A beautiful tree in blossom, on a stop along the way.
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On Thursday morning we headed up to Washington. Jeff’s daughter, Bree, lives up there and we had been meaning to visit her for quite some time. When Jeff mentioned it to me again recently, I said “let’s go before market starts again!” We were a tad nervous about one thing: our car. Because it seems every time we get gas in it lately, it’s harder to start. Jeff always gets it going each time by pumping the gas pedal plenty until it’s running well again. (Yes, it only happens when we get gas. Mechanics didn’t see anything on the computer. Unfortunately, it would cost a fortune to have them figure it out. We’re still researching and have some ideas.) We decided to go anyway and we’re so glad we did. Before we left, we finally got a cell phone figured out. (We had a trac phone pay-as-you-go cell phone at one point in time, but no longer.) My mom passed along her old cell phone for us to use when she got an upgrade. We got a plan that I think will work well for us. We don’t get reception at our house (which is fine by us), so we just needed one for car rides. It made us feel much more relaxed leaving for our trip, knowing we had a cell phone just in case.
We left our house a little after seven. We really wondered how Bracken would do on such a long car ride. The night before I said to my sister: “Wish us luck!” I had an idea for this trip and suggested to Jeff that we take turns sitting in the back with Bracken (we were going to switch off driving anyways, but usually the one not driving sits in the front in the passenger seat.) I thought Bracken would be a lot happier if one of us was in the back seat with him and Jeff thought it was a good idea. It ended up being a really good thing we did that. We also brought along the portable DVD player from our last trip. We used it a little bit (he stays interested for awhile and then loses interest.) He didn’t nap at all on the way up, but Jeff and I were absolutely amazed at how well he did on such a long drive! Of course, we had plenty of stops at rest stops. I was the one that had to go more often than anyone and told Jeff: “I need to stop drinking water so I don’t have to pee so often!”
Stretching our legs at the rest stop.
Jeff saw a sign for smoked oysters on the side of the road and said he must pull over. When he returned to the car with some alder smoked oysters, he started opening them up right then and there, which I thought was funny. (I guess because I hadn’t expected him to and thought we’d eat them later.) They were incredibly, insanely delicious. I felt ravenous for them and wanted more. I couldn’t stop thinking about them after that. They were oysters to remember, for sure.
After we got off I-5 and got closer to our destination, the drive was really pretty with water along the right and forest to the left.
One last stop to get some more produce. (And for me to go to the bathroom again!)
There were such beautiful snow covered mountains along the drive, but I didn’t get a good picture of them during this trip.
And finally, we were in Port Angeles! Jeff and I thought it was such a neat little town (neither of us had been there before) and we loved that you could see the snowy mountains while you were right in the middle of town. Bree said you could look across the water and see Canada!
We were so happy to see Bree. She showed us their house that she and her husband (we didn’t get to see him this time) have been fixing up. We were amazed at all they had done to it so far and how hard they’ve been working. It was such a cozy place. Bree wondered if Jeff could get her lawn mower running and he did! We were really glad he was able to. He mowed the front and back yard and did some weed eating around the place. I went to get my camera and take some pictures of Bracken and Bree. He had been making silly faces with her, so he didn’t want to make any regular faces for the camera. He was all about the silly faces!
I said to Bracken: “let’s get a broom and sweep off the walkway!” He wanted to sweep the grass instead.
More silly faces!
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We planned on about a seven hour drive. It took us over nine hours to get there. We thought we would have a little more time there, but ended up needing to leave really early in the morning to get back in time. We were only able to stay for one night, but we’re so glad we were able to go! On the way back, we wanted to make better time and I kept track of how long it took us, so we would know for future trips.( Just in case you’re curious: we left Port Angeles around 7:20 on Friday morning. We reached I-5 around 10 (with one stop for gas and two quick stops switching drivers.) Once we reached I-5, we had one rest stop and then entered Portland (and back into Oregon) about 11:45. After Portland we had a rest stop and a stop for gas. Bracken had a good nap on the way back. We made it to Eugene around 2. We had some errands to run and then we headed home (about an hour from Eugene.) On the way up, I drove through Portland and it was fine. On the way back down, I thought I would do the same, thinking it would save some time. The traffic was more stressful that time. In the future, I might take the route that goes around Portland and avoids that traffic all together. I don’t like driving in city traffic at all.) Now we’re home, happy to be out of the car, unpacked, and getting back into the swing of things. We’ve got orders to catch up on and all those good things.
To Washington and back: Jeff called it our “mini vacation!” It was a good adventure.
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