Tacoma, Washington

Well, here we are again in the Seattle/Tacoma area. After leaving Westport this morning we visited what is becoming our favorite Camping World, just north of Tacoma, and bought a new automatic hitch tongue jack (the thing that lifts the trailer onto the trailer hitch on Mary, our tow truck). Steve had installed our original automatic jack himself, so we thought it would be simple to just pop it in right there in the Camping World parking lot where the pavement is flat. You just drop it into the holes, bolt it down, install a wire to the power source, put in a couple of fuses, ground it somewhere and you're good to go.

Naturally, it turned out to be completely impossible. There are two, 2 1/4 inch holes on the A-frame of the trailer that the shaft of the device has to fit through and they are just a smidgen off plane - like 1/64 of an inch.  So we took the old one off, discovered we can't fit the new one in, put the old one in again, jacked up the trailer a little with the emergency hand-crank, took the old one out, still couldn't fit the new one in, filed down the lip of the new one a little, and found it still wouldn't fit, and once we had tools all over the parking lot and were completely covered with grease, we made an appointment to have the damn thing installed tomorrow at Camping World. We can see that there is enough room for it, but the stupid thing just won't go through. If we had the right tools it would take 15 minutes. But we don't. So now we're in the KOA in Tacoma. Of course Camping World can't fit us in until tomorrow at 2:00 PM so we'll be here 2 nights. It's not all bad. We can do all our rainy-beach-weather laundry (lots of jeans, sweatshirts, dog-towels, etc) purge the trailer and truck of sand and mud and run Mary, who is filthy, through a car-wash.

Then we head for Mt. Rainier. The Tacoma Power Company has three campgrounds around reservoirs off Route 12 that sound terrific. So we're headed for Taidnapam, near Morton, WA. And we'll be close enough to see Mt. Rainier as day trips to avoid the curvy mountain roads with the trailer.

Jeanandsteve2010 itinerary update: we have decided to go to the Kiwanis Convention in Reno August 19-21. Yes. We'll be at a Kiwanis convention on my birthday. But the good news is that we hope to be able to spend a little time with daughter Carol in Incline Village either before or after the convention. We'll head south through the eastern Sierras on I-395 August 22 or 23 and be in Moorpark by the end of the week.

Hopefully some nice pictures next post, which might be after the Mt. Rainier trip. No internet at the power company facilities, I'm sure.

Rain in Westport

No pictures today because it rained hard all day long. Had no cell and only spotty internet. We went out for pancakes, played scrabble, then went to see them weigh the salmon and tuna for the local fishing derby. The charter companies compete with each other, making the fishing customers on each boat into a team. The five largest fish caught on each boat are entered into the derby. The schools of salmon and tuna have been running about 35 miles off-shore, which, I was told, is pretty far in for tuna. Everyone who came off a boat was wearing a black or orange  rubber dry suit and most were carrying very large fish or coolers full of very large fish. The catch is processed by the local cannery and donated to the homeless feeding programs statewide. Three huge blue tubs full of crushed ice waited at the end of the docks. Average tuna size seemed to be 23 pounds dressed. It seemed that everyone in town came out in the rain to watch the weigh-in. It's a weekend event; final scores will be tomorrow afternoon. Looks like it would be wonderful fun.

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Westport Pictures

Crabbing on the Pier

Westport Harbor

Pier Around Harbor

Red to Right Returning

Westport Light 1898

135 Steps Up

Westport Light and Pacific Beach

Woke to rain this morning and it drizzled off and on all day. When the sun peeked through the fog it was quite warm, otherwise cool and misty. We walked out on the pier that surrounds the harbor, then climbed to the top of the lighthouse built in 1898, and finally walked on the wide black-sand beach looking for sand-dollars and scallop shells.

This is a great little town. It reminds me of the Jersey Shore; York, Maine; or Plum Island, Mass...but in November.

The local supermarket gets fish off the boats every morning. How nice! We had a pan-roasted salmon filet with a white wine reduction, fresh local zucchini with Italian herbs, and fresh local salad for dinner. The salmon was swimming this morning and tasted mild and sweet - completely different than any salmon we've ever eaten.

Hoh Rain Forest to Westport, Wasington

Today we planned a 120-odd mile trip to western WA with stops at the Hoh Rain Forest, Ruby Beach, and the 14-foot rain gauge along the way. We did stop briefly at Hoh Rain Forest, a mere 17 miles off route 101. About an hour each way along a winding, narrow road, pulling our trailer, and so not much fun. The road follows the Hoh river, glacier-fed and teal-blue which meanders through a meadow by the road. The trees and understory are dense and covered with hanging moss. It was only about 60 degrees with the sun poking through the fog and very humid. We only got these two shots before the battery in the camera died. I had been meaning to change it. Sorry.

In the above image, you're looking down on a little stream. The rocks are covered with moss and the water is absolutely crystal clear.

On the drive we saw a bunch of black-tailed deer, which are everywhere in the peninsula, a lot of creepy crows, and a baby bear who ran across the road in front of us. We've been on the peninsula about 10 days, mostly along 101, and have passed three prisons in the past 200 miles. Prisons are called "Correction Centers". Isn't that kind of a funny name? Correct what?

The trip was the longest 120-something miles! It took all day. But we arrived in Westport and have a nice campsite. It's cold and foggy like everywhere else on the peninsula. The campground manager told me they've only had 5 sunny days all summer. Westport is a cute beach town and we will enjoy it. Sampled one of the local restaurants and had a wonderful dinner. Clam chowder and deep-fried Dungenous crab. Deep fried crab!!! Oy Vey! Was it good! We better go for a long walk tomorrow.

Forks, Washington

Rialto Beach

Rialto (some maps have it as Mora Beach) 17 miles from Forks, is part of the Olympic National Park Coastline section. We were there at noontime, and the sun was just trying to peak through the fog and clouds. Temperature about 55 degrees.

The beach is shallow and covered with smooth gray stones and enormous piles of bleached driftwood that most-likely floated in left-over from logging. There are signs warning that the beaches in some places disappear at high tide and that hikers must mind the water level and direction of the tides. Just north is a high headland that the signage indicates hikers must climb to avoid being swept away. We walked a little, but the stones make footage difficult and we didn't get very far. Doogie ran around in complete joy. Put that doodle on a beach and he's a happy boy.

 

Heading back to Forks, we stopped at a little luncheonette and I indulged in fried, fresh, local oysters. Don and Janet, in the trailer next to us, whom we met at the KOA campground in Sequim, bought a whole salmon, caught this morning, from a local who put out a "fresh fish" sign in his yard. He paid $3.00 a pound and is butchering it himself. I almost bought one yesterday, but they weigh almost 10 pounds, and I'm really intimidated at the thought of filleting it myself. Steve isn't crazy about salmon, gets turned off by the bones, and I'm afraid I would end up throwing half of it away. The only pliers we have with us are not approriate for pulling pin bones off a salmon fillet, and the small freezer in the trailer is not dependably cold enough.

We're heading south tomorrow. First stop, Westport, WA on the southern, western tip of Washington State. It'll be another three days in cold foggy weather, but we're enjoying the beaches and little towns. On the way we will visit the Hoh rain forest and Ruby beach. On Sunday we'll head southeast into Oregon to the Columbia Gorge. After that we'll head more due south and be slowly homeward bound.

Neah Bay, Washington

Neah Bay, on the Makah Reservation, is the northwestern most point in the continental US. We drove out from Port Angeles, hauling the trailer, originally planning to stay a couple of days. You take 101 west to the 113, to the 112 and drive slowly around switchbacks and up and down hills for 100 miles. The ocean with log-strewn sandy beaches, sea stacks, and tide-pools is on your right and level with the road for about 70 of those miles. The roads pass through Clallam Bay and Seiku, finally ending at the town of Neah Bay. From there, the RV resort is another few miles toward the south to Cape Flattery, on a dusty gravel road. The "resort" (another relative term) is a gravel parking lot with several cabins and a few RV hookups. The beach is spectacular, but we didn't stay. For one thing, at 1:00 PM, the temperature was 55 degrees and the air was thick with fog, while just a mile or two inland it was sunny and in the high 60s. The other reason was that it was a little creepy. I felt isolated and vulnerable. Steve and I were both trying to second-guess what the other wanted to do, and we finally agreed to head south to a slightly more populated area.

So here we are in Forks. The "Twilight" capital of the world. Apparently there is a TV show about the town. As we are not much into vampires, we had never heard of it. There is access to the beaches just a few miles up the road, so we're going to stay for a couple of days and check it out. After several active days, we're ready for a day of relative quiet.

I found a nice little produce market selling local corn and local mushrooms so we had a nice dinner. We even plugged in the TV and watched the news. Connecticut sure made headlines. I used to work right near there. Yikes.  

By the way, what is the deal with the numbers on the back of the social security cards? Can someone please email me and explain what craziness is afoot about it?

Olympic National Park

Spent the day touring the Port Angeles, Sequim (pronounced skwim) area. Most of ONP is a temperate rain forest. Temperate is a relative term, as I have been freezing to death the whole time we've been here. The fog burns off and the sun comes out about noon and it warms up to almost 70. By 3:00 the fog is rolling in again. Last night is was a balmy 48 degrees in our campsite when we went to bed. I slept in pj's, socks, a long-sleeved T, and a hooded sweatshirt. Cozy!

Olympic Mountain Range

The snow lasts until August

The white thing is a glacier.

The Olympic peninsula has the clearest, bluest skies you've ever seen. Although there is a web of fog covering everything most of the day, when the sun dries the mist the air is crisp, cool, and clean. From the top of Hurricane Ridge you can see across Juan de Fuca all the way to Victoria. The mountains look like the pictures of Switzerland. Parts of the peninsula, like Sequim, get only 14 inches of rain a year. Other parts just a few miles away get 14 feet a year!

After the morning at ONP, we traveled back through Squim to see the museum of the Jamestown Band of S'Clallam Indians. They have a beautiful building on one side of 101 that houses the museum, and a casino on the other side of 101. Skipping the casino (we've still got our $375 from Seven Feathers), we headed for the museum, which was a huge disappointment. There were a few artifacts, but most of it was a gigantic gift shop selling the same imported crapola you see everywhere. We did catch the tail end of a tour and learned that the S'Clallam are "strong people".  According to one legend, twS'Clallam men were strong enough to lift a huge log from the ocean. You would have to be strong to live here without central heating, believe me.  

Tomorrow we're going to move on to the western part of the peninsula - Clallam or Neah Bay - and I'm not sure how long we're staying. It's pretty remote, and internet may be a challenge. What we do may depend on the weather. Although we've loved it here and will be sad to leave, I'm ready for some warmth.  

Jean and Steve's Excellent Victoria, BC Adventure

Parliament Buildings

Victoria, BC is an hour from Port Angeles, WA by ferry and was a wonderful weekend side-trip. We were anxious about visiting a big city with a dog, but we needn't have worried. Our cute little hotel, just steps from the customs office was very welcoming, and while most of the tour buses didn't allow dogs, the "Big Red Bus" is dog-friendly. The people were also "dog-friendly". Everywhere we went someone wanted to pet Doogie. He had a blast.

Enjoying the "Big Red Bus"

Baskets of Flowers from Every Lamppost

Resting at a cafe

Bastion Square - typical of the city with cafes everywhere

Victoria Waterfront

Many Beautiful Gardens

Parliament

Butchart Gardens

Canadian Sunset

Butchart Gardens

Downtown Victoria

Parliament by Night

Weather was cool but sunny most of the time. We took an on-and-off tour bus, but walked miles and miles seeing many of the neighborhoods on foot. Saturday we spent half a day in Butchart Gardens, where, oddly, dogs on short leashes are welcome. Canada is such a civilized country! Victoria is full of wonderful shops  and many museums (where dogs are, understandably, not welcome). It is a relatively small town, population under 100,000 and only 300, 000 on the whole island, yet there are many department and specialty stores and only a few big-box chains. One place we loved was the Tilley Outdoor shop - Tilley like the hats. Very cool place! I also found a quilt shop to add quarter-yard swatches to my "stash". Got some maple leaf flags!

We returned Sunday afternoon and got to see a trident submarine, escorted by several large vessels, heading for one of the many military operations along the coast. The captain also stopped for a view of a hump-back whale skimming the surface who treated us to a magnificent breach. What a trip!

Olympic National Park

And it's Olympic National Park. And the Olympic Peninsula. Not Olympia as I had earlier stated. Confusing! We'll go there next week.

Anyway, in a dusty old second-hand bookstore in Port Townsend, I picked up a copy of "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves", a very funny book about grammar. As one who loves to read and write, I am very fussy about words and am one of those people who can't resist fixing the errors in a book or newspaper (don't even get me started on the lack of editorial expertise in newspapers these days). But I am not at all expert with punctuation. Mostly it's because I don't really know where things like end-quote marks go - before or after the period? So now I'll learn. Spelling? Not so much. God (or was it Al Gore?) invented spell-check just for me. In case you didn't know, the individual eating, shooting, and leaving is a Panda. Think about it.

Immigrants: Liberal Commentary

Want to share a story that was in the local, and by the way, excellent newspaper in Port Townsend. It seems that 100 Rwandan and Burundian refuges came to lily-white, somewhat rich, and self-admittedly snooty Port Townsend three years ago. They bought a plot of land in a derelict industrial area and began farming it - shortly turning it into a productive farm growing herbs and vegetables. Last spring vandals stole most of their equipment and tools. After the local paper reported the theft and how it devastated the immigrants, donations of cash and tools poured into them, allowing them to get back into the farming business very quickly.

The story I read was a follow-up about the generosity of people and how they made such a difference to these new Americans. Apparently there were donations from far and wide - including one from a Japanese citizen who read the story on line. I wondered why these refugees were regarded with such generosity while other refugees in our country are scorned and harassed. The Africans came from war, poverty, and persecution. In the southwest US, people from Mexico come to escape violence and poverty and build a better life for their ffamilies. What's the difference? 

Victoria, British Columbia

Took the noon ferry from Port Angeles, WA across the straight of Juan de Fuca, not San Juan de Fuca as I had previously indicated. It is in the high 60's with full sunshine today and you can see the light sparkling off the water. This is a beautiful city with flowers everywhere. Being Canada, it's clean as a whistle, and there are walkers, bikers, and dogs everywhere. We got a ticket for a 3-day off and on bus tour including Buschart Gardens and took about half of the complete city tour this afternoon, then chose to walk back around the harbor to our hotel. Tomorrow we'll spend most of the day on and off the bus, hoping to spend the afternoon in the famous gardens. It will probably be warmer in the afternoon. I'm in a long-sleeved wool sweater covered by a sweatshirt and there are people in short shorts and tank tops. I guess when you live here all the time 70 seems hot. Anyway, we're excited to be here.

Last Day in Port Townsend

Beautiful Full Moon On Juan De Fuca

Officer's Row at Fort Worden. Parade Ground in the foreground with Juan de Fuca in the background

Master Bedroom in Chief Officer's Home

Fog on the Parade Ground

Fog Rolling In

Yesterday was very foggy in the morning but gave way to a warm and sunny afternoon. We toured officer's row and chatted with the volunteer in the gift shop. This is the most wonderful state facility we have ever seen and exists in part because of the partnerships the state has made with paying guests, organizations that use it, the volunteers and foundation that supports it, and the very efficient way it is being run. For example, the laundry that washes hotel laundry is finished at 3:00 PM, after which the machines are open to the public who pay to use them until 9:00 PM. Day camps, a jazz workshop, and acting classes going on this week all contribute to the income, as do the two colleges with extension programs here. You can get a MFA from Goddard at Fort Worden. It is beautiful, but we're getting chilled. It's so cold and damp at night, and even though it warms up when the fog burns off, I'm beginning to get that feeling I had in New England...that you never quite get warm from November to May.

As we will be in Canada for the weekend, there won't be any new posts until Sunday night on Monday. Hope you all are having a good summer.

Still in Port Townsend

No photos today. Very foggy and cool- so cool that we had the heat on this morning. Low 50's. But with the green trees peeking through the fog and the little clumps of bright lavender along the roadway it's very beautiful. Drove out to Sequim where each of us had a haircut, and I bought an outfit that was in a store window. Now are having lunch in a cafe at Fort Worden with free internet. We love this place! This afternoon we will tour either the fort itself or downtown Port Townsend. The sun is coming out, so we'll get some more pictures. Plan for now is to stay in this area next week, too. After we get back from Victoria on Sunday we'll stay at least one night in Sequim. There is Olympia National Park, an Indian Museum, Hurricane Point, and other things to see. Then we'll head out to the west end of the peninsula, with the only purpose being to stand at the most north-westerly part of the continental US.   

Last night on NPR they were talking about people who record the minutiae of their lives in blogs. Minutiae? How insulting.

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I love to get comments on these postings, and have tried to set up the comment box several times. One of our friends was able to post a comment, but I know others have been unable. I apologise and will continue to work on it.

Port Townsend, Washington

We left Seattle on Sunday morning, glad to be out of the urban trailer park, and headed south through Tacoma and up onto the Olympic Peninsula to Port Townsend. We had checked the internet and tried phoning about availability but found none. Fully expecting to be turned away, we checked with the campground anyway, and scored a beautiful deeply wooded and private campsite for Sunday night, and by a miracle, four nights on the beach starting Monday! With full hookups! All the RV books tell you to just show up when campgrounds don’t have any spots because there are always cancellations and you don’t have anything to lose anyway. Good advice!

Fort Worden was a huge military operation active from the late 19th century until 1953. It is one of three big forts guarding the straight of Juan de Fuca. It has been completely restored into a huge state park. Along with the museums and exhibits of the fort, there is a store, a restaurant, a laundromat, a conference center, and two colleges.There is lodging ranging from motel-style renovated barracks to full houses sleeping up to 10, and two large campgrounds with utilities and showers.  The setting is pristine, with heavily forested areas, miles of beaches, and views of Mount Olympus and Mount Rainier, the sound, and Whidbey Island.

Port Townsend is a Victorian fishing village and a ferry port. It’s very cute and we plan to spend a day in the many galleries and have a good salmon dinner. The sun is out, and it was very hot today. We moved from the woods to the beach then went for a long walk along the water. Doogie had a great time in the low surf. However, once the sun went behind the hill the temperature dropped precipitously into the mid-50’s and it became a little windy. We grilled a steak, but the top side got cold while the bottom side was cooking! No campfire tonight. In fact, I’m tempted to put the heat on. We spent 30 years camping in a tent and turning our noses up at people in RVs. We learned quickly, though that when it’s cold or rainy, there’s nothing like heat and a dry bed. Cable TV doesn’t hurt, either.

Friday afternoon we’re taking the ferry to Victoria and staying in a motel over there until Sunday morning. It’s less expensive to walk onto the ferry, stay in a motel, and spend Saturday walking around Victoria. Doogie can even go, although that will mean we can only walk around…no tours, no Buschart Gardens, no fancy restaurants. That’s ok. We can look at the Parliament buildings, the shops, and the Victorian architecture. I did try to find doggy day care, but it’s a holiday in Canada and everyone’s booked solid. The weather is supposed to be very nice and I’m sure we’ll have a good time.

Deer in our Campsite

We found a place to get our spare tire replaced here in Port Townsend - here's hoping our wheel problems are behind us. We are loving this place. People are friendly, too. Weather is perfect, but I wonder what it's like in the winter. This part of Washington is geographically between mountain ranges, and so is drier and warmer than Seattle and Portland.

Seattle, Day Two

So today we took the Duck tour. A Duck is WWII vintage amphibious vehicle so we went on a tour of part of Seattle and part of Elliott Bay. The driver was hilarious. Every time we passed a Starbucks had us all yell Cha-Ching. We cheered at passersby and even got a guy to dance for us. It was a lot of fun.

Elliott Bay

House Boat for Sale $375,000. Plus mooring.

Seattle was fun, but it is hard to tour a city from an RV. And this park is really not enjoyable. It's clean enough but the trailers are close together and the highway noise is awful. Seattle isn't really dog friendly, so Doogie had to stay in the trailer for two days. He was fine, but I worry that he barks or might have a little melt-down and tear something up. Tomorrow we head for Olympia National Park and the banana belt of Seattle - Port Townsend, Sequim, and Port Angeles.

I mentioned the highway noise. We're close to the beginning of I-90 (which ends in Boston with the New York Thruway and the Mass Pike, two roads we know well). And I mean close. The traffic noise is constant and loud 24 hours a day. When we lived in Connecticut I thought I-84 and I-91 had a lot of traffic. Maybe they did. And when we lived in DC area I thought there was a lot of traffic. Maybe there was. And LA certainly has a lot of traffic. But the number of cars in the Seattle area and the constant very heavy traffic on every roadway was a real surprise. It's constant, heavy, fast, and loud. Even with GPS we're having trouble navigating. 

The city is, of course, beautiful. The lakes are deep blue, the trees are emerald, the mountains are still white with snow, and at least for the past two days the air has been clear and the sky blue. The city is clean and full of people out enjoying the place.

There is an astonishing number of panhandlers. It started in the rest stops with people sitting in lawn chairs begging. All over the city there are people begging quarters and dimes. Although some have the look of burned-out drugged-addled mental illness that you see with many homeless, for the most part the people begging here look as if they're pretty new at it. Victims of the recession, probably. I feel bad for them. Thursday, deciding to give one person an amount that might make a difference for a day or two, I handed a sad-looking young woman at a rest stop a folded up $20. Her sign read "homeless mother of two - need gas money". She mumbled a  thanks, then as I walked away yelled thank YOU. After that my heart iced up a little at the number of people with their hands out. But today I gave a wild-eyed guy in front of Starbucks $2.00. Steve gave a crazy woman the change in his pocket as I told him to watch the backpack. She said "That's right. Watch her purse, too!" I know...I know...I know better. But we're on an extended vacation, for heaven's sake, and these people don't have enough to eat. Scammers? I'm sure, some. But I'll never believe they chose this life. And there but by the grace of God go I. So I gave some people some money, but I blew off the gay-rights guy who wanted me to sign his petition. At first I didn't hear him. By the time I registered what he was saying and turned back, he was gone.

We got scammed by the city at the parking lot, for sure. It was one of those things where you put money in a box. So we put $10 in the box as instructed and when we got back there was a ticket on the window for $25. With the threat of another $25 if we don't pay up. Steve called the phone number and got an answering service. What a pain! Now what?

Don't mean to be negative about Seattle. It's beautiful and vibrant. We've certainly had Jean and Steve's Marvelous adventure here!

Downtown Seattle

The morning started out foggy and cool, but the sun burned off the mist and gave us a beautiful day. Temperature in the 80s and sunny.

First the needle, then the market, then coffee, then a long hike up the hill to the monorail.

Two old people at the space needle!

Westward View from Space Needle

Pike Street Market

There's a quilt shop in the Pike Street Market. Who knew?

Seattle Waterfront near Aquarium

All in all, a wonderful day.

We also got our mail, thanks, Marguerite!

Yesterday when we checked in, we found one of the tires on our trailer was flattening (or maybe flat). So we called our Good Sam emergency repair service (like Triple A, only for RVs) to change it. This morning we dropped it off to be repaired on our way into town. When we picked it up this afternoon the guy said it is damaged beyond repair, so it will be off to Camping World on Sunday to buy a new tire. These wheel, tire, brake problems are getting old! I wish we could find the root cause of all this and fix it! However, Camping World is great. So much to buy, so little time.

Doogie, who had been a good boy in the trailer all day, got to visit a local dog park Steve found with the "Dog Park Finder" ap on his i-phone. You hit the button and it gives you a map and directions to the nearest off-leash parks. Way cool.   

Tomorrow a tour on one of those "Ducks", then a walking tour of the underground...if my sore feet and sore back can still walk!

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Thanks Sally for pointing out that the comment function isn't working. Hope I've fixed it. Using my phone to connect and will have to wait until tonight to hook up computer. Now off to see Seattle.