On Thursday, we’re heading to the Olympic Peninsula with the vow to actually make it all the way out to the beach and the Hoh.

I have a confession to make: I have never been out to the Washington coast. Well, maybe once. I have this dim memory of driving it at night on our way home from Oregon, way back before we had kids. I can’t remember, really, so I must not have seen anything.

And I grew up here. I’ve been to some of the remotest corners of Nepal, Indonesia, Australia, and lots of countries beyond, but I’ve never checked out my own state’s coast.

The forecast is for rain, but, you know, it’s the rainforest. So we’re planning on cheap motels (not hard when you’re going to Forks) rather than camping, and then visiting relatives in Sequim. Part of why we never get all the way west is we get no further than Sequim. Who wants to hang out in the rain if you can hang in the rainshadow?

I’ll let you know how it goes. And, oh, we’re not planning on checking out the vampire scene (major eye roll when I brought it up), but who knows? Young minds can change.