Sequim at ChristmasSequim is beautiful at all times of the year, at least to us Sequimers who always enjoy the dramatic panorama of the Olympic Mountains and like to watch the change of the seasons. Sorry for the delay with this post. It must be the season. Yes, holiday season it is. We love it!
The Sequim Intermezzo with the snow has been over for about two weeks. It’s all melted away. Should we say luckily or sadly?! Even with the restrictions involved through the snow (for the first two days, no snow plough made it through Sun Meadows, so we decided to leave the car just in the garage, with its summer tires we were not too convinced about its performance anyways), we loved the sight of the snow…the snow covered trees, garden, houses and mountains. A white Christmas at the end of November! All Sequim residents told us that they had not experienced so much snow in years. If there had been a few flakes, they would never lie for long. Well, this time they lasted a week!
Now, Sequim life is back to normal or better: to celebrating the Christmas season. Not only the center of town is nicely decorated with Christmas wreaths and lots of lights but Sun Meadows where we live has its own homeowners’ Christmas decoration competition. The best decorated house will win $50. We love to do a nice walk in the crisp mountain air, all bundled up, enjoying the different decoration efforts of the homeowners. We did not join the contest - only decorated our pine tree in the front garden with a nice colored light chain.
However, you should see our blue spruce Christmas tree in the house! We had tagged it on the Christmas tree farm before the snowstorm came and it was really still there afterwards. In joint efforts, we dug it out of the ground, put it in a big planting container, found the best spot in the living room for surviving the season, decorated it beautifully and enjoy the wonderful tree each day and hour. We water and fertilize it on a regular basis and give it lots of love. So far, so good! We are optimistic that we will be able to plant the tree in our garden in spring of next year.
You intend to move to Sequim and retire in in this amazing small town on the Peninsula, stay with us and check what we have to tell you about our new life in Sequim. We wish everybody Happy Holidays and A Merry Christmas. Peace and love from the Sequimers
Winter Wonderland Sequim
We got an email from Hawaii this morning ‘What’s up with the banana belt’ weather in sunny Sequim? Well, to tell you the truth this snowstorm caught us by surprise too.
By the way, we received a nice feedback upon our trip report on our Mexico vacation. Thank you. Back home in Sequim, winter has us in its grip. Here is the latest story from our Sequim life. Yesterday, WA state and even us in the 'banana belt' of sunny Sequim got hit (still get) by a huge snowstorm. It was continuously snowing for hours day and night. What a beautiful sight to wake up to this morning…everything deeply covered in the freshest white snow and an eerie silence around. Wow!!!!
Last night, we shoveled our garage driveway and this morning again. Our estimate is at least 7" of snow or more!
It just started snowing again. Schools are closed. Kids are having great fun. Taking anything from their house to slide down our little hills. We enjoyed another long walk in the snow of beautiful winter wonderland Sequim. Luckily, we retired people don't need to get on the roads. No snow ploughs in Sun Meadows where we live. Electricity and cable are still working, and we have everything at the house we need...enough food, beer and fire wood for emergency in case of blackout.
To all our fellow Sequimers…enjoy and embrace the winter season! Stay tuned with our Sequim Blog to hear more from the Sequimers.
Dear friends,
You did not hear from us for quite some time after our last Sequim area hiking adventure to Lake Angeles. Here is the reason. We were gone on a longer trip to Mexico. Now, we are back home in sunny Sequim. Well, we were a little concerned when we read online about all the bad weather news in the Seattle area, while enjoying the sunny, blue skies of Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. Our Sequim house made it just fine through some tough November rains (most rain recorded for November ever, even sunny Sequim broke its records). Now, it looks like we brought the sun back home with us from Mexico. The Sequim skies are sunny and blue with a few clouds coming and going. Instead of heavy clothes, a vest will do fine as an outdoor protection. We love to be home.
How did our trip to Mexico go, you want to know. Let’s cut a long story short. It was our first trip to an all-inclusive hotel in Mexico. Keoki had been to Mexico some 30 years ago, but that does not count. There were no inclusive hotels then anyway. We 
had done quite a bit of research for our Mexican vacation - isn’t the Internet great for that purpose?! - on vacation spots in Mexico, on all-inclusive hotels in Puerto Vallarta and on the hotel we had finally decided for…the Royal Decameron in Bucerias.
We read our way through the Trip Advisor reports written by travelers who had stayed at the Decameron before. Over 90 % were positive and assuring, which made us feel good. The bad reports troubled us somewhat and made us a little concerned and aware what guests encountered, like an Iguana under the bed or an upset stomach (Pepto-Bismol was in our luggage). We also knew ahead of the time what building we wanted to be at…by the ‘adult only’ pool. We had requested a room there, which worked out great.
Here is our experience in a few words…we had all the 14 days sunshine and blue skies (we were actually happy about each cloud in front of the sun, as it was at times too much heat for us Sequimers 88-90F), beach was endless in both directions, water was a little murky from steady surf (mostly OK for swimming), several pools to choose from (we preferred adult only, no screaming kiddos and no loudspeaker noise or music from daytime ‘actividades’), food was plentiful and great variety to choose from (what looked ‘funny’ we did not eat, I also stayed away from fresh lettuce).
We liked the option to eat dinner ‘a la carte’ at one of the 5 restaurants, like Thai, Japanese, Italian, Mexican and Steak House instead of the buffet. Mostly we enjoyed our food…nice setting w/white tablecloths & candle lights, with salad bar, appetizers and all the drinks you want (not first class but average quality). The staff was well trained, friendly and accommodating. Most of them spoke decent English, otherwise they had to cope with our beginners broken Spanish. We improved somewhat within the time of our vacation in Mexico. Some Spanish classes could not hurt.
All in all, we had a wonderful vacation in Mexico but are happy to be back home in the crisp autumn air of sunny Sequim. More Sequim adventures will follow from the ‘Sequimers’.
Hello Sequim lovers,
Hope you enjoyed our hiking adventure to Lake Angeles in our last post and want to know more about our retired Sequim life. Having lived in Hawaii for so many years, we did not only notice the dramatic difference in climate and nature between the two states but there was another big life style difference. We noticed immediately that every second home had a recreational vehicle standing on their property, from small camper van to trailer and big RV buses. On our first outings around Sequim and Olympic National Park, we were impressed by the good size number of RV parks at all kinds of locations, rates and features.
A little while later, it must have been after our visit to Victoria B.C. on Vancouver Island, we thought wouldn’t it be nice to have a small unit ourselves, big enough to sleep and cook but small enough to still get some decent mileage with the ever rising gas prices and be able to drive comfortably. The search started! The Internet was the best way to go. We were lucky to find a nice camper van Coachmen 1991, really well taken care of by a couple living about 80 miles south of Sequim. They had already bought a bigger unit, as they wanted to take the grand children along for their trips. We liked the camper van, checked everything out carefully and drove it home the same day.
Our first longer visit took us to Bavarian Village in Leavenworth, after we visited long time friends from Hawaii 
on Whidbey Island. Whidbey Island…beautiful place too! Our new motor home drove fine up into the mountains, even mastered the 4000ft pass without a problem. And Leavenworth turned out to be that wonderful place to be as announced online and in catalogues. We loved the setting in between forests and high mountains (must be gorgeous in winter!). You love gift shopping? No better place to be. Influenced, of course, by German traditions, like nutcrackers and wonderful Christmas pyramids. If you like German cuisine, plenty of restaurant choices there serving German dishes like Sauerkraut with Bratwurst or Wiener Schnitzel.
Our KOA RV Park was totally meeting our expectations. Wonderful green settings with stream running by and panoramic mountain views. Swimming pool and Jacuzzi and very clean and modern showers and bathrooms made our stay complete. We met the nicest people from all kinds of places, from Canada and even Germany. Take your RV or motor home to Leavenworth. You will love it!
After that wonderful experience, we tried another short RV trip right here in the Sequim Port Angeles next to Olympic National Park area. Out ‘fishing’ class with Peninsula College in August helped us a lot. We did three field trips on which we were visiting secret places for fishing but also just for enjoying the great outdoors and nature. That information came handy with this RV trip. We still went online for more RV park information and came up with some good search results http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm We went on our way with a short list of parks which we liked according to their location, amenities and fees. However, one never knows. We pulled in at least 3 parks and pulled out again for one reason or the other. That’s the advantage with a small camper van…easy getting into a park and easy driving out again. After checking three parks, we decided to enjoy our day before searching further for the perfect RV park. We had a wonderful picnic at Crescent Lake and enjoyed a great hike to Marymere Falls. Scenery of both places is most impressive. We never thought we’d find so many mushrooms on our way and good ones, according to our knowledge. Next purchase will be a mushroom book (better be on the safe side). In any case, when it was time to get settled for the night, we decided for Shadow Mountain http://www.shadowmt.com/park.html , which has full hookup at $25/nt. Views were nice but Hwy was a little too close. Next night, we were much happier with the free RV Park next to the Hungry Bear Café (actually wanted to stay at the Hungry Bear RV Park as it has hookup but nobody was around to take our money). That park is next to the Sol Duc River, where quite a number of people go fishing. We hiked on a trail and must admit felt very lucky that some park rangers had marked the trail with pink ribbons. One can easily get lost there otherwise. After three days in the great outdoors, we were happy to make it back home to our comfortable bed and big house. Stay tuned till next time from sunny Sequim!
Our special hiking adventure in the Olympic National Park
Hello again Sequim lovers,
The weather in sunny Sequim has been gorgeous ever since the beginning of July with blue skies and wonderful temperatures. Nights and early morning hours are little nippy for Hawaii expatriates. We love it and plan as many outdoor adventures as possible. Besides picking berries in Sequim, it's hiking the Olympic Mountains.
Well, here is our latest one. Our dear friend Bruce, a regular at the Sequim Aquatic Center just like us, told us many times to start one of those magnificent hikes from a hiking trail head area shortly before the entrance to the Olympic National Park leading to Hurricane Ridge. There was no cloud in the sky Sunday morning. We packed our lunch and water, drove to Port Angeles, from there to the trail head parking, studied the map with all the different hikes and decided for a 3.4 mile hike to Lake Angeles but missing the most important note strenuous hike.
We would find out pretty soon. The happy wanderers were pretty soon huffing and puffing and wondering whether it would go up that steep for hours. Taking little breaks and admiring the path through the woods, the bubbling noise of Angeles Creek along our way up and up into the mountains and deeper forest, we thought we can do this. Well, after some steep hill hiking for about two hours, we really met a person coming down the hill and asked him for some hikers advise. The lonely hiker told us that he had done the hike the second time within this week, that we had the toughest part behind us and it would take us just half an hour to make it to Lake Angeles, which would be worthwhile all the efforts. That sounded comforting and encouraging and we doubled our efforts.
Well, always be aware that there are different hikers categories. The lonely wanderer was obviously in the 
experienced half while we are Sunday wanderers. Believe it or not but it took us another full hour to make it finally to the lake, having half of our sandwich on the way to refuel our energy reserves. Here comes the good part. The scenery of Lake Angeles was from another world with sparkling lake waters around a beautiful fairy tale island in the middle, high forest covered cliffs all around the lake with dark blue skies behind and with the unusual stillness of nature, only interrupted by a few frogs croaking, some dragonflies buzzing around us and fish sending bubbles to the surface of the lake. We were beamed into another world, a lost one, which we city people have long forgotten. We took it all in for future memories.
It got later in the afternoon. We had to tackle the descend, as one does not want to get stuck in the middle of the forest with no cell phone connection available, which we had assumed would be so much easier. In some way it was but soon we noticed that we added to our sore hamstring and calf muscles some even tighter quad muscles. After about 5 hrs we made it back to our car, feeling each muscle in our body. Do not ask us how we are feeling 2 days later. Despite of stretching the recovery happens slowly. Whether we would do it again, we kind of doubt it but this hike will become a special place in our other hiking experiences. If you are not up for this challenge, make sure to check what the hike is rated at. With greetings from the Sequimers in Olympic National Park
Healthy Living in Sequim
Hi, everyone, the Sequimers are back. Last time, we mentioned the great outdoors in the Sequim area, which will be addressed all through our Sequim Town Blog, as that topic is much too big to be covered with one or two posts. What else attracted us to the Olympic Peninsula and Sequim in particular?
Sequim town and area is Berry Country
There are lots of organic farms and regular farms, which grow all kinds of berries during green season in addition to vegetables and other fruits. We tasted the first berries when we came visiting here last you end of September…sweet ripe blackberries everywhere! One did not even have to go to a farm. When you pick wild berries, just make sure that it is in an area where the country does not spray with weed controlling pesticides. Most places are safe to pick berries in Sequim.
Berries at the Sequim Supermarkets are not cheap. However, there are a lot of farms, which promote U-Pick all through the harvesting season. We just did a search in Google and there they were, nicely listed with address and hours and what berries at what months. We started picking berries with strawberries in early May, a month or so later the first raspberries were ripening (sometimes we went 2x a week for picking) and blueberries, which have become in the past few years a berry favorite with their most antioxidants content, followed soon. We were in berry heaven.
We picked the last blueberries a week ago. Checked yesterday with our favorite berry farm Graysmarsh Farm but all the blueberries were gone, as the farm had opened their fields for free picking and the birds picked probably the leftovers. Well, luckily there are tons of blackberries around us. They taste great and make a healthy food too. Again, if you have any questions, leave us a comment right here on our blog. You may also email us. We are happy to answer your Sequim questions. Stay healthy. The Sequimersp.s.Last remark for today about Sequim farms. A recent tendency shows that quite a number of farms got sold and turned into land for building houses or condos by developers. Old time Sequimers are not happy about this trend, not only that Sequim will lose its resources for farm produce but it will also lose its lovely small town ambience, which is the reason why people live here.
Our new relaxing and rejuvenating life in Sequim
Got to catch up first on the past few months before we start dealing with our present life. Remember we told you in our previous post that we moved to Sequim in January 06, and also included why we moved to Sequim. We must admit it was a big change for us people from Hawaii. However, most of the days proved to be sunny, as promised in all the Sequim visitors information materials and in online Sequim weather statistics. The sun came out some time during the day and if it was just peeking through a small "blue hole" in the sky for an hour or so.
Olympic Discovery Trail
As we are very active people, having been a stretch class teacher (Keoki) and a physical education teacher (Heidi) for most of our professional lives, the colder weather and somewhat crisp air did not stop us from getting on our bikes, all bundled up with anorak, gloves and caps. The Olympic Discovery trail rewarded us with the most amazing snow covered Olympic Mountain panoramas. We were at awe! OK, we never made it to Port Angeles on our bikes but the Sequim part of the discovery trail is plenty for a 1 to 2 hr bike ride.
Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center SARC
Another big attraction right from the beginning was the Sequim Aquatic Center which we had read a lot about and also got a short glimpse of during our vacation visit in September 05. When we became Sequim residents, we tried it out on a monthly basis. We liked it so much that we joined the club for an annual membership after two months. Now, it’s our second home. We got to know quite a number of nice people, so small talks between workouts are common. Be aware that there are a lot of "gray panthers" (Sequim is a town of retirees) but this shows that more and more people adopt a very active, healthy life style when getting older. Our regular visits to the fitness center (three times a week) are encouraging and energizing. We did miss those visits during the recent 10 day-maintenance closure. Now, things are back to normal. Everybody is happy again. Give your muscles and heart a great workout and relax in pool, sauna or Jacuzzi afterwards. How better can it get?!
Want to know more about our life in sunny Sequim, check back soon. Stay happy and healthy till next time.The Sequimers
p.s.Nearly forgot, Keoki is back to teaching his Easy Stretch class twice a week, at SARC. Read more about his Stretch for Health class If you are interested in purchasing his Easy Stretch video, send us an email to with subject "Easy Stretch Video" and we provide you with information. More Easy Stretch information and testimonials.
Why we retired in Sequim on Olympic Peninsula in Washington state?We are living in a blogger world now. I guess that's the best way these days to get the word out to family, friends and strangers about what's happening in people's lives. Here we go about our life. Ever heard of the town Sequim? Most people have not. Well, we moved here in January of 2006 in order to retire. Retire from where, you ask. From Hawaii we answer. How can somebody move from Hawaii to Washington state? We had lived there for 30 (husband) and myself for 15 years. We decided it's time for a change. We were able to sell our property and vacation rental business and move on with our lives. Feeling happy and free!Best places to retire?However, before we moved to Sequim, the biggest question was where to retire to? We boggled our minds with Thailand (too hot and tropical diseases), New Zealand (wonderful but they don't welcome the older folks, want to have 2 million NZ $ from immigrants, which we didn't have, plus still does not allow you to stay their all the time), Costa Rica was in the talks with all the American retirees (stories about safety and security issues were not really encouraging), San Diego was too expensive and so on and so forth. At that point, friends, who had moved from Hawaii to Portland, told us about the lovely small town of Sequim (means peaceful waters in Indian) surrounded by the the great panorama of the Olympic mountains and offering the splendid views of our so much loved Pacific Ocean!!! So, we we started our biggest research...about Sequim.Sequim research over the InternetNaturally, the Internet was our biggest resource. Luckily, one can find anything there from rainfall to real estate, from fitness center to health food stores. So, when we visited Sequim in fall 2005, we came prepared. We found a lot of information in the local publication Sequim Gazette. Had a list of houses for sale, knew all the things we wanted to check in Sequim town. And fell head over heels in love with this unbelievable retirement city. Bought a wonderful home 1 mile from Sequim town and 1 mile from John Wayne Marina, sold our Hawaii property and business and moved to Sequim beginning of 2006. Whether you believe it or not but we never regreted it one minute over the last 8 months. Stay tuned for further news and gossip on our wonderful life in Sequim One last thing...Sequim is in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains and has an average annual rainfall of only 12" with a very moderate climate all year around. More about that later.
