Ferry Crossing

Joe looking down at our RV on ferry

2019-09-19 (Thursday)

Today's blog should be fairly short-- I don't feel as if we did that much. But we did have some great fun on the ferry!

When we woke up, the day looked very overcast and drippy again. I walked Cassie on the nearby beach along the bay shore, and although I could see the closest islands across from us, the ones in the distance were almost invisible, as were the moutains to the south. I was feeling a bit down thinking of our ferry trip, which I was imagining to be a clear and beautiful day with views of islands everywhere.

We left the campground on schedule, and followed WA 20 (the road we've been following for two days) over to Whidbey Island, and then to Desperation Island. The bridge between those two was over a narrow gorge with beautiful greenish water, and many folks had stopped on the far side to take photographs. We stopped on the near side on a wide shoulder, but the far side (which was part of Desperation State Park) had a parking lot which had no room for us. So luckily I had snapped a few photos as we went over the inlet, and although you can't see the dozens of small craft anchored in the harbor there, you will have to believe me that it was very picturesque!

After that, the only stop we had was at a roadside market. We picked up some tomatoes, corn, and a few other things of interest, including a scoop of "salty malt" flavored ice cream. When I tasted it, I couldn't resist, and besides, as I said to the young woman behind the counter, "It's 3pm and hot and sunny SOMEplace, right?"  A new twist on "It's 5:00 someplace." I like mine better .

We had made a 2:45pm reservation last night for the ferry, and it turned out we were considerably ahead of schedule. Luckily, the ferry had room, and they didn't even let us think about it, they told us we were going on the 1:15 instead. That was just fine with us! I walked the dog during the 30 minutes we had to wait, and picked up some brochures, and Joey made me a quick sandwich. And suddenly it was time to go. We were first in line in our lane, meaning we could see right out the front of the ferry! But after we started crossing, Joey and I got out and enjoyed watching the islands of Puget Sound all around us from the railing. Oh! And I forgot to mention-- by this time, all that morning fog had lifted, the sun was out, the sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy, and it WAS the glorious day I'd been "planning" for.

Islands in the distance

All too quickly, the ride was over (it saved us 4 hours of driving, by the way.) We drove off the ferry, agreeing it had been too short and a lot of fun, and headed for Port Angeles and our campground. We were a little surprised to realize it would be about a 50 minute drive-- on the map, it looks so much closer! I think I have greatly underestimated the size of the Olympic Peninsula, and maybe will have to readjust my expectations as to how much we can drive around in one day.

Pulling into the dock at Port Townsend (that's our RV in front)

 We got to our campground around 4pm, checked in, and spent a couple of hours with me just hanging out reading tourist brochures, and Joe trying to ascertain how good our internet etc. was for Saturday's football game. Sadly, it seems that although we have excellent internet connections, ABC (the station broadcasting the game) does not make its live-streaming available here. I don't really understand this at all, and Joey is still playing with it, but it seems we may be out of luck, and will have to rely on Spartan Sports Network. But frankly, football is a LOT less interesting if you can't SEE it.

After this, we decided to go into Port Angeles for some dinner, instead of cooking. By this time, it was lightly raining again, and we were feeling antsy. We went to a place called Kokopelli, which had seafood and a few other things with a southwestern flavor. I had fresh salmon, remembering the exquisite salmon I had almost 40 years ago in Seattle. Alas, I was not as impressed with it this time around. Joey enjoyed an assortment of a lot of stuff, but agreed the salmon was not thrilling. We are planning to buy our own fresh salmon tomorrow, so he can cook it for me.

On a related note--we drove through the town of Dungeness! It seems this is where the crabs come from. Evidently salmon is an afterthought, so maybe that's why it wasn't fabulous?

Tomorrow, we are heading up into Olympic National Park. We can't really believe we are here on the Olympic Peninsula. It's as far from New Jersey as we can get in the Lower 45, and it seems amazing that we did it.  I'm still toying with the idea of taking the ferry from here over to Victoria, B.C. Everyone says it is beautiful, but I'm just not sure we will love it as much as our Europhile friends. OTOH, I've heard about it for so long, it seems like maybe it's worthwhile and will be something different. We have time to make up our mind, so anyone who wants to influence us (one way or another) be sure to let me know what you think!