. We did run into quite a few people that were fishing though. At the beginning of the trip, my mom and I were just getting over a bout of the stomach flu… (details are better withheld.) Midweek, Caleb started getting some diahrrea, but quickly recovered. By Friday, Tenille and my sister were battling a bout with some time of fever and flu.
Next time – If we ever go back, we will pick Crabbing season. There were hundreds of dead crabs all along our beach. I’m sure the beach was crawling with crabs. We’ll go for max 3 days. We will check Hurricane Ridge conditions. It’s only a few hours away and includes a ferry trip, which makes the drive out pretty easy. We’ll also hopefully not bring the flu with us.
Hyun Family 