Sorry I didn’t do any posts while away. I guess I was just having too much fun.
Truth be told, I spent as little time in my hotel as possible. I was on my own schedule, doing what I wanted to do, seeing what I wanted to see. It was awesome.
Solo road trips can be so relaxing.
The first two days were focused on work.
Saturday was LONG. By the time I made it to my hotel Saturday night, I was beat. But it was a good day. I ate well, drove through some interesting terrain, saw a bunch of flowers, cows, and other interesting stuff then ended up at the beach.
Sunday was foggy and overcast, but still very relaxing.
Monday, yesterday, was another long day as I made my way back to Austin via the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and LOTS of back roads. The flight home was uneventful. The girls and Hubby were happy to see me. I was happy to see them, too.
Now I just need to sort through my pics. I’m anxious to share my experiences with y’all and will try to get a trip post up soon. Honest.
I’ll just warn you in advance… there are a whole lot of critter pics, real and otherwise. LOL.
I made it safely to Texas. Last night, I was exhausted. I had a direct flight from Dulles, but left the house around 5:40 ET and got to Austin at around 11:00 CT. By the time I got my bag and rental car then drive to my office, it was 12:30 CT. I was REALLY ready for lunch, my first meal of the day.
It was about 5:30 CT when I left the office for the 30 minute drive (in traffic) to the hotel. My body is still on Eastern Time, so it felt like 6:30. See why I was pooped?
I saw a cool sunrise from my hotel this morning. And there’s a nice view from my office, northwest of the city.
I grabbed so pics on the way to my office building from the parking lot, too.
I’ll have to edit this post later so it doesn’t look so wonky.
View from My Office
Sunrise from My Hotel Room
After crossing the bridge from the parking lot.Front of the building.
I have a full work day ahead of me and a corporate event tonight. Didn’t want ya’ll worrying about me, though. 🙂
I’ll try to post more tonight or tomorrow. I feel so much better today after a good night’s sleep.
I don’t usually talk much about my travels in advance. There’s nothing like announcing to the world when your house will be unattended. Unless it’s one of those rare occasions, like now, when I’ll be traveling alone, leaving Hubby behind with the girls to guard the house.
General Area Map
I’m not really abandoning Hubby for that reason. It’s a work trip.
Since I’ll be traveling to my office, for the first time in over two years, I’ll need my work computer. I won’t feel lime lugging two computers, so my personal computer, which I typically use to create blog posts, will stay at home. So I’ll be relying on my phone to creat posts.
Part of trip prep, therefore, is testing that capability. Readable? That’s all I ask. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
I’ll be at the office on Thursday afternoon and Friday. I’ll be staying in Texas through Monday afternoon. It seemed like a convenient time to explore and soak up some warmth.
My itinerary for Saturday through Monday is up in the air. I’ll head to the beach at some point. When depends on the weather. I’d like to see a bit of Austin, too. And the blue bonnets are in bloom, so I have to hunt out flower photo ops.
No idea how often I’ll be posting, but I’ll try to keep in touch.
As I said in my last post, after delivering us to Amy’s house, Annelies and Yves left. Their plan was to spend a day in Seattle before flying to Philadelphia to visit some other friends.
Natural Disaster Awareness
Friday morning, the grand kids headed off to school, and we got to hang out with Amy, TJ, and Shannon. We opted to visit Sumner, a neighboring town, that Amy had told me about.
It was a pleasant morning spent visiting as we perused the various shops lining Sumner’s Main Street. One of the shops is an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint stockist. Amy is interested in learning to paint furniture and stuff. In fact, since then, we visited again and I was able to give her a lesson. If you missed the painting post, it’s here.
Sumner is a nice little town. There were quite a few funky little shops that piqued our interest and gave us something to do for a few hours. We’d tossed around the idea of going into Seattle to see the public market, but Hubby and I were quite tired of touristy pursuits by that time, so we decided to postpone that until our next visit. We really just wanted to spend time with the kids.
Temperatures were mild that day (60s?), but the skies were quite gray. Here are a few images I captured in Sumner…
Wall Mural
Main Street Shops
Interesting Store Window
Family
Ironic Graffiti
Shannon, Me, and Amy
We had lunch then returned to the house for more visiting.
The next day, Saturday, was all about football. Joey and Gaige both had games that day. Joey was quite tickled to have us all there watching.
Checking to make sure we were watching.
 Click on any image to see a larger view.
Missed Tackle
Joey (far left) is the smallest kid on the team.
Checking to make sure we were still watching.
The Big Take-down (don’t let his petite size fool you)
Action Shot
Holding
Temps that day were in the low to mid 50s, I think. By the end of Joey’s game, we were all quite chilly. Especially Shannon, who had ended her two-month tour of Central America before flying to Washington to visit with us. But we still had Gaige’s game to see…
Gaige was not happy that he didn’t get much playing time.
Action Shot
Candid
Brothers
Unfortunately, Brianna was under the weather, so we didn’t get to see much of her. She’d stayed home rather than suffering through two coldish football games.
Joey helped Shannon make dinner.
He’s a good helper.
He helped with clean-up, too.
Pretzel dogs, my favorite!
And that’s it for the September vacation re-cap. Finally.
If you missed any of the posts, there’s a list of links for you below.
TRIP Re-cap
Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)
After a very long, fabulous vacation, our final day together was upon us. We all had mixed feelings, of course. By that time, we were all ready to get back to our homes and pets. We were also excited about seeing our family at the end of the day. But we were sad that we’d be parting ways. It’s hard having such good friends on a different continent.
It was essentially a relaxed travel day. We’d planned things so that our last night was relatively close to our final destination, Amy’s house in the Seattle suburbs, but also near some sights. Annelies had identified Coupeville as a place to visit and I’d zeroed-in on at Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve (ELNHR). Have I told you that she and I make a great planning team?
We started out with breakfast at McDonald’s, a first for Annelies and Yves, which made for some giggles.
Americans know hot cakes = pancakes, but that confused our friends. Also confusing was the speed at which orders are taken, the staffs’ assumption that you have eaten at McDonald’s previously and understand their menu, know how to tell them how many cream and/or sugars you want in your coffee, etc. Compounding the problem, Annelies and Yves, who both understand and speak English very well, had a hard time understanding the African-American lady from Georgia that took our order.
It was truly an entertaining way to start the day.
Knowing we wanted to lunch in Coupeville, we headed for ELNHR, a rural historic district established to preserves and protect a historical record of Puget Sound exploration and settlement from the 19th century to the present. ELNHR uniquely encompasses a mix of federal, state, county, and private property. There are historic farms still under cultivation, the Victorian seaport community of Coupeville (where Seattle’s Best Coffee was started!), Fort Casey and Fort Ebey State Parks, and even a section of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail.
Old Barn at Ebey’s Landing
ELNHR is actually pretty big. We drove around a bit, surprised no note that the landscape looked a lot like the rolling hills of Central Pennsylvania, if you could ignore the snow-capped mountains in the background. Our first stop was Fort Casey State Park, which features an old gun battery, lighthouse, and lots of beach.
Fort Casey Gun Battery
Admirality Head Lighthouse
The fog was starting to roll in.
The next two shots are kind of funny. To me, anyway. They’re both examples of how the camera can skew perspective a bit. Look at the size of the lighthouse in relation to the people.
Big Mike
Slightly over-sized men.
Hubby, living on the edge.
Hubby decided to wait in the car while Annelies, Yves, and I explored a bit of beach. I HAD to see the water up close one last time.
Annelies was not pleased that we had to descend this semi-treacherous cliff to reach the water’s edge.
Annelies was not digging the sandy, unstable cliff.
Love those beach rocks! (Yes, a select few jumped into my pocket.)
Small Dungeness Crab Shell
Yves found a dead fish.
Building our last rock cairns.
Success!
Notice mine is the biggest.
Beach
Artsy flora capture.
The fog was rolling in.
We could barely see the lighthouse.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the island in Coupeville…
Blue sky over the Coupeville harbor.
Coupeville pier (you can see the fog encroaching in the background).
Sadly, we had no time to shop (or luggage space for purchases).
Knead & Feed Bakery and Restaurant (great lunch spot!)
Hubby, waiting again.
Intrepid Traveler
The clock was ticking, and we had places to be, so we hit the road, driving south to catch the Clinton-Mukilteo ferry to the mainland, and then back to civilization, skirting Seattle to get to Amy’s house in the suburbs.
For some reason, I didn’t take pics of Annelies and Yves greeting Shannon again and, finally, meeting Amy, TJ, and the grand kids. AND, worse, I seem to have misplaced the pics of Annelies and Yves driving off. Which, really, is okay because it would be yet another picture of me crying at our vacation’s end.
My next and final post will touch on family time!
TRIP Re-cap
Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)
September 11 dawned bright. We were up and at it early so we had time to clean the house and prepare for our day’s journey, which would take us from San Juan Island, through Anacortes, WA on Fidalgo Island, to Deception Pass State Park and then Coupeville before over-nighting in Oak Harbor.
“Drive” Map
The map on the left shows our route. The first leg, from Friday Harbor to Anacortes, was on a very large Washington State Ferry. I thought for sure that the M/V Elwha was one of the biggest boats in the system. But according to the WSDOT website, there are five that are larger. It’s hard to imagine bigger ferries. The Elwha is 382 feet long and 73 feet across!
Unless you’ve seen tractor-trailers, school buses, RVs, etc. boarding easily and walked around its multiple levels and decks, I think it is hard to imagine the size of the vessel. You’ll just have to trust me when I say it is really darn BIG.
We got to Friday Harbor early enough that Annelies and I had time to shop while the boys waited in the car, which we’d parked in the ferry queue. We had time for some pictures, too.
Interesting Flowers
Those flowers were outside the public restroom, inside of which occurred one of the most-amusing moments of the trip.
Let me just say, it’s a little disconcerting when your friend, who has already told you she really needs to use the bathroom, is in a neighboring bathroom stall when she laugh/squeals then exclaims, “Oh my GOD, I have got to take a picture of this.”
My first thought, of course, was an interesting piece of stool, which even I would NEVER photograph. I was very relieved when this was the image I saw…
Interesting bathroom graffiti.
That IS pretty funny.
Some other pics we captured in Friday Harbor…
Mural
Signage at the most-interesting Ace Hardware Store ever.
Photographer in action.
We bought some souvenirs and picnic provisions and then headed back to the car as boarding time was imminent.
Friday Harbor as seen through the ferry window.
Ferry Picnic
View during the passage to Anacortes.
Approaching Anacortes
I will never tire of riding ferries, or any other boat, among the San Juan Islands.
After disembarking, which happens surprisingly quickly, we headed to Deception Pass State Park. Part of the park is on the southern tip of Fidalgo Island and the other part is on the northern tip of Whidbey Island. A famous bridge connects the two islands at Deception Pass.
The Deception Pass bridge is actually two bridges, there’s a small island in between the two spans, that connects Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands. In total, it’s 1,487 feet long (Canoe Pass span: 511 feet, Deception Pass Span: 976 feet), with a road width of 22 feet and 3-foot sidewalks on each side. The cantilever bridge is approximately 180 feet from the water (depending on tides).
Currents through the Deception Pass strait are quite impressive. The tidal flow beneath the twin bridges is very strong and the current reaches a speed of about 8 knots (9.2 mph) during ebb and flood tide.
We stopped on the Fidalgo Island side first.
Beautiful stones. (Yes, some came home with me.)
Annelies and Yves doing a happy dance.
Native American Statue
Beautiful Shoreline
Deception Pass Bridge
Hubby gazing down from the bridge deck.
Look at the rocks below the bridge to see the current.
After admiring the bridge up-close, we continued on into the Whidbey Island side of the park.
Hubby was content to watch the fishermen as we explored the beautiful shoreline.
Deception Pass bridge as seen from Whidbey Island.
My favorite rock cairn photo of the trip.
We spent a lot more time at the park than we’d anticipated, so we had to boogie to reach our hotel before nightfall. Plus, we were all getting hungry.
After quickly checking into our hotel and off-loading some stuff in our rooms, we continued on to Coupeville.
Yummy local dinner spot.
We chose Toby’s Tavern based on Yelp reviews which summed the place up as quirky a local favorite with good seafood. That’s where another favorite vacation moment occurred. Yves had ordered mussels. When he grabbed the plate being passed across the table by the waitress, the bowl slid a bit and brushed his hand.
“Ooh,” he said, “it’s hot.”
“Well, yeah,” said the waitress without hesitation, “if it was cold, you’d bitch.”
Hysterical. We all cracked up, then assured the slightly concerned waitress that she hadn’t offended us. We all laugh a lot when we’re together, which is one of the reasons we all love each other so much.
It was the perfect ending to a perfect, but long, day. Sadly, it was our last full day together of the trip.
Night sky across the Coupeville harbor.
Up next, we continue south and meet up with some family.
TRIP Re-cap
Installment 1: In the Beginning (Friday, August 30 – Monday, Sept 2)
