Day 3
September 14, 2002
Click on the little cameras for my pictures.

Once again I awoke with a certain dog breathing quietly next to me. It seemed like a requirement to get him all excited about the new day. I started scratching until he really seemed to be enjoying it. I got up and took a shower, this was going to be an early day. Once finished I dressed, packed, and went downstairs--Roswell still trying to get underfoot. I had some toast--with Anne's new toaster--and strawberry honey. John came out ready for work. I was catching a ride with him to meet Deon. We got all my stuff into his truck, I said bye to Roswell and Anne and we left. It was a beautiful drive, crisp cool morning, foggy and misty at the bottom of the valleys we passed.

We eventually got to the store he manages and waited in the car for another emplyee to arrive so we could go in. He took me on a tour--it's a really big place--and started working.

Deon eventually got there, I moved my stuff to her car and said good bye to John. It was a beautiful day, confortable temperature, not too humid, and sunny. Deon planned to take us to the Olympic Peninsula, via the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry . The last time I was on a ferry was crossing the English Chanel about 13 years ago, so this was really fun, we got there just as a Ferry was leaving. While waiting in line to pay there was a guy selling pizzas, we were both hungry so it was particularly painful to watch him go buy. We wondered if it was some kind of weird breakfast pizza since it was still fairly early, and whether he would be able to sell any. A couple of minutes later he went running back the other direction with his delivery bag empty. I guess so. The line slowly moved and we were directed onto the pier. We were near the front of the line and got there just in time to see the ferry pulling out. Well, that was okay we got out and starting walking around and talking. This is the first time I've seen the "ocean"--well, the Puget Sound is connected to the ocean--in a couple of years.

Very soon a Ferry docked, unloaded it's cars, and we were let on. We went forward as far as we could--we were at the very front off to the right a bit. We got out and climbed the two levals to the main deck and went aft. We passed a cafeteria and kept walking, there were really nice and comfy looking seats facing front and back for small groups next to the windows. At the back there was a larger group of seats, we kept going out the back doors. Here we could watch the last of the cars getting loaded and the walk on passengers passed us to get inside. There were some huge pilings with gulls sitting. An older man with some kids starting throwing Chee-tos over to the birds. Deon looked at him jealously. We went up more stairs onto the top. There was the loud low rumble of huge diesels up here--I started to get excited. Just before the Ferry pulled away, it sounded it's horn.

Now I've been startled really badly by train whistles, but this completely different. It was loud, really loud, take your breath away, and have an accident loud. We were by then near the front, which didn't help. Deon and I walked around to the front of the top deck, just in front of the bridge. There is a yellow circle painted on the deck, "Do not stand here when docking." Standing in the circle you can look down all the way to the bottom car deck. There were people standing in front of the cars facing the wind. The ferry was really moving now, there were gulls paralleling us, hovering just over the ferry. It was getting pretty cold, Deon went back behind the bridge where there were some benches behind a windscreen. We watched some islands in the Puget Sound go by. It was really beautiful, the very expensive looking houses along the shore with their docks surrounded by trees--many of which already changing to their fall colors.

Eventually it bacame clear we were nearing a terminal. We made our way back down the stairs to her car. I was very impressed with how smoothly we came to a stop. While going down the stairs I had this nightmare image of the fairy stopping suddenly when it hit the pier and all the poeple flying forward all the way down the steps. I could not tell when we came to a stop. We made it safely back to Deon's car and waited for everyone else to start their engines and finally someone motioned us to follow another group of cars off the Ferry.

So, we were in Kingston. Neither of us had been here before. Neither of us have a map. Apparently Deon had a vague idea of where we were headed. In a tourist magazine it said there would be a visitor center near the ferry so we tried to find it. We made a turn off the main road crossed another road. It didn't look right so we pulled into a parking lot to turn around. There was a small portable shack with an open door, so I suggest we go in and ask where the visitor center is. Deon parks and we get out. "I think that is the visitor center"

"Nah, there's no sign."

"But there are those brochure racks."

"I guess it is the Visitor Center."

We went in to look for brochures and maps, and found some useful ones. When we got back to the car Deon explained where we were going and I navigated. We passed through a lot of touristy fairly rural areas. They're beautiful, but touristy so we kept going. We passed through Port Gamble, and then crossed the Hood Canal Bridge.

We finally got to Hwy 101, the Pacific Coast Highway. We passed, Discovery Bay, Port Discovery, Blyn...

We finally got to Sequim. It's an interesting place, part small town, part tourist town, but without feeling too touristy. It's like a town along an interstate, people pass through to get gas and stop at the convenice stores but don't stay. We stopped at a store to buy film. There was a kiosk with maps. Oh, good idea, so I stood by the kiosk, got Deon's attention and point to the maps, she looked at me and held up the map she was going to buy.

Sequim is the town that you turn off Hwy 101 to get to Dungeness . Deon suggested and I agreed that we would probably find places to gorge ourselves with crab. So we passed through Sequim--very hungry already--to head toward the Dungeness Spit. A spit is a small bit of gravel or sand sticking out into the water. This spit is the spot dungeness crabs are named after. Along the way we saw a sign for the Three Crabs Restaurant. We kept going hoping to find more places, we ended up backtracking a few times, but it was beautiful. We could see the spit and the lighthouse on the spit in the distance. We eventually went back to the Three Crabs Restaurant. There was a short line, but we braved the few minutes exchanging hungry looks. I had crab cakes that were very good and some kind of cream pie, that was good, but huge--too huge.

We headed back to Hwy 101 returning around Sequim, and pushed on to Port Angeles. It's the first town of any size since getting on the ferry. We actually took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of some cranes. We turned around and found the road out.

At this point, the highway left the shore and started climbing into the mountains . It was beautiful, very different than the pine trees and aspens in Colorado. These are much larger pines that line each side of the roads. I remember there was one point that we broke into a clearing and could see the water miles away and hundreds of feet below us. Both of us were surpised at how high we had gotten so quickly. We were driving through replanted forrests that belonged to wood or paper companies. It was very strange to break out of the woods into a field that had recently been cut down. It was a forrest of stumps. While we were stopped to take pictures we were also passed--at incredible speed--by a bunch of Mitsubishis, mostly 3000GTs, but some Eclipses also, maybe 10-15 of them. It was very surreal.

We made a big loop and made our way back to Port Angeles. We weren't very hungry yet, but Deon wanted coffee and I was getting into the coffee thing too. We circled the town a couple of times trying to find a place. Didn't see anything, so started heading back to seattle again but Deon saw a drive through place that looked open, turned around again and went back and got our coffee.

We finally made it back to the ferry after dark. This time we were way back, but didn't have to wait as long. We were parked on one of the upper decks. Deon wanted to say in the car at first, but we did end up going up. So there are these doors that lead to the outside that are held open with magnets or something. I opened one and couldn't figure out how to get it closed. Anyway, I was standing outside in the wind it was very cold, Deon walked out, probably to see if I've succumbed to hypotheria yet, and looked at me like I was an idiot. "Well I'll be inside"

"Okay I'll just be he out here a bit longer"

I did eventually get cold and go inside. We noticed the ferry slowing and went back downstairs to the car. We got back to Redmond late and went to a Thai restaurant she likes for dinner. I had--of course--the Pad Thai with chicken. After dinner we went home.


Day 4
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