Our 19 day road trip began this morning with an early wake-up call in order to get to OC Airport in time for our flight to Seattle. Karen’s brother, Mike, graciously agreed to stay at our house while we’re gone, and he also dropped us off at the airport.
Since we’re expecting cooler and wetter weather than we’ve had in several months, we’re taking more clothing than we usually do. Our usual combination of Karen’s carry-on roller board and my large duffel bag just couldn’t handle the job. So, we pulled out a huge purple suitcase we had stored in the garage (thanks, Dad and Muriel!) to see if we could get everything packed.
After tossing in boots, hiking poles, coats and rain gear, we managed to get everything we needed into a total of three suitcases - one very large, and two small ones. We weighed the packed purple beast and it came in at just over 48 pounds.
When we checked the bags at the airport this morning, the purple bag had somehow gained some weight and was now coming in at around 52 pounds! The Alaska Airlines ticketing agent sternly told us that we’d exceeded the 50 pound limit, but she also said she would not charge us extra, just as long as we promised to be more mindful packers in future. Duly warned, we got on the airplane and went to Seattle.
One thing leads to another, so when we got to the rental car counter in Seattle, we decided to get a car that had enough trunk space for our baggage. Maybe next trip we should ship our stuff ahead on a cargo plane?
We had a leisurely drive south toward Tacoma and across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (the site of a rather unfortunate engineering failure in 1940 four months after the original bridge was built), then north onto the Kitsap Peninsula.
On today’s drive there was only one instance where the driver did not follow the navigator’s instructions. In fairness, the traffic circles in the Gig Harbor area have confusing signs with circles and arrows and spaghetti-like iconography which inevitably lead to some minor misdirection - that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Our final stop for today is the Port Ludlow Inn and Resort.
Port Ludlow started out as a sawmill town in the 19th century and then went bust by the early 20th century. It has now become a resort town and marina for the well-heeled citizens of the greater Seattle area. We’ll be here tonight and tomorrow night.
NEXT: Farmer’s Market in Port Townsend and other local exploration.
I always enjoy and envy tagging along on your travels. Looking forward...
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