The Olympic National Park 2015: Hoh Rainforest

Camping in the Hoh Rainforest 2015: Overnight stop in Port Angeles, Olympic national Park Hoh Rainforest Visitor’s Center, walking the Hall of Mosses trail and Spruce Nature trail

 

We love the Olympic National Park. There is so much to see and so many different parts of it. We had visited the Hoh Rainforest portion of the park 11 years ago and loved it, but unfortunately the distance from Seattle makes it only worth it to us to visit on a three day weekend or longer. We were invited to go camping with some friends on their property on the Hoh River in May, so we took an extra day off work and packed up our camping gear.

Getting to the Hoh Rainforest from Seattle is a bit of a trek, usually involving a ferry. You can go a few different ways depending on which ferry is closest to you, or even drive around from the south. We opted for the Edmonds-Kingston ferry route in the north, with an overnight at a hotel in Port Angeles on Thursday night to get a head start.

Edmonds-Kingston ferry
Edmonds-Kingston ferry
Edmonds-Kingston ferry
Edmonds-Kingston ferry
Edmonds-Kingston ferry
Edmonds-Kingston ferry sun deck

The ferry from Edmonds to Kingston is a short 35-minute ride and is first-come/first served (no reservations). They leave about every hour to hour and a half or so depending on the season and day of the week. The 2015 fare for a vehicle and driver from Edmonds to Kingston is $17.30 + $8.00 per passenger. On the way back passengers travel free.

Day 1:

We managed to catch the 5:25 PM ferry on Thursday, and we drove straight from Kingston to Port Angeles (about an hour and 20 minute drive). We were on a super-tight budget, so we had reserved a room at the Flagstone Motel on the main highway, in walking distance to everything in town. The rate was $59 a night, and it was about what you can expect for that rate.

Flagstone Motel Port Angeles
Flagstone Motel Port Angeles
Flagstone Motel Port Angeles
Flagstone Motel Port Angeles
Flagstone Motel Port Angeles
Flagstone Motel Port Angeles
Flagstone Motel Port Angeles
Flagstone Motel Port Angeles

The bed wasn’t super comfortable, but the room was clean. The towels were actually not small pieces of sandpaper, which was pleasantly surprising. I was glad we brought our hair dryer though, there was none to be found in the room.

After we checked in, we were starving so we headed into town seeking sustenance. An old college roommate of mine grew up in Port Angeles, so I had messaged her for recommendations prior to our trip. For dinner she recommended the Next Door Gastropub, so we went down to check it out. Unfortunately, it was jam packed with a wait at the door. No one seemed available to put us on a list or give us an estimated wait time, and we were too hungry to wait around. We walked down the street and around the corner to Front Street and found the Kokopelli Grill. They were able to seat us right away and their southwest menu looked good.

Kokopelli Grill Port Angeles
Kokopelli Grill Port Angeles

The entree prices were a bit high, but they came with soup or salad and dinner rolls, as well as a vegetable and your choice of cilantro rice, plain or green-chili mashed potatoes, southwest fries, or sweet potato fries. We both started with the salmon corn chowder. Paddy ordered the surf and turf with grilled shrimp and the green chili mashed potatoes, and I had the yellow and blue corn crusted crab chili relleno with southwest fries.

Salmon corn chowder at Kokopelli Grill Port Angeles
Salmon corn chowder at Kokopelli Grill Port Angeles
Surf and Turf with shrimp and green chili mashed potatoes at Kokopelli Grill Port Angeles
Surf and Turf with shrimp and green chili mashed potatoes at Kokopelli Grill Port Angeles
Yellow and blue corn crusted crab chili relleno at Kokopelli Grill Port Angeles
Yellow and blue corn crusted crab chili relleno at Kokopelli Grill Port Angeles

Overall it was a pretty good deal for the money and the service was good. The restaurant decor was a little strange, it kind of looked like it used to be an Italian restaurant that someone bought and added a few Kokopelli figurines on the walls and Kokopelli dishware. The food was good, however and there was more than we could eat.

Completely stuffed and tired from working earlier that day, we walked back to the hotel and made it an early night. At around 3:00 AM there was an incoherent drunk yelling outside the motel, but he didn’t yell for too long. The Motel is right on the highway through town, so it can be a little noisy and the walls are thin.

 

Day 2:

Since we had gotten a head start the night before, we were able to sleep in and take our time in the morning. I woke up with a stiff back from the cheap mattress, but a hot shower fixed it. We checked out of the room and went down the street to First Street Haven, the restaurant my old college roommate recommended for breakfast. It was tiny and a bit cramped, but we got a table right away. I’m sure there is a wait on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

First-Street-Haven-Port-Angeles
First Street Haven Port Angeles

We were given a choice of light or dark roast coffee (nice to have the option!) and a regular menu and a specials menu. All breakfast entrees come with either toast or a baked good–coffee cake, cinamon roll, scone, muffin, or bagel. Paddy ordered the Montrachet omelette with toast off of the regular menu, and I ordered the bacon and brie scramble with raspberry coffee cake off of the specials menu. The coffee cake arrived first by itself and it was enormous. We sampled a few delicious bites, but figured we had better save room for our egg dishes. Fortunately, coffee cake travels well and we were able to take the rest to go. They didn’t skimp on the goat cheese on the Montrachet omelette, much to Paddy’s delight (you can never have too much goat cheese). Both the omelette and scramble were excellent–this place is worth the wait on the weekend if there’s a line.

Raspberry coffee cake at First Street Haven
Raspberry coffee cake at First Street Haven
Bacon and brie scramble at First Street Haven Port Angeles
Bacon and brie scramble at First Street Haven Port Angeles: Bacon, brie, and asparagus
Montrachet omelette at First Street Haven Port Angeles
Montrachet omelette at First Street Haven Port Angeles: Herbs, spinach, goat cheese, bacon, scallions, and plum tomatoes

After breakfast we walked across the street to check out Moss, a little boutique store featuring Northwest style clothing and accessories, as well as outdoor gear and gifts. The owner was a friend of my old college roommate, so we went in and said hi. The store was outdoorsy and unique, and had a lot of interesting stuff. A great place to go for gifts.

We got on the road, making one last stop in Forks for gas and beer. We couldn’t help but notice that Forks is still desperately clinging to the Twilight phenomenon, with Twilight tours advertised and “Twilight” inserted into the names of a couple stores and restaurants.

After a short drive south of Forks, we arrived at our friends’ property on the Hoh River off of Oil City Road. We set up our spot right along the river.

Oil City Road along the Hoh River
Oil City Road along the Hoh River
Camping in the Hoh Rainforest
Camping in the Hoh Rainforest

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing with our friends. Late in the afternoon Paddy and I explored Oil City Road a bit and found that the end of the road is an entrance to an Olympic National Park trail through the Hoh Rainforest to the beach.  It is also an access to the western-most portion of the Pacific Northwest Trail, which extends all the way from Glacier National Park in Montana. We walked part way down the trail along the river until we could see the ocean, but didn’t want to get too far out as everyone was getting dinner started. Next time we come here, we plan on following the trail at least to the ocean.

Big leafy plant in the rainforest
Big leafy plant in the rainforest
The Hoh River along the Pacific Northwest Trail
The Hoh River along the Pacific Northwest Trail
The Hoh River along the Pacific Northwest Trail
The Hoh River along the Pacific Northwest Trail
Hoh River meets the Pacific Ocean
Hoh River meets the Pacific Ocean

Back at camp, our friends were making some BBQ pulled chicken and baking biscuits in some camping Dutch ovens. Hot coals from a coal starter in the campfire were set underneath and on top of the ovens on the ground, baking the biscuits. The biscuits turned out perfect, and now we both think we need to invest in a camping Dutch oven. Paddy had brought a pasta salad he made to share, and some other friends heated up a foil pan of their homemade mac and cheese. I must say we ate extremely well on this trip.

Camping Dutch oven cooking
Camping Dutch oven cooking

That evening many drinks were consumed and a tribute was done to our friend’s grandfather, the previous owner of the property. This weekend would have been his 100th birthday. Words of appreciation were shouted, a horn was blown, and scotch was poured in the river.

Hoh River camping

Hoh River camping

 

Day 3:

The next morning we made some coffee on our Coleman stove with a tea kettle and french press, ate some granola and hard boiled eggs, and set out to explore. We drove back to the highway and headed a short ways north back towards Forks to the Hoh Rainforest National Park entrance road. On the way from our campsite to the highway on Oil City Road, we passed a family of cows lazing away the morning. It must be good to be a rainforest cow.

Cows on Oil City Road

Cows on Oil City Road

Cows on Oil City Road

About halfway down the National Park entrance road we reached the fee station and paid our fee. The fee for a one-week pass to any area of the Olympic National Park is $15.00 per vehicle, or $30.00 for an annual pass.

At the end of the road is the Hoh Rainforest Campground and Visitor’s Center. We camped there 11 years ago for a night, and the sites were a little open but it was a nice campground. It is first come first served, with 88 sites total. According to the ranger I talked to a couple years back, it is the largest campground in the Olympic National Park and the last to fill up on summer weekends.

There are two extremely easy walking trails (I’d hesitate to even call them hikes) that are great for families with kids or people who are not super in-shape. The shortest is the Hall of Mosses Trail, which is .8 miles, and the Spruce Nature Trail, which is 1.2 miles. If you are up for some serious Hoh Rainforest exploration, there is the Hoh River Trail, which is about 18 miles one way.

We opted for the two easy ones, starting with the Spruce Nature Trail.

Hoh Rainforest Trails
Hoh Rainforest Trails
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest

Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest

Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest
Spruce Nature Trail, Hoh Rainforest

The Hoh Rainforest truly is a magical place. The moss hanging from the trees, the ferns and vines, mushrooms and green life growing out of every place in the forest all gives me a sense of peace when I’m there. You almost expect to see faeries and elves dart away when you peer closely at a fallen tree along the path.

Of the two trails, the Hall of Mosses trail is my favorite. It is the shortest, but I feel it is also the most scenic. I love all the hanging furry moss in the rainforest.

Hall of Mosses Hoh Rainforest

Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest

Hall of Mosses Hoh Rainforest

Hall of Mosses Hoh Rainforest

Hall of Mosses Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses Hoh Rainforest

There is a portion of the trail that is actually called the Hall of Mosses. It is a large clearing with tall spruce trees and moss hanging from every branch. When we approached it there were several people in the clearing all being very quiet. We walked in and saw a large elk to our right, munching on the vegetation and paying no mind to all the paparazzi snapping pictures of him.

Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Elk in the Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Elk in the Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Elk in the Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Elk in the Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Elk in Hoh Rainforest
Elk in Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses trail

Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest

Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest
Hall of Mosses trail Hoh Rainforest

At the end of the trail is a gigantic fallen Sitka Spruce tree that is 190 feet long bordering the trail. It is impressive to see, and even more impressive to know that it isn’t the largest tree in the forest–many Sitka Spruces in the rainforest are over 300 feet tall.

Giant fallen Sitka Spruce on the Hall of Mosses Trail
Giant fallen Sitka Spruce on the Hall of Mosses Trail
Giant fallen Sitka Spruce on the Hall of Mosses Trail
Giant fallen Sitka Spruce on the Hall of Mosses Trail
Giant fallen Sitka Spruce on the Hall of Mosses Trail
Giant fallen Sitka Spruce on the Hall of Mosses Trail
Giant fallen Sitka Spruce on the Hall of Mosses Trail
Giant fallen Sitka Spruce on the Hall of Mosses Trail

Hoh-Rainforest 130

We finished our hike and stopped by the two small stores on the road back to the highway in hopes of picking up some ice. It was the weekend before Memorial Day weekend, and the Hard Rain Cafe told us their ice machine wasn’t in business yet, but would be by afternoon. I’m assuming their business is seasonal Memorial Day through Labor Day. It also looked like they were still stocking the souvenir shelves. The Peak 6 Adventure Store didn’t have any ice either, but they had just about everything for camping and hiking you could need if you forgot something–including rain gear and hiking shoes. We had enough ice to last until morning, so we figured we’d be fine.

**Note–you will need to drive back to Forks for most of your groceries and supplies if you are camping in the Hoh Rainforest.

Back at camp we relaxed a while longer, and then Paddy helped with dinner. Our contribution was baked potatoes, which we cooked on the grill over the campfire. Our friends had made the genius discovery that welder’s gloves are perfect for cooking on the campfire, and are a fraction of the price of camping or oven gloves. We have added welder’s gloves to our camping supplies shopping list.

Cooking baked potatoes on the campfire
Cooking baked potatoes on the campfire

Our friend Scott had brought a deep-fryer and was deep frying steaks for everyone up on the road. Our friend with the Dutch ovens was baking a chocolate cake (which turned out amazing by the way), and another friend made some fabulous baked beans by adding bourbon, bacon, and other ingredients to a giant can of Bush’s which she heated in a cast iron pot over the campfire.

deep fried steaks Hoh-Rainforest 133
Deep fried steaks

Camping on the Hoh River

It was another great evening with amazing food and good company.

 

Day 4:

On Sunday we packed up our campsite and headed back towards Kingston to catch the ferry. We made a quick stop at A Shot in the Dark Espresso stand in Forks for coffee. The coffee was great and came with chocolate espresso beans.

About 45 minutes outside of Kingston we pulled over and stopped for lunch at the Snug Harbor Cafe on Discovery Bay. It was a seafood basket and chowder type of place. I had the oyster sandwich and Paddy had the fish sandwich with a side of coleslaw. Both sandwiches were great but the tempura battered fries were really bland. Service was good–we’d stop here again. It looked like they had a nice outdoor patio and they advertised live music in on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Snug-Harbor-Cafe
Snug Harbor Cafe
Snug-Harbor-Cafe (2)
Snug Harbor Cafe
Snug-Harbor-Cafe (3)
Snug Harbor Cafe
Snug Harbor Cafe fish burger
Fish sandwich with a side of coleslaw
Snug Harbor Cafe oyster sandwich
Oyster sandwich

When you approach Kingston, there is a lane on the right for the ferry, which you need to get into as soon as you see it. You inch through with the other cars until you reach a ferry worker who gives you a ticket, and then you follow the ferry signs through town. This process appears to ensure that people don’t cut into the ferry queue from town. You give your ticket to the ferry toll booth when you get there.

The wait for the ferry wasn’t too bad. We missed the one that left a few minutes after we arrived but made the next one an hour later. It was a nice afternoon for a short ferry ride.

Kingston-Ferry (5)
Cars loading onto the ferry to Edmonds
seagulls Kingston-Ferry (6)
Edmonds-Kingston ferry
seagulls Kingston-Ferry (9)
Edmonds-Kingston ferry

seagulls Kingston-Ferry (8)

I always leave the Olympic National Park wishing we had more time to explore it. There is so much to see in each part of the park. The next time we make it out to the Hoh Rainforest, we’d like to walk the trail at the end of Oil City Road out to the ocean and possibly up the coast a little ways. I love to be out in the Hoh Rainforest any time of the year, it is so peaceful and a bit magical. Rain gear recommended, but the rain isn’t too bad.

 

Vegetable gardening for busy people who don’t know what they’re doing

What we’ve learned from our trial-and-error vegetable gardening in the Pacific Northwest: The veggies that grow easily without a lot of upkeep, the veggies to not bother with, and how to grow them with less maintenance

 

When we moved out of our first Seattle apartment and into our rental house back in 2007, our new landlord was encouraging us to do some vegetable gardening. In the spring of 2008, we thought we’d give it a shot. There was a small pile of broken up chunks of concrete in the corner of the property that our landlord hadn’t disposed of yet, so being on a tight budget, we dug up a small section of yard and made a perimeter with the concrete chunks. We bought a couple bags of garden soil and a couple bags of compost, mixed them together in the garden bed, and called it good.

Not having the patience to read any gardening books, we did some light Googling and bought some seeds, glancing over the directions on the back of the packets before planting them. I made potato seeds myself by buying organic potatoes and keeping them in a paper bag for a couple weeks until they grew eyes. Our garden bed was small, and I planted everything way too close together.

Our first garden: pumpkin, zucchini, potatoes
Our first garden: pumpkin, zucchini, potatoes

I attempted to grow tomatoes from seed, and quickly found that this was a bad idea. I got a few little sprouts, but the weather wasn’t warm enough to really get them going. I bought some pre-grown tomato starts and planted them in pots, and they did just fine in full sun against our light-reflecting white garage. (I think a greenhouse is key to growing tomato starts from seed in the Pacific Northwest).

tomato plant in a pot
Tomato start in a pot–purchased at this size
Vegetable gardening growing tomatoes in pots
Growing tomatoes in pots

Of all the things we planted from seed, the zucchini and the potatoes proved to be the heartiest winners in the bunch. The cucumbers spent the whole summer growing one tiny nubby little cucumber the size of a grape, and the pumpkin extended a vine out of the bed into the yard, growing pumpkins and aborting them before they could begin to turn orange. The watermelon didn’t even make an appearance  (honestly, I wasn’t super optimistic about that one, but it was worth a shot).

Not knowing anything about growing potatoes, I panicked when all my beautiful, lush, green potato plants dried up and died in late July. I didn’t know what I’d done wrong. When I dug into the soil, I figured out that is the natural progression of potatoes, once the plant dies they are ready to harvest. We had a bunch of delicious little potatoes and their flavor was so much more intense than the potatoes at the grocery store.

Building a raised bed:

The next summer, excited to try vegetable gardening again, we asked our landlord if we could build a raised bed in the yard. She generously offered to supply the dirt for us (our landlord really is the best landlord ever).

With a little help from my parents, we constructed a large raised bed out of boards next to our little concrete-chunk lined bed. We lined the inside of the boards with black plastic to help protect them from the dirt (for awhile at least).

Vegetable gardening building a raised bed
Raised bed

We have outdoor cats, and so do our neighbors. We knew we had a problem when our cat Finnigan jumped into the raised garden bed, dug a hole, and copped a squat as we were loading in the dirt. I yelled at him and shooed him away before he could drop his load. He was confused–he had been sure that this was a giant luxury bathroom just for him. Knowing we couldn’t completely keep the cats out, we added four posts on the corners of the raised bed and wrapped it with chicken wire. We could climb over it when we needed to tend to the garden, and it added an extra obstacle that our lazy cats weren’t always into jumping over.

Now we had lots of space to plant. We put up some chicken wire on posts on the side of the old garden bed and planted sugar snap peas and green beans. The main part of the bed we filled with potatoes. All three of these grew very well with little maintenance.

vegetable gardening peas and potatoes
Peas and potatoes
vegetable gardening sugar snap peas
sugar snap peas

In the large bed, we planted zucchini and yellow squash, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, dill, cilantro, and strawberries.

Vegetable gardening building a raised bed
Raised garden bed

vegetable gardening

I dug the strawberries out after I realized that the strawberry has a dual identity as a noxious weed; it had began shooting out vines over the other vegetables and sprouting new roots. We now know why strawberries are often grown in pots.

The dill and cilantro grew nicely, but when we didn’t use them right away, they shot up tall and flowered in the summer sun, producing more flowers than leaves. The broccoli did the same thing, and didn’t produce any edible flowers. I think it might have been too warm for the broccoli, it may be better to plant towards the end of summer and into fall.

As for the zucchini and yellow squash–they did just fine. Too fine. If there is one huge piece of advice I’d give anyone who is vegetable gardening for the first time, it is:

Resist the urge to plant the entire packs of zucchini and yellow squash.

There were so many seeds in the pack, and we had so much space to grow zucchinis. They grow so easily and are good for you. However, they produced so many zucchinis and squashes that after that summer, we didn’t want to eat any more zucchini for the next two years. We ate stuffed zucchinis, sauteed zucchini, chocolate zucchini cake, Thai curry with zucchini, etc. etc. We ate zucchini every way we could think of, and they just kept growing. If you don’t harvest them when they are a reasonable size, they just keep growing as well. In September, the zucchini plants had finally slowed down and I was finding less and less zucchinis in the garden. I must have missed one, however, because when we returned from a week long vacation I found a zucchini the size of our cats that had been hiding under the leaves. Neither of us wanted to eat any more zucchini, so I left it on my boss’s desk on Monday.

giant-zucchini
Watch out for sneaky zucchinis that hide under the leaves until they are gigantic
vegetable gardening
cat-sized zucchini

The peas and green beans did great climbing the chicken wire in the side of the old garden. Peas have a short growing season, and ended up being the first to grow and the first to be done growing. They were delicious. The green beans had a longer growing season, and we got a pretty good crop of those. We also had a great little crop of potatoes, all of which I grew from growing eyes on organic potatoes from the grocery store.

**Note: Don’t buy non-organic potatoes to make potato seeds from when vegetable gardening. They are treated with pesticides and I read that they can cause diseases in the soil. Always use certified seed potatoes from the garden section, or organic potatoes.

As for the carrots, they grew all summer and were ready to harvest in the fall. The seed packet told me to thin out the carrot sprouts after they grew to a certain height, but I didn’t really know how to thin them so I didn’t do anything. When we harvested the carrots, I understood the importance of thinning as the carrots were all grown together in twisty spirals and funny shapes. They were still edible and very tasty, but they weren’t the long classic carrots we were hoping for.

The lettuce grew very easily, but I quickly learned that you shouldn’t plant all the lettuce seeds in the pack at the same time. Suddenly we had more lettuce than we could handle, and it got overgrown and bitter if we didn’t eat it shortly after it was ripe. We ended up letting a lot of it go to waste by not picking it in time.

**Note: April is an ideal time to plant in the Pacific Northwest. You don’t want to wait too long to plant, but you need to be sure that there won’t be any more frost, as it will kill your seedlings.

Maintaining the garden beds

The next spring, grass, weeds, and dandelions had overtaken both gardens. It took a couple weekends of very hard work digging them all out with shovels and trowels. We’ve had to do this every summer since, and it is the part we both loathe. We’ve had a late start in planting many times because every weekend in April was rainy or we were busy every weekend that had sun, and we couldn’t get the garden bed ready early enough.

vegetable gardening overgrown kale
In case anyone was wondering, this is what happens when you let kale grow wild for 9 months…

During the growing season, there was so much space in the garden bed that crab grass and dandelions (the bane of my existence) kept sprouting up in the garden. We hate weeding. It was also hard on our backs to constantly be bending and crouching in the garden.

We are also always super busy in the summer. Summertime in Seattle is a little crazy. There are only so many warm sunny weekends a year in this part of the country, and everyone is in a mad scramble to make the most of it. Concerts, festivals, weddings, block parties, BBQs, camping trips, swimming in Lake Washington, days at the beach, and hiking fill our summers to the brim. This left little time or desire to maintain the garden, and often we forgot to check on our veggies or weed out the dandelions. The fact that the gardens were in the back of the yard behind the garage didn’t help much either, as they were out of sight and easily forgotten.

Watering was easy enough, though. If it didn’t rain we’d water every other day or so, unless we had a heat wave (90 degrees plus) during which we’d water daily. Tip: water in the evening so the hot sun doesn’t evaporate your water during the day.

What we’ve learned for our next garden

 

We are preparing to buy a house within the next year, which means a fresh start for a new garden. Now that we’ve learned a bit about vegetable gardening, we have determined that:

1. We hate weeding. We REALLY hate weeding.

2. We don’t have time or patience for veggies that need a lot of maintenance

3. Bending over all the time really hurts our backs, and we’re not getting any younger

4. Gardens that are out of site (i.e. tucked behind the garage far from our back door) become out of mind very quickly.

5. We love the taste of home grown vegetables.

The low to the ground raised garden bed that we made on our rental property is great for people who are really into vegetable gardening and plan on growing a lot of vegetables, and have time for weeding and replanting. We’ve decided that our next garden will have smaller, higher raised garden beds and galvanized steel farm trough planters like these:

Galvanized steel trough planter Raised garden bed

The raised height on the beds will prevent us from having to bend over so much, make the garden beds moveable, and will make it much more difficult for grass and weeds to invade them. We will plant on a smaller scale, and have the planters near the back door of our house or on the sides of the yard/patio so they are more visible and easier to take care of (preventing the out-of-sight-out-of-mind dilemma). You can buy them online or at farm and feed stores and garden centers. You can also make your own.

Tip: the galvanized steel food troughs are probably going to be a lot cheaper at a farm supply/feed store than at Pottery Barn.

We have also determined the following vegetables to be easy-to-grow winners that we will make a regular part of our summer vegetable gardening routine:

Tomatoes

Tomatoes in pots in a spot with full sun all day has always worked very well for us. If you grow tomatoes, be sure to invest in some tomato cages to support the heavy fruits on the branches, and use potting soil that is good for vegetables as well as flowers.

Potatoes

Potatoes are super easy. My Mom has had luck growing potatoes in old tires, adding a stacked tire and more dirt as the plant grows. The potatoes grow in the roots, and the more dirt you add the more roots it will sprout, and in theory produce more potatoes. We have tried this, and haven’t gotten as many potatoes as a large garden bed full of potato plants. We weren’t that diligent about adding more dirt as the plant grew, however. We will probably try this again in planters and see how it goes.

Carrots

Carrots are pretty low-maintenance, provided that you remember to thin them out when they start to grow so that you have one big carrot per plant instead of five spindly ones all tangled together in weird formations. I think I finally got this down last year.

Sugar Snap Peas and Green Beans

Peas and green beans are very easy and need very little garden space to grow if you get the pole kind (not the bush kind). Just make sure you have chicken wire, poles, or a lattice fence or something for them to climb. Once they start producing, keep an eye on them at least every other day to pick the ripe ones and keep the plants producing. Green beans that get too big get really tough and lose their flavor, so it’s best to make sure you don’t leave them growing too long.

Lettuce and Kale

Lettuce and kale are very simple as well. The trick with these is to only plant a couple seed groupings at the same time, and space out your planting a few weeks at a time so that you don’t end up with a bunch of lettuce at once. You can also pull up a head of lettuce or kale and then re-plant new seeds where the head you just pulled out was. This is a veggie that will do best for us in a raised bed near our back door, so that we can pull and replant often without forgetting about it.

Radishes

I’ve found that radishes grow extremely fast, and you can replant these and space out your planting time just like the lettuce.

Zucchini and Yellow Summer Squash

As mentioned earlier, don’t plant too much zucchini and squash, or you’ll never want to eat zucchini and squash again. These plants need a lot of space and get fairly large. Follow the directions on the seed packet and keep checking the plants daily once they begin to produce…otherwise you’ll wind up with cat-sized zucchinis.

Herbs

Herbs like basil, cilantro, dill, oregano, and rosemary are easy to grow, but they need to be used as they grow. This is another one to keep near the back door so that we can maintain them and have them readily available to cut for cooking.

 

Someday we might give broccoli and brussells sprouts another shot in a fall garden. Maybe even artichokes. We’re still learning about vegetable gardening….we’ll let you know how it goes!

 

FreLard, Seattle

“FreLard,” the murky gray area between Fremont and Ballard in Seattle is becoming a destination neighborhood specializing in craft beer and craft meat

 

FreLard: the proverbial “taint” of Ballard and Fremont,  a formerly drab, industrial and residential blur between the two neighborhoods is transforming into it’s own interesting little neighborhood. The main drag of FreLard is Leary Way NW, which runs from Market Street in Ballard all the way to N 36th St in the heart of Fremont. FreLard isn’t an official neighborhood title, but it’s something many Seattleites have called it for years– an accurate way to describe the location of a place when you’re not quite sure which neighborhood it is in. Is it in Ballard or Fremont? FreLard.

Over the last decade, and in the last two years in particular, many very hip new restaurants and nano-breweries have sprouted up in FreLard, adding to the few lonely businesses who have pioneered the area. A resounding theme: craft beer, upscale pub grub, and craft meat, with a down-home, high-quality/low-fuss attitude.

FreLard Map
FreLard Map

 

The largest of the early pioneers to FreLard is definitely Hales Brewery. The brewery started in 1983 in Colville, WA and moved to Seattle in 1995. The food is pretty good, but most people go for the beer and the spacious, comfortable pub that is great for larger groups. They have three event spaces to rent out for private parties, and in the spring they host the Moisture Festival. We’ve never been to the Moisture Festival, but have always wanted to go and have heard nothing but rave reviews. Maybe we’ll make it next year.

Hales Brewery
Hales Brewery
Hales Brewery
Hales Brewery
Hales Brewery beer sampler
Hales Brewery beer sampler

 

Another old standby in FreLard is The Dish, arguably one of the best breakfast spots in North Seattle. There is almost always a line on the weekends, with a sign in clip board tacked up outside the front door so you can put your name on the list.

The Dish Cafe Seattle
The Dish Cafe

The atmosphere in The Dish is bright and cheery, with mismatched coffee mugs and an old style diner breakfast bar. The food is fantastic.

Veggie benedict, The Dish, FreLard Seattle
Veggie benedict at The Dish
Biscuts and gravy at The Dish, FreLard Seattle
Biscuts and gravy at The Dish

 

If the weekend line for The Dish is too long, or you really need a little booze with your breakfast, I hear the dark and dog-friendly Leary Traveler next door does a great brunch from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Saturdays and Sundays. We keep meaning to try it out, but we often wake up at 8:00 AM starving on the weekends, and don’t feel like waiting until 10:00. Someday we’ll make it in there. I’ve heard the bloody marys are worth the wait.

 

A bit closer to the Ballard Bridge next to Cash ‘N Carry is Maritime Pacific’s Jolly Roger Taproom. While the focus at the Jolly Roger Taproom is showcasing their very tasty microbrews, we go for the food. It is actually one of our favorite restaurants in Seattle.

Jolly Roger Taproom Seattle
image from http://www.thrillist.com/ballard/jolly-roger-taproom
Jolly Roger Taproom smoked onion rings
Jolly Roger Taproom “stackers” smoked onion rings

They have a regular happy hour and bar menu full of cheap yet unique and delicious pub items, such as smoked jalapeno caesar salads (Paddy’s favorite), smoked onion ring “stackers” with smoked jalapeno tarter sauce, beer battered bacon, and mahi mahi sliders. You can easily eat a very satisfying happy hour dinner there for under $15.

The Jolly Roger Taproom also has a rotating seasonal dinner menu that is even better than the pub snacks. In the fall they usually pay homage to Oktoberfest with German-inspired cuisine, and the rest of the year the menu is seasonal and creative. The prices are higher than the bar menu, but not outrageous–about $16-$22 a plate. The plates are enough on their own to fill you up, and the food is high end and unique enough that we’d put their chef up against any of the fancy big-name chefs in this town.

The secret of their amazing food hasn’t stayed a secret though, and you may find a bit of a wait on Friday and Saturday nights. Trust us, it’s worth it.

The Stoup Brewery FreLard Seattle
The Stoup Brewery

FreLard has also become a mecca for a smattering of new nano-breweries in the last couple of years, most of which have a symbiotic relationship with the local food trucks in the area. They serve beer out of warehouse-style taprooms tucked into residential neighborhood streets, while a food truck sets up camp in front to serve food to the beer drinkers. The food truck doesn’t need a liquor license, and the breweries don’t need a food license. It’s a win-win, and beer drinkers get to sample a different food truck menu on different days of the week.

The Stoup at 1108 NW 52nd St opened in 2013. They have an inside and outside beer garden, and you can check the food truck schedule on their website to see what’s for dinner.

The Stoup Brewery FreLard Seattle
The Stoup Brewery
The Stoup Brewery FreLard Seattle
The Stoup Brewery
The Stoup Brewery FreLard Seattle
Beer samplers at The Stoup Brewery

 

Multiple people have told us to check out Reubens Brews on 5010 14th Ave NW. They just moved to their new larger location this month, two blocks from their original location. This is good news, because their popularity kept their old location so busy that the one time my co-workers and I tried to check it out, we couldn’t even fit in the door to get in line for beer. The beer must be fantastic, we’ll have to give it another try. They are open Monday through Thursday from 3 to 9, and Friday through Sunday from 12 to 9.

Reubens Brews
Reubens Brews original location, overflowing with beer enthusiasts

 

Also in the neighborhood is Popluxe Brewing, another new nano brewery in FreLard at 826 B NW 49th St. We haven’t been there yet and don’t know much about it, but the reviews are good. A friend of mine says they have a nice little yard area to hang out in and often host live music. Food trucks are stationed there on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Popluxe Brewing FreLard Seattle
Popluxe Brewing

Back on Leary Way NW in what looks like an old auto garage is Bad Jimmy’s Brewing. I went to Bad Jimmy’s on a Seattle Cycle Saloon tour with my co-workers and it was my favorite brewery on the tour. They had some really interesting and unique beers that I’ve never had anywhere else, such as their cocoa vanilla porter (delicious!), blood orange honey wheat, and habanero amber.

Bad Jimmys taproom FreLard Seattle
Bad Jimmys taproom image from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bad-Jimmys-Brewing-Co/200605819975291

Bad-Jimmys-FreLard-Seattle

There is a somewhat decent amount of seating inside for bad weather days, and they encourage people to bring in food from outside. They are right next door to Bourbon and Bones, a new southern food and whiskey restaurant on Leary Way.

Bourbon and Bones Seattle
Bourbon and Bones image from https://www.facebook.com/bourbonandbones

Bourbon and Bones has taken southern food and BBQ up a notch, also serving beer and craft cocktails with a focus on bourbon (if you couldn’t tell from the name). It is good that Bad Jimmy’s has developed a friendly relationship with their next door neighbor by allowing take-out food at their taproom, because Bourbon and Bones has a serious lack of seating for how popular they are. The first time Paddy and I attempted to go there, there was not one seat to be found and we weren’t in the mood to stand outside in the rain waiting for someone to leave. We decided to try again a couple months ago, and managed to snag two bar stools just as a couple people were leaving.

Bourbon and Bones Seattle
Bourbon and Bones whiskey bar. Image from https://www.facebook.com/bourbonandbones

bourbon-and-bones

I had the fried chicken with collard greens and mac and cheese, and Paddy had the ribs with collards and mac and cheese, and we shared a side of hush puppies. Food was served on a metal lunch tray, and came with two slices of white bread which can pretty much be purposed as edible napkins for all the sauce. A few different house-made BBQ sauces were on the bar and all the tables as condiments, and they were all delicious.

The fried chicken was excellent, and Paddy really enjoyed his ribs. The collards were smoky and the mac and cheese was soupy. It was a nice contrast to dried out mac and cheese found at many southern restaurants in town, and the flavor was nice and cheesy. We didn’t have room for dessert, but there were some ridiculously amazing cakes and pies behind the bar waiting to be served, including a maple bacon cake that I kind of wished I’d gotten a slice of to go.

bourbon and bones fried chicken
Fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens, and hush puppies at Bourbon and Bones
bourbon and bones ribs
Ribs, collards, and mac and cheese at Bourbon and Bones

The only things that make us hesitant to make Bourbon and Bones a new regular spot are the constant battle for a seat and the slightly high prices. The counter is right at the front door, so it is easy to get take out to go. We might try getting some to-go dinner to have along with beer at Bad Jimmy’s in their taproom next time.

 

Last month, another new BBQ joint brazenly opened up in FreLard a block down the street from Bourbon and Bones on Leary Way NW, called Drunky’s Two Shoe BBQ. While they may serve a similar cuisine to Bourbon and Bones, the theme and menu focus are very different.

Drunky's Two Shoe BBQ Seattle
image from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drunkys-Two-Shoe-BBQ/264073113645226

At Drunky’s, it’s all about the slow-smoked meat. It is simple, affordable, and cooked with love. You can smell it cooking all the way into Fremont in the afternoons and it smells amazing. You won’t find any hush puppies, maple bourbon cake, or collard greens; instead there are simple, Texas-style staples like baked beans, coleslaw, and potato salad. Paddy tried the brisket dinner and I had the half chicken. The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender and the flavor was incredible. The potato salad and coleslaw weren’t anything to write home about, but they were good. Just like mom used to make. The baked beans however were fabulous and flavorful–a far cry from a can of Bush’s.

Smoking meat at Drunkys Two Shoe BBQ Seattle
Smoking meat at Drunky’s Two Shoe BBQ image from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drunkys-Two-Shoe-BBQ/264073113645226
Drunkys Two Shoe BBQ patio
Drunkys Two Shoe BBQ patio. Image from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Drunkys-Two-Shoe-BBQ/264073113645226

drunkys two shoe bbq menu frelard

drunkys two shoe bbq chicken frelard
Drunky’s BBQ chicken plate with potato salad and baked beans
drunkys two shoe bbq brisket frelard
Drunky’s BBQ brisket plate with baked beans and coleslaw

There is more seating at Drunky’s than at Bourbon and Bones, and a great patio with astro turf and string lights to set the back-country mood. The owners put a lot of attention to detail into the restaurant itself: Tractor seats at the bar, velvet Elvis paintings and taxidermy, reclaimed rustic wood walls and a chandelier made out of chainsaws. Food is served on metal camping plates with baked beans in a matching camping mug. Given the awesome food, low prices, and fabulous patio, we may be back a few times this summer.

drunkys two shoe bbq frelard
Drunky’s Two Shoe BBQ
Drunky's Two Shoe BBQ frelard
Drunky’s Two Shoe BBQ
Drunky's Two Shoe BBQ frelard
Drunky’s Two Shoe BBQ inside seating
Drunkys Two Shoe BBQ chainsaw chandalier
Drunkys Two Shoe BBQ chainsaw chandalier

 

A little ways west down Leary Way NW from Drunky’s and Bourbon and Bones (across from the new BevMo) is yet another new western Americana-themed restaurant called Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens. Instead of BBQ, the focus is on gourmet burgers and a gourmet salad bar.

Giddy up burgers and greens frelard seattle
Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens
Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens Frelard Seattle
Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens

The “greens” are what sets this place apart. You can order hand cut fries or haystack fried onions, but they are an afterthought. Instead of the usual greasy fried sides, you can walk in, grab a bowl at the salad bar, fill it with whatever you want and however big you want, and pay for it by the pound at the counter when you order your burger. Or don’t order a burger–just have a salad. There were a variety of pickled veggies and a curry chicken salad, several types of cheese, and two types of greens in addition to all the usual salad bar stuff.

Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens salad bar Frelard Seattle
Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens salad bar
Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens salad bar
Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens salad bar
Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens catch burger frelard seattle
“The Catch” burger at Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens
Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens haystack onions
Giddy-Up Burgers and Greens haystack onions

We’ve been twice, the first time I got the haystack onions as a side and while they were tasty, there wasn’t much to them. Kind of like a fresh version of the french fried onions you put on a green bean casserole. The second time we went I did the salad bar and it was excellent. The pickled onions I added to the salad were fantastic. Both times I got The Catch burger (I don’t eat beef) and it was very good. It was a house made cod patty instead of the usual breaded and fried pre-fab piece of cod, which was refreshing. Paddy had a different beef burger each time (sorry, I don’t remember which ones) and he said they were both great. They also have a chicken sandwich and a white bean and quinoa burger which I have yet to try.

Giddy-Up has a separate room area off the main area that can be rented for private parties, and in the summer is converted to an open-air dining area. Either way, there is usually plenty of space to find a seat.

FreLard used to be an area we’d just past through on the way to either Ballard or Fremont, but now it’s a place we go on purpose. There is more parking available than in Fremont and Ballard, and there are now several great restaurants to choose from, and more are most likely on the way. I just heard of a Korean restaurant that opened last year just off of Leary as well called Tray Kitchen which we will be checking out soon. FreLard–check it out!

Isla Saona Day Trip in The Dominican Republic

An amazing day trip to Isla Saona, Dominican Republic: Red sea stars at La Piscina Natural, the village of Mano Juan, and swimming in paradise

Excerpt from original post Dominican Republic 2013: Santo Domingo, Bayahibe, and Cap Cana. Read about our entire trip to the Dominican Republic and all our travel tips here.

Isla Saona is a small island off of the south east coast of the Dominican Republic, and is part of the Parque Nacional del Este. There is one village on the island called Mano Juan, with only 400 inhabitants, no cars, and only solar electricity. Isla Saona has some of the most post-card worthy beaches in the world, all protected by the government through the national park.

Bayahibe, Dominican Republic
Harbor in the town of Bayahibe, Dominican Republic

We were staying at the Hotel Villa-Baya in the little beach town of Bayahibe on the south coast of Dominican Republic. We checked out of our hotel and walked down to the Seavis Tours office on the public beach, and were met by the Dutch couple that helped us make our reservations for Isla Saona. They were very accommodating, and stored our luggage for us in the office for the day. We also pre-arranged a shuttle with them that evening to our next destination in Cap Cana.

Our tour guide was another Dutch expat, very sun-tanned and blonde with a well-traveled look about him. We got in the boat with our fellow tourists, slapped on our national park bracelets, and set out towards the caves and Rocks of Penon. The rocks were a former home of the native Taino people who inhabited the island before the Spanish conquistadores brutally desimated their populations.

After a quick stop and explanation, we moved on to the Piscina Natural, or the “natural pool”. It is a shallow sand bar pool a ways out from the coast where you can find red sea stars. There were a couple other tours there as well. Our guide was very careful about making sure that no one took them out of the water, and explained their life cycle.  (If they are taken out of the water for more than about a minute, they die. I read in my guidebook that many guides aren’t so careful about this, unfortunately.)

PLEASE DON’T TAKE THE SEA STARS OUT OF THE WATER.

Piscina Natural, Dominican Republic
Piscina Natural
Piscina Natural, Dominican Republic
Paddy with a rum and coke and a sea star, Piscina Natural
Red sea stars, Piscina Natural, Dominican Republic
Red sea stars, Piscina Natural
Red sea stars, Piscina Natural, Dominican Republic
Red sea stars, Piscina Natural
Red sea stars, Piscina Natural, Dominican Republic
Red sea stars, Piscina Natural

Complimentary rum and cokes were also offered, even though it was 10:00 AM. Why not.

After we spent some time learning about the sea stars, we went by some mangroves, and a driftwood log with pelicans scanning the shallow water for lunch. Our guide explained the environmental impact of the resort building in Punta Cana, which included mangrove and seagrass removal on the coastline. This lead to the loss of habitat for marine life in the area, as well as increased sediment runoff into the ocean and increased water pollution. The good news is that there are environmental groups working on a mangrove reforestation project in the area.

Mangroves, Dominican Republic
Mangroves
Pelicans, Dominican Republic
Pelicans
Pelicans, Dominican Republic
Pelicans

 

After we bid the sea stars and pelicans goodbye we headed to the main attraction, Isla Saona. Isla Saona is in the Parque Nacional de Este, and has one small village on it called Mano Juan. No one is allowed to live or move to the island, only the approximate 400 locals who have been there raising families for years. The only electricity in the village is through solar panels, and the community thrives on subsistence farming and tourism.

Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Church, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Church, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Mano Juan, Isla Saona
House, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
"Gym" Mano Juan, Isla Saona
“Gym” Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Houses, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Houses, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Houses, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Houses, Mano Juan, Isla Saona

We walked past a tree with a ladder. Our guide explained that this tree was the only place on the island where cell service signals were available, so when islanders want to call the mainland, they climb up the ladder to sit in the tree and talk on their phones.

"Cell phone tree" Mano Juan, Isla Saona
“Cell phone tree” Mano Juan, Isla Saona
"Cell phone tree" Mano Juan, Isla Saona
“Cell phone tree” Mano Juan, Isla Saona

 

We walked through the village, looking at the happy, laid back lifestyle. It made me want to run away and live there. We visited a  sea turtle sanctuary and learned about sea turtle conservation. Their numbers are decreasing as predators prey on their eggs. Unfortunately sea turtle eggs are thought of as an aphrodisiac in the Dominican Republic and Latin America, and are sold for thousands of dollars. This group on Mano Juan is trying to educate and protect the turtles. It was refreshing to see.

Paddy and the piglet, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Paddy and the piglet, Mano Juan
Free-roaming piglet, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Free-roaming piglet, Mano Juan
car door fence gate, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
The best fence gate I have ever seen
car door fence gate, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Car door fence gate, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Houses, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Houses, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Houses, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
House, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Main street through town, Mano Juan, Isla Saona

Mano-Juan-Isla-Saona-Tour (25)

We visited the local hospital, which had no one in it at the time. They receive a new doctor doing a year of community service after finishing school each year to work at the hospital. Some of the other tourists were horrified at the primitive facility. It didn’t look bad to me, just simple. One lady said, “being here really makes you appreciate what we have at home.” Being there for me made me want to leave home. What do people really need? Family, friends, health, and happiness. It seemed to me that the villagers in Mano Juan had all of those things.

Hospital, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Hospital, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Hospital, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Hospital, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Hospital, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Hospital, Mano Juan, Isla Saona

 

After the village tour, we went back to the main beach for a buffet lunch. The food was excellent. While we ate, some local kids came and played music for us and sang for donations for their school. The tour guides explained that kids begging tourists for money end up making more money than their parents, and wasn’t teaching kids a good work ethic. They are teaching the kids music in the school and that they need to do something to earn money, not beg for it. The kids looked super happy playing their instruments and singing. We made sure to make a donation for their school.

Lunch buffet, Mano Juan
Lunch buffet
kids playing music, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Local kids playing music for donations for their school
Kids playing music, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Kids playing music, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Kids playing music, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Kids playing music, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Kids playing music, Mano Juan, Isla Saona
Kids playing music, Mano Juan, Isla Saona

 

After lunch, we headed out to the other end of Isla Saona, with a beautiful uninhabited beach for some swimming and snorkeling. It was truly one of the most picturesque beaches we’ve ever seen.

Isla-Saona-Beach
Isla Saona Beach

Isla-Saona-Beach (2)

Isla-Saona-Beach (9)

Isla-Saona-Beach (10)

Isla-Saona-Beach (12)

Isla-Saona-Beach (15)

Isla-Saona-Beach (16)

Isla-Saona-Beach (17)

Isla-Saona-Beach (19)

Isla-Saona-Beach (20)

There were a few patches of coral, and some fish but the snorkeling wasn’t great. It was enough of a good time just to sit or walk along the beach and swim. It was so beautiful.

Snorkeling Isla Saona, Dominican Republic

Snorkeling Isla Saona, Dominican Republic

Unfortunately this was also the trip that my water bag for my camera decided to no longer be waterproof. It was my old camera, and fortunately I had my regular camera still. The camera bag had been on many snorkel trips, but this was it’s last one. (I now have a waterproof camera instead of a bag).

Our guides brought out a little dessert of pineapple cake, and shortly after left Isla Saona and headed back to Bayahibe. We arrived back, collected our luggage and were sent with a shuttle driver to our resort in Cap Cana, a smaller area south of Punta Cana.

The preserved beauty of Isla Saona and the rustic charm of Mano Juan were one of the highlights of our trip to the Dominican Republic, and we would definitely recommend Seavis Tours. If you’re headed to the Dominican Republic, try to make Isla Saona one of your priorities if you are staying in the region.

Continue reading about Bayahibe, Cap Cana and the rest of our Dominican Republic trip here