Short Trips: For a little R&R, try Caboose B&B

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Getaways

Short Trips: For a little R&R, try Caboose B&B

Thursday, February 21, 2002

By JEFF LARSEN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER PHOTOGRAPHER

SEQUIM -- There are at least a couple of things that make Sequim different from any other town in the state.

PHOTO GALLERY

View a complete collection of Jeff Larsen's photos of his journey to Sequim

For starters, it guarantees the weather.

And if you want, you can sleep overnight in a train caboose.

Protected from precipitation by the Olympic Mountains' so-called "rain shadow," this city of 24,000 actually has an ordinance that specifically prohibits "weather conditions that are detrimental to enjoyment of activities within the city."

Some businesses even issue sun checks instead of rain checks.

Guaranteeing the weather is not a bad bet here. Sequim gets an average of 306 days of sun a year and only about 16 inches of rainfall. Tongue in cheek, locals brag that for every mile between Sequim and Port Angeles, you can add one inch of rain per year. That makes Port Angeles 15 inches of rain less hospitable, they say.


	You'll find this distinctive sign just off U.S. Route 101 as you enter Sequim, Washington. Jeff Larsen / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

The city -- two hours from Seattle via the Edmonds-Kingston or Seattle-Bainbridge ferry -- also boasts a lifestyle that civic leaders still consider small town and rural.

The rural part is very evident: About 400 farms dot the Sequim-Dungeness Valley, including three active dairy farms.

Downtown Sequim stills has a small-town feel to it, especially since U.S. Route 101 was routed around the town in 1999. No longer do long traffic lines inch through town during the peak of the tourist season.

As for that caboose: when it's bedtime in Sequim, and suddenly you have this strange urge to sleep in a train car, you need to visit the Red Caboose Getaway bed-and-breakfast owned by Olaf and Charlotte Protze.

Just off Sequim-Bay Road as you enter town, you can see two train cars parked off by themselves near a farm. As you get closer, you see that the two large cars are half-surrounded by the five smaller train cabooses.

Olaf and Charlotte recently finished renovating the bright-red Orient Express-themed caboose and feverishly are trying to finish the others and the dining car before the summer tourism season.

They currently accept reservations for the Orient Express and Casey Jones units, the latter outfitted with railroad memorabilia. Both have queen bed, gas fireplace, TV/VCR, refrigerator, in-room coffee or tea, bottled water, hair dryer and plush robes. The Orient Express has a two-person whirlpool bath, while the Casey Jones has a shower (for easier access). Since the dining car is not yet finished, continental breakfast is delivered to the rooms at 8:30 a.m.

With any luck, depending on the time of year, you might wake up with an elk herd outside your caboose. Two people to a caboose and no pets, thank you.

Protze came up with the idea when, in the 1990s, railroad companies decided the caboose was an appendage that trains didn't need anymore. At first I thought I might hit the famous Three Crabs Restaurant near the Dungeness Spit for lunch but decided instead to try a smaller, less well-known restaurant, Petals Garden Cafe.

Just west of downtown and Route 101, off Sequim Avenue, Petals is part of the Cedarbrook Herb Farm; it opened about two years ago in a barnlike facility once used by the farm.

Brightly lit and smoke-free, Petals has a menu like you might expect in a more upscale Seattle restaurant. Try "The Trio" -- roasted garlic, hummus and calamata olive tapenade served with toasted bruschetta ($8.95) or the house-smoked chicken sandwich ($7.95).


	Olaf Protze says "all aboard" his Red Caboose Getaway. Reservations are being accepted for the bright-red Orient Express, above, and Casey Jones units. He is working on other cabooses and a dining car. Jeff Larsen / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

Unusual for such a rural area, Petals is owned by Australians Jim and Bronwyn "Brandy" Salmon. They serve high tea everyday at 2 p.m. With the tea comes all sorts of goodies, including shortbread, chicken and cucumber finger sandwiches and fruit scones with jam and cream. The two Theresas (Schonig and Rubens) who served lunch while I was there said that because of the high tea, the restaurant has acquired a bit of a "feminine" reputation. But, hey, there's meatloaf ($9.95) on its dinner menu.

A visit to Sequim, especially if you have the kids in tow, isn't complete without a tour of the Olympic Game Farm founded by recent Sequim man-of-the-year, Lloyd Beebe.

East of town toward the Dungeness Spit, the sprawling property backed by the magnificent Olympics is home to regional wildlife and some exotic ones. Included are grizzly bears, wolves, mountain lions, elk and even a white rhinoceros.

The farm requires you to sign a waiver and the attendant will ask you not to get out of your car except at an observation area during your drive-through visit. For sure don't stop your car near the American bison. Just keep moving. The very large horned creatures get a little too curious sometimes and just might bump your car around a little.

Keep an eye out for some very curious, pesky white llamas as well; they are constantly looking for a handout. (You can buy bread at the farm to feed the critters.)

During what the farm folks call the "face-to-face-encounter" on a drive-through, you also should see Grant's zebra, more bears (which can't get to your car), domestic yak, ostrich, a donkey or two and European fallow deer.

On the walking tour, available during the tourist season, you are able to get up close to a wolf, Bengal tiger, an African lion, mountain lion, silver fox and much more.

Beebe, who turns 86 in May, still minds the farm with other family members. Back in the '40s he operated a dairy farm on the property. He said he doesn't mingle closely with some of the larger animals anymore because, as he put it, "I'm not as quick as I used to be."


	P-I.

Beebe's "tamed" grizzly bears were featured on the TV series "Grizzly Adams" and Walt Disney used the farm and Beebe's animals for many of the studio's nature films. When Disney had an exclusive working agreement with the farm, it wouldn't allow the public to visit. After Walt Disney's death in 1965 and the studio's move away from nature films -- some lean income years for Beebe -- he finally realized his dream and opened the park to the public in 1972.

Did you know John Wayne and his pals used to hang out around Sequim back in the '50s and '60s? Wayne often anchored his boat "Wild Goose" in Sequim Bay. Thus the John Wayne Marina (follow the signs off Route 101, just before the city limits).

Before he died in 1979, "Duke" donated the 14 acres to the Port of Port Angeles. With help from the late actor's estate, the marina opened -- complete with John Wayne fanfare and theme -- in 1984. The marina eventually will have 355 moorage slips. There's also a boat launch, fuel dock, beach access and public picnic areas, as well as laundry, shower and restroom facilities.

Wade Jurgensen, owner of the Bosun's Locker, the tidy gift shop and maritime store on the upper level of the marina, keeps a hefty stock of John Wayne photos and commercial memorabilia. Jurgensen also rents powerboats, kayaks and paddleboats, crab pots, shrimp pots and fishing rods and reels.

If you pull into the marina on a Sunday morning, stop by the Marina Restaurant for its prime rib breakfast. Called a local favorite by owner and operator Richard White, it includes two eggs, hash browns, toast and about a five-ounce cut of prime rib ($6.95).

If you go...

RED CABOOSE GETAWAY -- 24 Old Coyote Way; 360-683-7350; www.redcaboosegetaway.com Winter rate: $100 per night for Casey Jones unit, $125 for Orient Express, both double occupancy. Summer rates to $180.

PETALS GARDEN CAFE -- 1345 S. Sequim Ave.; 360-683-4541; www.petalscafe.com Open daily 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (8 p.m. on Friday/Saturday).

OLYMPIC GAME FARM -- 1423 Ward Road; 360-683-4295, 800-778-4295; www.olygamefarm.com Open daily at 9 a.m.; closing varies with the season. Driving tour available year-round (except Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day). Walking tours Memorial Day through Labor Day. Admission: $9, $7 for youths 6-12 and seniors 60-plus, free ages 5 and under.

BOSUN'S LOCKER AT JOHN WAYNE MARINA -- 2577 W. Sequim Bay Road; 360-683-6521; www.bosunslocker.net Open daily. Winter: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; summer: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

P-I photographer Jeff Larsen can be reached at 206-448-8150. For personal e-mail contact: jefflarsen@seattlepi.com. For general releases: shorttrips@seattlepi.com.

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