Finally Friday Harbor

We got another early start and left out friendly KOA hosts and quickly covered the forty miles to the Portland area. We filled the coach with diesel and headed north on I-205 which connects to I-5, the main road north to Seattle. Traffic was heavy but moving quickly. In Olympia we passed the state capital, and then soon we were in Tacoma and noticed Route 16 which would take you to Bremerton where Tim and Kristy were once stationed. That road will take you over the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge which has replaced "Galloping Gertie," the previous bridge which collapsed in the thirties. Onward and soon the Seattle skyline emerged including the Space Needle. Such a beautiful city. However, on this trip we planned to stop in Everett, a city a few miles north of Seattle. We had some business to do at CostCo. That concluded, we continued to head north and soon turned and headed toward Anacortes. This city is the terminus for the Alaskan oil pipeline and quite a busy port. It is also the place to catch the ferry boats for the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound.

We did not expect to be able to make a ferry boat for Friday Harbor and indeed expected to embark the next day. If we could not get passage, we planned to turn around and park for the night in a nearby campground. However, we were lucky. I quickly unhooked the car, and shortly the boat began the boarding process.

Once aboard, we left our vehicles and climbed the stairs to enjoy the view. How we love this part of the trip! The San Juan Islands are simply beautiful and the scenery spectacular. We had boat safety drills and one other stop at Lopez Island, and then Friday Harbor was in sight and we had to get downstairs to disembark.

We drove off the boat and into the town and remembered the way to Arthur's B & B, where we had spent many lovely months some years earlier. Of course, that was not exactly where we were supposed to go. Arthur also has a home on the golf course, and he wanted us to park the motor coach there. Foxy had learned this from a phone call from Arthur, and after turning around we quickly arrived. I backed the coach into his drive, and we joined Arthur for a dinner of steak and baked potato. Finally bed beckoned, and we settled in for a snooze. Happy travels indeed.