Everything since

We dropped into Portland, Oregon for the day on Sunday to see the city for ourselves. It was actually not too much of a pain in the ass to park the van and trailer and soon we were on foot. Portland has an artisan fair every Sunday in the waterfront park. Artists, sculptors, hippies and other vagabonds set up their wares under the tents in the park and try to get people to bite on them. I have to admit that isn't my scene but Kris wanted to see what was going on and so we did. There was some neat things there, like the belts made from used bicycle tires, but a lot of the stuff was the kind you would find at a fair. Kristen did end up with a cool little bracelet that some guy made from pennies. We had lunch at the local brewery which wasn't bad. The fish and chips, made with salmon instead of haddock, was great. Kristen couldn't get over the smell of stale beer behind the bar. I don't think I even noticed it, but if she says it's there then it probably is.

We headed across the river to Battleground, Washington to stay the night at the local state park. When we finally found the place we were amazed to find forty or so people milling around a tiny "lake" in the middle of the park. They were all fishing in this tiny lake and there was even a boat out in the middle of the water. I walked through the parking lot, which was completely full, and noticed a full size boat trailer. It was funny to us that people would drive a 18' boat down to a lake that I could throw a rock across to fish. We had a nice little fire that night (no batteries exploding) and hit the hay. *I later talked to Dad and realized that Batteground was where we had lived in Washington when I was little and that I had actually at one point been one of those kids running around the small Battteground Lake with bobber in tow!

Oh I forgot to mention, we never caught the mouse. It just went away. One night it was there, the next it was gone. The traps were not set off, and the bait was still there, but the mouse is gone. Kristen thinks we scared it away, I honestly don't know what to think.

The next morning we got Kris to her dental appointment. Everything turned out great there, her gums are back to normal. We hit the local starbucks and headed north towards the Olympic Peninsula. We expected to spend a couple of days up that way before heading to the ferry and catching the boat over to the island.

We drove I5 to Olympia and then jumped onto 101 which takes you up the eastern side of the olympics. We got 30 or so miles up and found a cool little state park to talk a walk and burn some energy at. The forest there was really sweet. The trees were all huge and covered in old man's beard of some kind. Every square inch of ground was covered in green plants and trees. The wind was up and the trees that towered above us were swaying back and forth until we thought they would come down. After walking we sat at the picnic tables to read for a few hours and then it was time to decide where to go for the night. As we were sitting in the van talking a loud "yoohoo" was heard. We looked out the passenger window and an old crone was standing beside the van with what appeared to be a forced smile. Kris rolled down the window. The old witch was the acting campground caretaker. I should explain what this means. These people go from campground to campground (or they stay at one all the time) and they get free sights just because they watch over the area. It doesn't usually entail them collecting fees, or bothering anyone, they are supposed to keep an eye on things. She wanted to know wether we were staying there for the night. Kris explained that we were thinking of perhaps moving on because the wind was picking up. "Well you're supposed to pay if you've been here a half and hour," the wicked old hag said. Kristen glared at her and said, "then do you want me to pay you $24 for just sitting here." You could tell that made sense to the old lady but she just replied that she would "be back" and walked off. Kris and I just looked at eachother. What the hell was that all about? We made a point of finding somewhere to go for the night that wasn't anywhere near the old lady and left without hesitation.

Unforunately there was no place to go. The ferry from the northern part of the peninsula was closed for an indefinite amount of time due to the wind condtions and that would mean a LONG drive back down around Seattle and north to the ferry that would take us to San Juan. We were getting a little tired of waking up cold, sometimes in the pouring rain, so we decided to drive beyond Seattle and hit the ferry the next day.

The winds on that drive were terrible. 60+ gust were hitting the van and trees around us. There was a tree down on 101 that day that crused a car. The bridge over to Seattle was being hit by gale force winds and there was a warning up. By the time we were in Seattle all we wanted to do was find a place to eat that was outside the city. We pulled out our trusty brew pub guide and found a little pub at the very end of the land in Mukilteo called the Black Diamond. Thank god I don't have peanut allergies, it was one of those places they shell nuts on the floor. The steaks and sandwiches were all brought out on stones that were heated up enough that you could cook on them. The meat would be brought out sort of half cooked and then you could cook it to your liking on the stones. It was neat, but if I'm paying for my food to be cooked then I don't want to have to do any of the work. They should have given me a discount.

Since we had no clear idea of where to stay at this point we decided to try the RV park in town. We drove around in circles trying to find the place only to discover that it was behind the RV sales building. When we got back there we both laughed until I thought we would cry. The RV park was nothing but a parking lot where hundred of RVs sat at all angles with no rhyme of reason. Some were parked the long way, some sideways, no two seemed to match together. It made for some interesting driving lanes but we eventually wove our way out of that place and pulled into the Best Western parking lot behind the big rigs to sleep for the night. If you can believe it that was actually much less sketchy than the RV park.

In the morning we woke up, had coffee and went about getting supplies for the island.