Day 33 Seattle

As excited as I am to continue our adventures, it is with regret today that I leave Canada. To quote a shop owner in downtown Victoria, “how lucky we are to be able to walk out our front door and walk 5000 miles without a care.” Canada is a truly magnificent country and I am so thankful that we took this trip this summer.

We had a late ferry crossing today. While leaving at noon seemed like a great idea this morning, by the time we arrived in Seattle after 6:00 it seemed like a long day of travel. How spoiled I’ve become. Having to “work” at being a passenger until 6:00 is a hardship!

Our crossing from Swartz Bay, at the south end of the island, to Tsawwassen was visually different from our trip to Vancouver Island. On the return we wove our way through the many islands that dot the west coast and the scenery was, once again, very distracting. The 90 minutes flew by and we were back in our rig, the first ones off the ferry, able to watch the docking from water level.

The US border was not far from our debarkation terminal and after a lunch stop to eat up all the meat fruit and veggies left in the trailer before crossing the border, we were on our way. It was the oddest lunch combo you could imagine as the only rule was; eat as much as you can of the stuff we can’t bring into the States! Cliff, bless him, ate carrots until we were afraid he would glow orange, Liz ate more cold cuts than I’m sure she has eaten in a year … the result though, was when we pulled up to the border patrol, life was simple! She asked what food we were carrying. When I responded, “No meat, fruit or veggies, we just stopped for lunch and ate all those.” She wished us a good holiday and we were on our way in under 60 seconds! We have heard horror stories of folks in RVs having them taken apart! Can never tell about our trip back home, but so far so good! We certainly never try to hide anything, and we try to know the rules and follow them, but we can continue to say we have never had a problem at the border!

The drive through Washington was uneventful, just the way we like them. The mountains, ever the backdrop, were enveloped in low-lying clouds so they looked like giant, snow-capped rocks, suspended in the sky. Cliff and I were in awe and while I tried to get a picture, I’m not sure I did it justice. Of course it’s hard to be artistic and creative while David is grumbling that I am in the way of his mirror – sheesh!

We also made the RVers pilgrimage today to Mecca. We went to Camping World! Cliff and Liz were very patient as we poured slowly over the aisles. I was a little surprised that we didn’t find more ‘oh that is so cool, we have to have one of those’ kind of stuff. Maybe we are just very well set as we are. Of course, without needed anything, we did manage to spend over $200 (that’s $197 Canadian!!!), so I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t like it more!!

Mt. Rainier looks like a floating mountain peak.

Our campground is another great urban find with 65’ paved pads. It seems to be central to what we want to see. Tomorrow will tell! They have a great little cheat sheet with directions to various amenities. We went to Kent Station and found Dukes Chowder House for dinner. What a find! Not only did we find great local beers but the chowder, crab melts, hot sourdough and salads were all scrumptious! It’s sad really since we have more recommendations of places to eat here than we have days, and this one is a ‘do again’. Oh the trials of life on the road!

Cheers! It's Tuesday so it's pub night1