Rolla to Anacortes: Part Two
Amity and I have spent a lot of time together in the car. We are now passing over 20,000 miles together since we have left Montana, and we still love to adventure with one and other just as much as we did when we started. This is important, because we still have 11 days left in our journey from Rolla to Anacortes. We have conquered our explorations of Oregon, and spent some quality time with family. It is now time for us to journey into our new “home state” of Washington to find out what the Pacific Northwest has in store of us.
Mile: 22,656
Quote of the Blog: “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” - Jacque Cousteau
Song of the Blog: “Wood For The Trees” - Moontricks
The bridge from Astoria into Washington is a scene all on its own. This thing is massive! We are headed for Ocean Shores, WA for the next couple nights. Amity and I are very excited to have our first bed to sleep on in a little over a week of camping and traveling. It was not far to Ocean Shores from Astoria. We spent some time exploring the layout of the town. Ocean Shores is a very quiet beach community with not a lot going on. We stopped at Ocean Pours Tap Room. This was cool little bar on the main strip of the town. We caught it at the perfect time. When we walked in it was empty and when we walked out it was getting packed. We finished the night off getting dinner at an Irish spot called, Galway Bay Irish Pub. It was really good, and the atmosphere was capped off by an older gentleman who was drinking wine and playing the piano for the guests.
While exploring Ocean Shores, we learned you can drive your car out onto the beach here. This was unlike our Oregon experiences. So, we had to drive the car out one night to check out the stars. Needless to say, it was beautiful! We also learned about a place called, Damon Point Beach. This is where we ended up finding a bunch of agates and other rad rocks. We also found more putt-putt! It was next to the Elk Head Taproom and called Pacific Paradise Park. I talked Amity into playing 36 holes, because they had two courses!
Back at the hotel room we found ourselves getting really creative with our meals. They had breakfast at the hotel, but it was mostly sweets. They did have a waffle maker though, and we happened to have our last bag of huckleberries from last summer in Montana. Yes, I have horded and transported huckleberries this far across the country! Huckleberry Waffles… SO WORTH IT! Having a bed to sleep on has been quite rejuvenating! We needed it, because we know the next few days in Seattle are going to be full of entertainment.
We spent the first two nights in Seattle with our friends Colin and Emilienne Moll. I have known them since we young in Montana, so it was great catching up with them. We spent a day with them tasting wine in the Hollywood District area outside of Seattle. It was really fun and we got to test out some amazing wine! Before heading back to their home for the night, Emilienne set the high score on some skeet ball, which I do not think will be broken! We ended the night playing some Cards Against Humanity in their brand-new travel trailer, which is where we were staying while we were at their house (it is super nice and spacious). These two are great! We will see them and their children again soon when they come up to camp around the Anacortes area.
Our second two nights in Seattle were spent at one of Amity’s college friend’s condo. His name is Kyle Schilling. Kyle is awesome! He has visited us in the past in Montana, and we always have a great time with him! This weekend was no exception! Kyle took us out to a “big boat party.” Which ended up being something of a spectacle for Amity and I. The second day we headed out of the city and up into the mountains. We hiked into the Enchantments, which is an amazing zone outside of Leavenworth, Washington. We hiked into Colchuck Lake, and it was spectacular! Beautiful blue water and gigantic peaks shooting up on the far end of the lake. Something straight out of a picture.
Our four days in Seattle quickly came to an end, and we had to continue north. Our next goal was to get Amity to Anacortes, so she could check into her new job and do some onboarding stuff. When she was done, we spent some time walking around the downtown area of Anacortes. It is a quiet and cute little town. We had some lunch at Gere A Deli. This spot was so good, we know we are going to be back here. Amazing sandwiches with bread baked in house. We still couldn’t move into our rental for another four days, but we had a plan.
We headed down to the Coupeville Ferry Terminal and hopped onto our first ferry for the time we are out in Washington. We are headed for Port Townsend. I have a friend, Kyle Shippman, who lives there with his wife Becca. Kyle worked with for my dad while I was was working for him. He has deep knowledge & love for The Radness, and we have done some massive construction jobs together. They took us in and let us stay with them for the last three nights of our journey. At this point, we are tired and running on empty. We still rallied to explore the area. Port Townsend is a really quirky little port town. It has some very old history and culture, and it has some eclectic people living there. Amity is quickly noticing that all of the towns in this area have bookstores. We have pinned that on the fact that there is a massive population of retired and older people here who might not want digital books. Kind of a funny thing!
We explored a cool military bunker that has since been abandoned. It is called the Fort Warden. It used to house massive cannons that could shoot miles out into the ocean. We caught it right at sunset, which made it dark and super eerie! Just outside the bunkers was a beautiful beach for us to take the sunset in. Out of all of our time on the coast, this was the first true sunset we were able to see. All other sunsets had a cloud layer blocking it, but tonight’s was perfect! Continuing to explore around the Port Townsend area, we walked out to a remote area of North Beach that is casually referred to as, Glass Beach. Here you can find all sorts of sea glass. Amity and I found all kinds of colors. From deep greens to light blues and reds. It was fun!
We explored the town and area with Kyle. It was nice to have a local who could give us some guidance and deeper knowledge of the area. He took us out to a cool pier where there is a skeleton of a whale, showed us around town and made sure to point out the soccer field, which is now in the place of the former town brothel. He is always good for a quality laugh! We also checked out this cool waterfall called, Ludlow Falls. They were right in the town of Port Ludlow, but you wouldn’t know it. The forest around it was so lush, it felt more like the rainforest setting that is natural to this area. One of the last spots we checked out in Port Townsend was the Port Townsend Brewing. This was a cool spot, where you could tell they had some local fisherman who were regulars at the bar. We got into a conversation with them about the “extreme heat”. The area was under a heat warning for being in the mid 90’s. We laughed at their complaints and let them know we were feeling a little cold coming from the 100’s and humidity in Missouri. Good thing the beer was cold!
On our final morning of the trip, we had to get on a ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville (which is 45 min south of Anacortes). We are still learning the ferry and reservation system vs traveling on standby. Our initial reservation was for 10pm, which meant we would not have been able to get into our rental until around 11pm. Luckily there was a cancelation, and I was able to get us onto an earlier ferry and into Coupeville at 11:00am. It feels surreal to know we are going to be moving into our new temporary home in Anacortes. We have been on the road for 22 days and can feel it. We cannot wait to get the car unpacked and to be able to relax for a couple days; knowing we are not going to have to pack up and go anywhere for a long-long time!
When we got to our new rental, we had to hunt down our keys. Our landlord is our neighbor, and he had placed the keys on his grill while he was out of town. I guess we will get to meet them in a few days when they get back. Once we got into the house and got the car unpacked, we needed to make a store run. Our keys came with two keys on the chain. We thought it was two of the same key, so we split the keys before leaving. Little did we know, this move would lock us out of the house, with the key we needed in the house and our landlord on vacation somewhere. Once again, we got lucky! We had left a window unlocked and Amity was able to get the screen off. I had to lift her up into the window and into the house. Quite the way to welcome ourselves into the neighborhood. Don’t mind us.. hahaha!
We are now set and here in Anacortes. Amity’s contract goes through November, at which we will have to make a decision on what to do next. Until then we have a lot of stuff to explore! We have family and friends coming to visit us, with the first showing up in 5 short days! We want to take this moment to thank all of our family and friends who helped us in our travels from Rolla to Anacortes! You are all so amazing and we want you to know that we are grateful for your hospitality!!