Out of Office

After being home for only a week, I found myself on another plane early Sunday morning, this time to the East Coast. I was traveling with two of my colleagues from work to a scientific conference in Frederick, Maryland. We landed at Dulles around 4:00PM, but by the time we retrieved our luggage and picked up the rental car it was already after 5:00PM.

I had no problem convincing my friends to take a quick field trip into Washington, DC straight from the airport, especially since I was the one driving the car! The last time I visited DC was in late September/early October 2010. We pulled the boys out of school to see the nation's capital together with another family - what a fun trip! But that was pre-blog, so I don't have any details posted online.

Washington Monument from Constitution Gardens

Up in the Air

After saying our goodbyes to RH and C this morning, we headed over to R's cousin's house for breakfast. The navigation app sent us on some small, local roads, but the drive through the forest was quite pretty. We had gotten to see Y, C, and the kids back in July at the family reunion, but it was nice to be together again, quick visit or not. 

Be Like Water

Since we didn't walk back for biscuits and gravy at the Stehekin Pastry Company on our last day there, C made us her delicious version for breakfast this morning! What a treat! 

Our agenda for today was to visit a couple places in Seattle. RH, having been baptized into the crazy way we travel, was still willing to tag along with us, but C couldn't go because she had other things she needed to get done today. 

On our way into the city, we stopped by the salmon hatchery in Issaquah. After seeing them in the wild, it was fun to get a closer look at the chinook and coho through the windows of the fish ladder.

Nidoto Nai Yoni

Since it was almost 90 miles to the state capital, we checked out of Lake Quinault Lodge and were on our way well before 8:00AM this morning. It was quite foggy, so we decided to stick to US-101 through Aberdeen instead of the small, winding roads that the navigation apps were trying to kill us on. As we drove, R looked up online reviews of breakfast places along the way - Phoebe's Pastry Café in Olympia got our business because it was open (some places weren't) and pretty close to the capitol. I had a yummy breakfast burrito, and R's bacon and tomato quiche was quite good, too (no pics, sorry!)

Into the Woods

This morning we checked out of Lake Crescent Lodge and made our way towards the western side of the Olympic Peninsula. We passed through the small town of Forks, but since we haven't read the books nor watched any of the "Twilight" movies, we didn't stop to look around for any vampires or werewolves. The movies weren't actually filmed in this area, but that hasn't stopped them from capitalizing on "Twihard" tourism.

170 miles

Chasing Waterfalls

Early this morning we rolled out of bed, threw yesterday's clothes back on, and headed out the door to hike up to Marymere Falls first thing. We only had directions from the trailhead at Storm King Ranger Station, so we probably added some extra distance to the 1.8-mile roundtrip hike wandering around the area trying to figure out if we were going the right way. Sadly I left my Fitbit behind in the room, so I didn't get any credit for the steps! 😭

Would have been nice to have this map this morning!

Memories Deceive Me

I used to scrapbook, as the cabinet full of supplies and tools still in my house would attest. Maybe one day I'll go back to it and catch up on the projects I've been meaning to complete. But at least I can stay reasonably up-to-date on this blog. Even if no one outside of our family ever reads it, I'll keep posting entries because I enjoy writing about our travels. It's important to me to have a record of what we saw and what we did because I'm sure that I won't remember the details as clearly later on. 

Case in point: Our first stop today was Deception Pass. R asked if we had come here during our trip to Washington in 1996 because it seemed familiar. 

I said, "Nope."

Bzzzzzt! Wrong answer. 🤦🏻‍♀️

May 1996

This Little Piggy

Since our itinerary for today was a day trip to explore San Juan Island, we grabbed an early breakfast this morning and were on our way to the ferry terminal in Anacortes by 7:30AM.  

The drive was a little foggy, but we made it in about a half hour. We found a parking spot (paid $13 at the kiosk) and then waited to board the ferry as walk-on passengers for the 8:30AM sailing. The ride over to San Juan Island took about an hour. We were treated to lovely views of the other islands we passed along the way.

Boarding the Chelan

Stamping Shutout

Since everything we had yesterday from the Stehekin Pastry Company was so good, there was some serious discussion about returning for breakfast again this morning. However, with no transportation, we would have had to hoof it 2 miles there and 2 miles back before our ferry departure at 10:40AM. The timing seemed a little tight, so sadly I can't provide a report on their biscuits and gravy. 

I guess we'll just have to come back!

So, with time to enjoy a leisurely last morning in Stehekin, we walked along the lakeshore, and I took a few more photos...