Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Olympic Music Festival

We just spent a quick weekend on the Olympic peninsula and I thought I'd report back, in case any of you are considering the same.

Our trip focused on attending the Olympic Music Festival near Quilcene. The festival features classical chamber music played in a barn. You can make reservations and sit in the barn for the concert or pay a little less and come on the spur of the moment, and sit on the lawn outside, where they pipe the music. People outside have picnic lunches and laze on lawn chairs (bring your own) or blankets, while the music plays. Some people read, some sleep, everyone relaxes.

The farm has donkeys to pet and a beautiful garden. The music series runs all summer long on weekends. It's about an hour from the ferry at Winslow, so about 1 1/2 hours from Seattle.

So, now I'll back it up. We left on Saturday morning and got the ferry around 10:40. We got to the terminal at 10:20 and were able to drive right on. We had time to stop in Pousbo on the way and picked up some goodies at the bakery.

We took a picnic lunch to the festival. The weather was perfect. It was a little warm in the sun and cool in the shade of the big trees. The music was lovely. One of the outdoor speakers crackled a little with higher volumes but we would love to go back.

Getting last minute reservations wasn't as easy as going to the concert at the last minute. We found a room at the Inn at Port Ludlow (also called the Resort at Port Ludlow). Wow! It was designed by the man who designed the Inn at Langley, only is brand new. The rooms are arts and crafts style, quite large, with lovely views. All the rooms have fireplaces and jetted tubs that open with windows into the bedroom. It would be a wonderful romantic getaway from Seattle. We had our son with us, so it wasn't so romantic, but was still wonderful. It was very close to the festival.

My sister stayed farther away, in Sequim, at Clark's Chambers, a B&B. She loved it. She spent a couple of nights and had time to explore the Dungeness Spit, the longest spit in the northern hemisphere, jutting about 5 1/2 miles into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She said the people running the B&B are really interesting to talk to and told them a lot about the history of the area and more places to explore. She said the breakfasts were really good and huge.

We went to Hurricane Ridge on Sunday morning. We walked the trail at the end of the road, called Hurricane Hill. We'd done this trail years ago. It's still awesome, with views over the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north and the Olympic mountains to the south. You look at it and think, "How can the earth be so beautiful?" and then say a big prayer of gratitude. This trail is 1 1/2 miles and is paved. Lots of people of all shapes and ages made it up, but you'd have to take your time if you weren't in good shape as it goes up pretty high. (The ridge is a mile high with views to sea level.) Definitely bring water.

It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get to the ferry at Winslow, on Bainbridge Island. We arrived around 5:10, too late for the 5:30 ferry but got on the ferry at 6:30. It was a lovely ride to Seattle. It's nice to live in such a lovely corner of the world.