We decided yesterday to tour the Olympic Peninsula, instead
of the Columbia River Gorge, which had been our original plan. One reason was to get in a little more
Pacific Ocean and another was figuring out that we could maybe take a ferry
from Cape Townsend to Whidby Island and then north into Canada more easily than
going down the Peninsula on the other side and then back up, trying to avoid
the interstates around Seattle and Tacoma.
Our first stop was Astoria where we got supplies and stopped
for lunch at a highly recommended restaurant, Bridgewater Bistro—it did not
disappoint either!
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| The restaurant |
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| The hotel which used to be a cannery |
Because it was too
cold to sit on the patio, we tried leaving Boo in Maxine but he was jumping up
and down, flailing himself to and fro and generally very upset, barking and almost
breathless after about 10 minutes.
Soooooo, luckily the staff there were those
special dog-loving people and allowed us to tie him up to a post right outside
our window-side table.
With a sweater
on, he was barely able to withstand the cold himself but, at least, he did not
suffer from separation anxiety.
And he seemed to enjoy the view!
This was our favorite restaurant
so far (not that we eat out all that often-about twice a week). It used to be a gill-net boat yard and has
been redone beautifully, with original paintings of colorful old fishing
paraphernalia, docks, boats, etc.
It
overlooks the river, the 4-mile long bridge and a hotel, which used to house a
cannery. An interesting, authentic old
fishing town that seems to be doing a lot of renewal along its riverside—we’d
love to spend more time here, but , off we go to Washington!
We stopped in a funky little fishing town called Ilwaco at a
market there but couldn’t find most of our staples (no pinto beans, no lettuce,
for example) and went without.
We did
walk around the docks a bit and found some local fresh halibut for tonight’s
dinner.
Well, we thought every place we camped was better than the
next but Cape Disappointment was the best yet.
We were yards from the beach, the sites were very private and the beach
was littered with beautiful driftwood where we could set up our chairs and
table and hunker on down for awhile.
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| This little spot was just yards from Maxine |
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| Driftwood, so characteristic of the beaches up here |
Today was a first for me—I took my first shower inside
Maxine!
You have to be pretty fast
because we only have a 6 gallon hot water tank and we do use hot water for
dishes, etc.
With a little finesse, I
did just fine and Jim even got in after me.
(Nope, not enough room for two!)
The only problem here was that we couldn’t take Maxine to
the Interpretive Center or to Station Camp (no RVs allowed) and they were both
too far to bike.
The good news though
was that we loved being here where Clark first sighted the Pacific Ocean and
declared, famously, :Ocian in view! O! the joy.”
Lewis never wrote about his emotions on
reaching his goal which we found very surprising because he had been so
prolific about writing his reactions to so much of his journey.
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| More boring sunset pics |
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| Jim contemplating the meaning of life |
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