Port Townsend, Washington

Arlington, Washington

July 9-11, 2008

We again ran into some beautiful scenery on our trip through Washington State. These were taken along the Banks Lake Reservoir.

WE MADE IT!!! After 3,828 miles, 39 days and over $2,000 for gas, we pulled into Joe, Kathy and Katie's driveway! It's truly different country here. As expected, the house is absolutely gorgeous and the landscaping has matured a lot since I was last here about 15 years ago.

We had a good two days with a lot of reminiscing and of course a lot of laughs. Kathy, Katie, Susan and I took some time for shopping while the guys stayed back and got ready for our upcoming trip.

We left Friday morning for Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. Our destination was about 25 miles as the crow flies from Arlington. However, by road it was 175 miles and three hours south through Seattle and Tacoma and then north again around Puget Sound. The State of Washington has a terrific ferry system; however any one of us would have put a strain on that system, let alone all three of us at the same time. Here we are behind Susan and Bob as we head south. That's Mount Rainier in the background. Quite an impressive sight!

Fort Worden State Park

Port Townsend, Washington

July 11-19, 2008

Fort Worden is located in Port Townsend on the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula. It is one of five seacoast fortifications started in the Puget Sound region in 1897 to protect the navy base at Bremerton and the cities in the Puget Sound region. There is a marine science summer camp here that Katie has attended. You can sit and watch the cruise ships head out from Seattle headed for Alaska (Susan and Bob will be on one of those ships on Sunday).

That's Mount Baker in the background.

We have spent time exploring Port Townsend, visiting the Science Center to feed the fish, hiking, biking, and watching the glorious sunsets.

And, what is camping without the evening campfires? You will note we are bundled up. The evening temperatures were in the high 40's and low 50's. Thank goodness we got that fire going real hot!!!

Ken, Joe, Susan and Katie spent a few hours kayaking on Puget Sound. The water was a little cold, but the views were spectacular. Previously Katie had only kayaked through some moorings, but this time, in the open water, she was a natural.

We spent a day on Vancouver Island in Canada. We took the ferry over the Straits of Juan DeFuca and landed in the beautiful City of Victoria, capital of British Columbia. We walked around the Causeway where we were entertained by street performers (some of whom wouldn't let you take their picture unless you dropped some money their way) and craftspeople.

We walked through the streets of downtown Victoria, visiting shops with local and international merchandise and of course stopped for the ever present ice cream cone.

Victoria's architecture is absolutely beautiful. The impressively restored buildings house shops, art galleries, restaurants and hotels.

Even the government buildings are gorgeous.

Before boarding the ferry for our return trip, we had dinner at Milestones Grill on the Harbor; highly recomended should you ever stop in Victoria.

And, of course, we took some last minute pictures before boarding.

Hikes around the park found some of the encampment ruins.

Hey, it's Abe Luckraft posing for his statue to be placed on the Village Green in Falmouth Center every Christmas season (inside joke).

An absolutely beautiful day was spent at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park (the Olympic Mountain range is located on this peninsula as opposed to the Cascade range on the other sound of Puget Sound).

The trip there took awhile as there was some road construction on Hurricane Ridge Road. It was quite amazing to see the washouts caused by the winter runoffs. I'm glad I wasn't on that side of the road when that happened!!

This was our view for lunch! I have to say, to me, this is the most spectacular vista we have seen so far! The animals were very friendly here and we were joined at lunch by a doe, bird and chipmunk. They are very strict about feeding the animals and there are rangers roaming the area all the time looking for "breakers of the law".

This is Carrie Glacier. Glaciers thrive in this area of perpetual snow. Damp Pacific air forced over the sudden coastal mountains cools rapidly; its moisture condenses, freezes and falls. The ice is so thick, the mountains have snow cover all year.

We actually got to play in the snow for awhile. I think that's a snowball Bob is throwing at Susan!

It's not very clear, but that's the Straits of Juan deFuca (or as we officially nicknamed "Wanda Fuca") behind Kathy. The views went on forever!

We hiked a few of the trails and Ken and I got "spoken to" by a ranger as we had Barney and dogs were not allowed on the trails...I never saw a sign!

What a glorious day. As you can see, Barney (as well as the rest of us) were exhausted after all that fresh air and exercise!

Even though we're getting together again in two weeks for more fun and adventures, it was still hard saying good-bye to Joe, Kathy and Katie and Susan and Bob. I can't believe the week is already over.

We're heading to Long Beach, another, smaller peninsula on the Washington coast. We'll be right on the Pacific this time.