Saltair to Ron and Joan’s outside Seattle, WA – 8/7/2016

August 7, 2016 (Sunday)

Didn’t sleep very well. Not sure why. Maybe because it was raining, or maybe because it was moving day and I was worried about getting to the ferry. Anyway, we got up and got going a little earlier than planned. Wanted to say goodbye and thank you to Jan and Caron in person, but really didn’t want to bother them any more than we had. We did try to yell bye to them as we left. Love them and will miss them and hope they come see us in California when we’re there. Would love to show them the same hospitality they showed us. We left a little after 8:00 AM to head to Sidney.

Michael and I stopped at Tim Horton’s in Duncan to get breakfast and coffee. I ended up getting a donut, Michael got a bagel. We couldn’t remember eating at a Tim Horton’s before and wanted to see what it was about. It was okay but Michael and I both agreed we preferred our regular travel day breakfast at McDonald’s (egg white delight).

Edie had a donut and I had the everything bagel. We both had a giant coffee in a giant cup.

It was raining and ugly out but the traffic really wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. We got into Sidney around 10:00 AM. We parked and waited for the gates to open and the cars to start moving inside.

The extraordinary color of the island will be missed by us.

Once inside, we paid and then parked and waited for the noon ferry to load up. While we were waiting we overheard one of the parking guys say it was totally booked and they can usually get about 130 cars in each ferry. That seems like a lot of cars to me on the ferry but…it was packed.

Interesting miniature van at the entrance with a duel flagged ferry painted on the side.

We parked and went to the gift shop to spend the last of our Canadian money.

The ferry glided in and unloaded quickly.

We ended up with a front row seat on the boat.

I mostly stayed in the car once we got on the ferry as we were up front and the view was pretty spectacular, plus I was tired and was hoping to get some sleep in. (No luck.)

We got into Anacortes a little after 2:00 PM.

Seems the dock and boat won't match up but they do nicely. — Seems the dock and boat won’t match up but they do nicely.

We were hoping that since it was Sunday, the horrible Seattle area traffic wouldn’t be as bad as when we came up. Again, no luck. The traffic was pretty much stop and go for many, many miles. We love the Anacortes ferry and the Washington State ferry system, but we probably won’t go through the Seattle area again due to the traffic.

At one construction area I was interested to see that the decorative walls were precast and placed as part of the form that holds the big pour.

We headed straight to Ron and Joan’s (from TUG and fellow bloggers) for dinner. We had been corresponding and we wanted to see them since we hadn’t seen them last year at their annual TUG get-together in Florida. They were so kind to invite us to their home and fix dinner. What a treat. Joan explained that the absolutely beautiful plates were hand painted by her grandmother.

We were honored with Joan's grandmothers dishes. — We were honored with Joan’s grandmothers dishes.

When we sat down to dinner I was blown away by the artwork she had created in the salad plate. Never seen such a beautiful display to eat. So lovely. She had also made some incredible zucchini, carrots, potatoes and pork. I believe (I hope I heard right), that everything but the pork was from her garden. Delicious.

Joan's giant zucchini. — Joan’s giant zucchini.

The salad was a work of art all by itself with edible flowers, strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, walnuts and delicate greens.

We ate till we were full and it was all very delicious. Baked zucchini with cheese, potatoes and carrots, roast pork and a killer salad.

I wanted to help clean up but Michael told me I was not allowed to touch the beautiful (and very old and sentimental) plates (I think he thinks I’m kinda a klutz.) It was a great visit but because I was so tired, it was a shorter visit than I would have liked. We’re hoping to get together again when they go back East and we’re back East next month. Hope our schedules can get together again. We will be checking their blog:

http://ronandjoanjourney.blogspot.com/

We got to our hotel around 8:00 PM, which was pretty close to Ron and Joan’s home. Nice sized room but it was a smoking room and even had an ashtray. We really didn’t think any hotels allowed smoking in the room anymore. We were tired and didn’t insist on a change.

An easy chair. — An easy chair with a comfortable king bed.

Extended stay hotel so a mini kitchen. Pots, pans, dishes and silverware are extra.

Anyway, that was our day. Hope yours was great!