Closer still

Hanging out in the pool booth with Alex right now (she says "hi") during her unexpected shift today. The regular worker is sick so she gets to fill in. We are actually so grateful that we both have work to do. Neither of us was on the schedule as of yesterday since the folks who have been here the longest get first dibs on the remaining shifts for these last 4 days. But now I get to work 3 more dinners and 3 more breakfasts since our friend Molly decided to leave early. PRAISE GOD! He has provided so abundantly for us here, beyond anything we expected. We have our reservation made at Kalaloch for Sunday night (not leaving till we enjoy a greatly anticipated party and dinner that afternoon), but we find ourselves already getting sad about leaving this place. We have really enjoyed our new friends and this place is so awesome, anyone would fall in love with Olympic park. We saw a different face of it this past Tuesday on our last day off together. You can see a few new pictures on the HOK photo page. We hit PA early for an excellent breakfast at the Corner Cafe, then decided to hike up a well laid trail on the Elwa river to find the Olympic Hot Springs...a group of 7 primitive springs, unmaintained and wild somewhere in the forest. As I said, the trail was very easy to follow and quite beautiful...and the springs were a lot of fun. I did bring my suit, ignoring what I heard was the typical convention to go without there. We did not encounter any other bathers as such thankfully :) The 7th and uppermost spring was very hot though really comfortably lined with small pebbles and rocks, unlike the lower springs which were pretty muddy. We had a really fun time, capped by a gorgeous view of the moon rising over Lake Crescent (see the above pic). This may be my last post before hitting the road but will continue to post thoughts and reflections about the trip when we get back...We are set for a great adventure on our way home so will have plenty of material and more pictures to share. Thanks for keeping in touch with us!
dk