Reader beware: These travel blogs will be the raw, unedited first drafts!
The movers won’t come till the 10th
or 11th, but my brother and I left today anyway. His friend, Steve, will oversee the moving of
my stuff.
By 10 a.m. we had all of my
belongings either packed or ready to be packed.
Everything that is to remain is either marked with blue masking tape or
in a cupboard or closet marked with blue masking tape. It felt a little strange to leave the house
in such disarray, but that is what movers are for: to pack up all the miscellany. And, of course, I was very sad to say goodbye
to my cat, Melody.
We got to the ferry line in
Coupeville just as the ferry was pulling up—not bad for not knowing the ferry
times and not having made a reservation.
Traveling across the choppy waters to Port Townsend, I could hardly
believe I was actually leaving beautiful Whidbey Island behind.
Our travel south was marked by
periodic rain bursts and beautiful autumn colors. Not really thinking about it, we followed the
GPS directions, which we discovered much later were NOT taking us on the route
I had hoped for. Oh well. Lunch at Central Market deli in Poulsbo was
nice. I kept the map out after that, and
we wended our way to the southwest Washington coast.
The drive over the Columbia River
via the Astoria bridge was gorgeous, but there was even more beauty to
come. At Seaside, we walked out on the
beach at low tide. Such a wide expanse
of sand, whitecapped waves thundering in, huge rocks in the distance, and a
light spray of sand from the blasting wind.
I was awestruck by the thundering surf.
Then we drove through part of a state park that was breathtaking with
its tall old-growth trees and glimpses of the ocean. That was followed by stops at several scenic
outlooks and a short walk at yet another majestic beach. John took lots of pictures. We were glad we had brought our winter coats.
Our only plan today was to enjoy
scenery and stop whenever and wherever we wanted. Well, and stop for supper when it got
dark. We ended up eating at a great cafe
in Wheeler, where John did some Google searches on his phone that led us to Oceanside Cottages. For a very reasonable off-season rate, here
we are in a two-bedroom vacation apartment with full kitchen and living room. And it is 9 pm and about time to get some
sleep.
Tomorrow we go on down the coast as
far as Newport and possibly back on up to Portland. (Obviously, we are not taking any sort of
direct route east.) Tillamook will be
our first stop, and I plan to eat ice cream no matter how early it is!
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