Saturday, July 6 We made an attempt to go into the Olympic National Park today and drive the Elwha Road up to the Glines Canyon Spillway Overlook. Sign: NO VEHICLES. New Plan: Lower Elwha Klallam Indian Reservation on the coast at Angeles Point. GOT LOST. We settled for going back to the Silvermine, having lunch, and being lazy all afternoon at the campsite! Heaven! For supper we went out-to-eat for Italian Calzones! RESTFUL DAY! (Just for the record: the clouds hung low over every hill and mountain and once again it would not been a good day to see the Olympic range.) Sunday, July 7 We had a slow schedule to follow today: it was only 39 miles to the ferry at Port Townsend, and it didn’t leave until 1:00. The 7-mile ferry ride was the shortest way to cross Puget Sound! A mile from the ferry we stopped for groceries and across the street was a sea food market tempting us to buy two more live crabs. The guy told us they were the feistiest crab they have had -- so lively that they couldn’t even get bands around the claws! I think this was his form of a disclaimer in the event of injury!! At the dock we were able to get on an earlier ferry. I quickly fixed us a snack lunch to eat in route. I stayed in the van for the crossing, and Tom went up on deck and took pictures. Behind us in the ferry line-up was a cute little Bambi Airstream with this license plate! On the other side (30 minutes, 7 miles) we just had a 25 mile drive thru Oak Harbor and on to Deception Pass State Park and Cranberry Lake Campground. It is forested with large, old forest, and our campsite is amazingly open on the ground level – and tightly closed in the far upper reaches of the canopy. The whole forrest floor is just soft sponge and pine needles, with little trails and hills that connect the sites at the far back. Kids have discovered that it is a wonderful little bike play area and they are zipping around and flying high in the air. If they crash -- the ground is almost like a gym mat! The campground roads are very narrow as seen in the first picture. In the second picture you can see where RVs scraped the side of the tree! We headed out on a quick trip to scout out the area and had time to do a short hike through the forest and up to the Deception Pass Bridge. Until the bridge was built in the late 1980’s the only way onto the island was by ferry. We found it to be a stomach-dropping bridge, and we opted out of walking the people sidewalk over it – mostly because of the dogs. Maybe we will go back tomorrow. Tonight we are cooking our two crabs, and this will probably be the last that we get to enjoy this treat – live out of the ocean! Monday, July 8 Tom went to bed with, and woke up with, a swollen ear that was red, throbbing, and hurting down into the neck. Our first order of business was to find a Redi-Med. He came out two hours later with diagnosis of an infection that needed treatment. There was another wait to get the prescription filled at WalMart, and a bit of a hassle over the insurance. All in all, it is amazing how fast we can get a doctor and treatment when we are traveling before things get out of hand! We ate lunch at a Burgermiester Drive-Inn, found a fish market to pick up some scallops and shrimp for supper, and headed back to the Silvermine by mid-afternoon. We did decide to walk the bridge today. We left the dogs in the camper, and drove to the top of the bridge where there were some parking spots. We swallowed and shuffled and breathed deeply, and managed to make it halfway out on the larger bridge (there are actually two bridges) for pictures. On our side of the bridge the sun was shining directly at us making it hard to get good pictures. Later, we drove over the bridge and got pictures of the other side from the car. From there we drove down to the beach below the bridge for more pictures. The beach had lots of drift-wood (protected from scavenging), rocks, some sand close to the water, and great views of the bridge. The water was in turmoil as it went under the bridge . . . for no reason apparent to us. With that we went back to the Silvermine to confront the shrimp that we had brought earlier in the afternoon. They were different than “east coast” shrimp that we were used to – smaller, and brightly colored . . . we couldn’t wait to try them. We have had fresh/raw shrimp before, but never have had shrimp that were still moving! Tom cut the heads off and prepared the water to boil – 4 minutes! They were wonderful! Tomorrow we move on along . . . and have a very special lunch in the works!
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October 2021
We don’t go camping any more . . . we go ‘streamin’ ! The “SIlvermine and His” is our 2018 25' Airstream Serenity with Salsa interior and front twin beds., and ‘streamin’ is the name we use to describe our adventures. Stream along as we document everything from weekend trips to longer summer excursions and full-blown vacations. You know what they say: if you’re not in an Airstream – you’re just camping!
Tom & Ella Brown |