We are still alive!

Here is the update from the last week. My first excuse was dang we were busy, the now dang we have head colds! We do not bounce back like youngins. We are currently in Tillamook, OR. There are actual gas stations that don't just stand there with no people and no bathrooms. There's a Walmart a Fred Meyers and even an urgent care, things we haven't seen in over a week.

We Drove the north way to the island. This took us through Leavenworth a beautiful German Village. On our list to spend time there. We also came across Deception Pass to come into the island. A beautiful place and quite the bridge to the island.

Last Thursday we arrived at the Naval station on Whidbey Island. What a beautiful campground right on the beach. We had an amazing spot number 43. The walkway to the beach was right there in front of us. When we arrived it was kind of foggy and you could see that there was water out there but not to the distance where eventually later that afternoon we could see all the way to Canada. Several islands and boats and barges to be seen later when the sun came out. We got settled and then headed out to the commissary across the island. We were in Oak Harbor and the base is split. It's a beautiful place. We came home and did laundry. The laundry at at the campground was right across the street from us so that was very convenient. And even better you just had to have the codes for the laundry room and the laundry was free. Nice and clean. We took a little walk down to the beach and enjoyed the ocean, now that the sun was out and the sand. Such a beautiful Beach.

As we pulled in we noticed all the beautiful flowers. Dahlias everywhere. They had stems cut for you at the campground office. You could take five a day. You bet you, I took five everyday. Kate got some and I got some. They were so beautiful.

Friday we did some local touring and figured out how to get pizza and take it to the kids. Dave's daughter Kate and her husband Devin and their son Layton were expecting us with dinner. We had a wonderful time and toured a couple little towns on our way. The island is beautiful but there's one road down the main part of the island two lanes so the 25 mi takes about 45 minutes to 50 minutes to get there depending on the traffic. But such a beautiful drive. It was really nice to meet Kate and Devin and Layton for me. Dave was super excited to see them both, and of course, big hugs from Layton for Pop Pop. We had a great visit with them that evening. Enjoyed wonderful pizza and just getting to know each other and catching up. They had a big birthday party to get set up for the next day. Layton is turning three!

We slept in and enjoyed a nice morning out in the sun on our deck at the campground overlooking the ocean. So beautiful. We headed out to the party to help and pick up the food from the caterer. It was a beautiful drive again. So nice to meet so many of Devin and Kate's friends. And Kate and Devin's mom's as well. We had a wonderful afternoon. Wonderful food and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. So fun to watch the 3-year-olds play games, color and just have a great time. Poor Layton, he wanted to open every president as everybody got there. Kudos to Kate and Devin for making him wait to the end. He was showered with so many gifts. And Kate and Devin did a wonderful job setting up a lightning McQueen birthday for him. He was one tired 3-year-old. We helped clean up. We headed home and straight to bed!

Sunday morning starting with fog as usual there on Whidbey Bay. It burned off to be a beautiful day. I went really enjoy the outside. We took some snacks and headed over to the kids for a lazy Sunday afternoon of football. We had a great day, just enjoying family. Layton got a new bike for his birthday so Pop Pop had to go out and help him ride the bike. He's doing amazing and just goes up and down that hill in front of their house like and he's ridden a bike for forever. One talented coordinated little kid. Devin and Pop Pop

moved some furniture for the baby into the new nursery. I gave Kate a little break and made some dinner for us. Of course, I was lucky enough to use Whidbey Island Seafood shrimp that they had in our dish. It was so wonderful. They are owners of the company with partners and doing amazing things. Look for their black cod to be in Whole Foods in the next couple months. We stopped at a couple stores on the island and there they were would be Whidbey Island seafood. All different kinds of fish and shrimp and selfish. They ship it all over about United States and the world. It was a nice relaxing day and so fun to get to share stories and get to know each other. Always hard to go home each night.

Monday found us meeting Kate and Layton and your the base. We went to see the planes at Pop Pop flew in when he was in the Navy. A P3 is in the park . We got to walk around several different planes and seeing many Jets take off. It's such a beautiful base. We went to the flower garden that Ken the campground host has. You'll see the pictures dahlias everywhere. A huge sunflower meditation room that had a place you could actually go in and have a sunflower meditation moment. I took some time in there myself. Those are the flowers that we could get five steams a day. Just absolutely beautiful.

The beach was just so pristine and clean too. We toured the base and had lunch at Wendy's. Just a really nice laid-back day. We had to take them back to their car off base. It was really hard to leave them and we miss having Devin with us that day as well. We will be back and hopefully they will be to Arizona to visit us. We've made some plans. Just need to iron down some dates.

Tuesday found us packing up really early and headed to the ferry to Port Townsend. Little did we know that you needed reservation! We knew there was nothing but standby and had to be there by 7:30 in the morning. We were there and plenty of time to be on the 8:45 ferry. We are happy and sitting in the line, first in line with the trailer. Then there's this thing called fog! Man, that fog was thick over the water that morning. We heard the eight 15 arrival gig horns of the ferry from the other side and it was not able to dock due to the fog. They had to go back. So needless to say we were set there in the parking lot for hours. Finally, we got on the 2:00 Ferry. The first one to run for the day. It was a long day. It was even made longer by the fact that we were both getting that stupid head Cold. Tried to take a nap in the parking lot and just kind of vegged. Once on the ferry. It was nice We were the second on and the second off. But then we had still a 3-hour drive to get to our campground for the night. Broke our rule of being there by 3:00 p.m. We are wiped out. We were in Forks, Washington. Beautiful dense Forest. We both came in. Had a pot pie from the microwave and crashed. Thanks Marie Calendar! Off to bed we were! Wednesday was planned for a day of touring around the area. But instead Washington decided that we needed more rain! It gave us about 3 in of rain. So I ran to the store. Well you can call at a store. It was a wooden shack with some racks of food. The crackers I bought were stale and the chicken noodle soup did the trick. I waded my way back into the trailer in the rain and we both took naps that afternoon. We were in bed early. I'm glad we didn't go out in the rain.

We had reservations for Thursday at Grayland State Park. We arrived and it was still pleasant out, not raining. After setting up and having some lunch we decided to check out the town. We are camped off Cranberry road and we had seen an Ocean Spray plant earlier in the day. Dave swore it was cranberries. I really thought it was apples. Dave was right. We are camped on Cranberry road. So we went into town. Got some gas and then headed up Cranberry road. We found cranberry bogs? Gosh was I surprised I expected them to be like you see in the Ocean spray ads where the dudes are walking around and they're wading boots and floating The cranberries into a big net. Nope, that's not how it goes. They dry harvest the cranberries and those are the ones we buy in bags at the grocery store for homemade cranberry sauce. Majority of the floated harvest will become some kind of cranberry juice and or jam or jelly. You know that stuff you cut out of the cans for Thanksgiving. I was also surprised by the size of the plants. They were maybe 8 in tall. Kind of look like some of the weeds I used to have in my backyard that had prickers on them. Very very interesting. There was tons of water in ditches around the fields. Families were out picking the cranberries using this machine with bush along and they crawls up with this conveyor belt and into burlap bags. They fill the bag and then they drop it in the field and someone else comes along and picks it up and puts it in these big plastic crates. The plastic crates hold up to 300 lb of cranberries. We watched this young girl and boy help their mom do a field. She was on a ride truck kind of thing that was going on a railroad track. They picked up all the bags and then stacked all of the burlap bags. After being emptied into the bins! It was quite the process. We drove around for a couple miles and saw several Fields being harvested at the same time. The wind was supposed to come in last night and some rain. So I think that makes a big difference on how they harvest. We learned that they bring tons of sand in to keep the soil in good shape for the cranberrys to grow.

Nothing like having a bog in your front yard. They were just everywhere. Really a cool thing to see if you ever get the chance. We also drove out to the beach there at Cranberry Lane. The beach was very flat. That surprised me having been on the Oregon beach before. I thought the Washington Beach would be so deep cliffs as well. We were able to drive a good quarter mile out into the sand. I was a chicken. Dave probably would have gone another quarter mile. The sand was just beautiful, some big driftwood laying around. There's people out walking dogs and it looked like they were looking for crabs and or clams. The wind was strong and the waves were pretty strong as well. It was getting cold. With us both being still under the weather we decided a walk was not for us. Sure would have been a nice walk.

We had a great campground. Nestled in the trees in the state park. Those are some of our favorite campgrounds.

Friday found us headed on the road again. We are now in Tillamook Oregon. To get to Oregon we had to cross a huge bridge. Lots of rivers and beautiful Oceanside view as we continue to take the the back roads. We did mostly 101 today and will continue in a couple days as we leave here to go south. We saw some beautiful harbors and several clam, oyster and crab facilities. Lots of blogging going on! It was strong and Washington as well. Amazing how the forest just comes back. It's wet here. And yes we have the damp rid back out!

We knew we were back in civilization when we saw the Dollar General. We haven't seen that many Dollar Generals on this trip. It's been a week since we've seen one. Dollar Tree seems to be more of a West Coast thing. But those have been far and few between as well. We are camped in Bay City right along the 101. It's beautiful and we will go out and do some exploring tomorrow. Well Dave will do one thing. I'll do a little bit more. It's Saturday and it's Georgia football day so you know what that means. TV on butt in seat . See and see you after the game.

The sunset pictures from our last night on Whidbey Island. I say and watched about an hour! So beautiful.

Dave saved us from hitting 2 deer in the road on our way home Sunday night. They just appeared. Seatbelts worked! .

We saw otters playing in the water on the beach in front of our campground.

Tonight after my grocery store run I picked up fish n chips for me! Pretty decent. Dave got a burrito.....he said Oregon style. Doable but no Arizona food!

Dave mentioned the peninsula was so different. No people, stores, just thin narrow roads cut through the dence rain Forrest. The amount of rivers and lakes were astonishing. We saw very few signs of civilization for days.

Dave also wanted to share that all the guys at the party said salmon is not going away! They talked about catching their limit in 40 minutes And one guy off the dock because his boat

was not working!

Despite feeling puny from being sick we have had a great time. We had fresh tomatoes from Clark and MiChele. And fresh peaches and pears that ripened.

The scenery has been spectacular. The rainforest dense. The inlets immense. Olympic national Park beautiful. The Columbia River going into the ocean massive!

Fun.