4th of July

Hooray for the Red, White and Blue

We started the last day of our holiday in Coupeville. Coupeville is located on Penn Cove, Whidbey Island.

 It is the second oldest town in Washington state and it has over 100 buildings on the National Historic Register.  We arrived in town just before 9am and all of the shops, restaurants and cafes were closed for the July 4th holiday - except for the Knead & Feed - a bakery/cafe specializing in home made bread, sticky buns, bear claws and cinnamon buns.

Since we only had fruit and yogurt for breakfast we thought that we would celebrate the holiday with a traditional American breakfast - a pastry.  These buns looked much better than they tasted.  They are slathered in icing (and there is nothing without icing in the display case) and much too sweet for us.  I cut my bun in half to remove the iced topping, but it has been drizzled on the inside as well.  It is easy to see why obesity is on the rise.

We needed a walk after this indulgence.  We drove over to Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve to visit the Isaac Ebey farm house. It is situated on 640 acres which is part of the National Land Reserve.  The land is currently leased to farmers who continue to farm the land.  The lands cannot be sold and the buildings must be maintained by the leasees.

Our holiday was almost over, but we had time for one more stop before heading for the ferry which would bring us home to Vancouver Island.  On to Anacortes where we were treated to another American favourite, the 4th of July parade.

Cheerleaders, fire trucks and politicans throwing candy to babies.  The only thing missing was the marching band (but we had seen that in Portland).

We set off for the ferry and had a very leisurely picnic while waiting for the ferry to arrive.  It was a nice way to end a busy 5 days on the road.  

This is the picnic I would like to have had at the ferry terminal. 

What we did have were very tasty turkey sandwiches from Safeway.

After yesterday's long day of driving, it was a nice change of pace to relax and read our books while waiting for the ferry to arrive and on the 2 hour passage home.

It was great to have the time away, but it is even better to be back home.

A Tourist and a Traveler

The penultimate day of our holiday has been a Road Trip.  Yesterday we spent from 9 - 5 being  tourists. Today we spent from 8 - 5 being travelers, 265 miles.
We heard that the traffic through Seattle is very heavy and we thought that if we left early enough we might miss the worst of it.  We didn't anticipate the high volume of traffic all along the I-5 from just outside of Olympia almost right through to Oak Harbour.  The traffic was moving steadily, but we were not traveling freeway speeds of 70mph, it was 30 mph. We don't know if the high volume was because of the July 4th weekend or if this is now the new normal.   We pity the folks that have to make their way through this on a daily basis.

Despite the heavy traffic we did make it in pretty good time to our first port of call for the day - Trader Joe's. Which is actually the reason we have made the trip to Washington.  I needed to stock my panty and cupboard with my 'must have/can't live without' ingredients:  Trader Joe's Balsamic Vinegar, fantastic price ($3.69) for the best balsamic vinegar; French Soap; 21 Spice Salute Seasoning Blend; Yellowtail Chardonnay & Yellowtail Merlot ($5.99 each!); not to mention the assorted chocolat bars, German cherries and a tomato-less salsa.

A short distance away from Trader Joe's is the Seattle Premium Outlet Mall. 

 You cannot go to the States without stopping and shopping at an Outlet mall.  They don't let you back across the border into Canada if you haven't spent your minimum alloted dollars.  Ed and I did not disappoint.  We were able to each find some new slacks and I managed to pick up a couple of blouses.  

We were back on the road by 3pm and ready to get to our next stop, Oak Harbor.  We exited the I-5 at Mt Vernon and drove toward Anacortes.  As we were driving along the highway between Mt Vernon and Anacortes, we thought of our friends Mary & Norman who had just recently completed a 14 day bike and train trip to Portland.  They completed their trip along the same highway, but they were on bikes.  I take my hat off  to the pair of them for their tenacity to fight the hills and traffic.

We made the turn off toward Oak Harbor and were rewarded with the scenery highlight of the day - Deception Pass State Park.

We arrived in Oak Harbor and checked into our accomodation for the night, the Candlewood Suites, then headed out to explore the sights of the town.  Oak Harbor is home to naval air station on Whidbey Island. In one of the reviews for the hotel where we are staying they commented on the loudness of the jets doing fly-overs at 10pm.  There is a sign on the door into the hotel "Jets = Jobs".  

I don't hear the jets tonight, but I do hear fireworks in the distance.  The 4th of July celebrations have begun.

There is no reason to take a car into Portland.  You can visit any part of the city by rapid train line or transit.
Today Ed and I took the MAX line to the Japanese Garden and the Portland Rose Garden, both located in Washington Park (also home of the Portland Zoo, Forestry Museum, Arboretum, Children's Museum, as well as many memorials).  There is a free bus taking visitors back into the city to connect with the MAX.
The Rose Garden is the oldest public garden of its kind in the US.  It has 10,000 plantings and 500 varieties. We made sure to take the time to stop and smell the roses.

The Japanese Garden is spread over 5.5 acres. There are many highlights in this garden.

This is a photo of The Poetry Stone located in the Portland Japanese Garden.  The stone is inscribed (which you can't see) with a haiku: "Here, miles from Japan, I stand as if warmed by the spring sunshine of home."
We could insert 'Victoria' for 'Japan'.

Needless to say, we worked up quite an appetite walking over several acres of gardens.  We visited one of Portland's many food trucks for lunch.

Here you see 'The Kindergartner' - Tillamook Cheddar on sourdough bread with fresh apple slices.  What a great idea - fresh apple slices tucked into a grilled cheese sandwich.

After lunch it was time to visit Powell's Bookstore.  Ed showed great restraint and bought just 2 books.  I bought a travel book - Europe by Eurorail - in preparation for our next holiday?  As well as a few other souvenirs.

We also visited another one of Portland's treasures - Voodoo Donuts.

There is usually a long line up around the block of folks waiting to get their sugar fix, but today it was only a short line up and it only took 15 minutes to get inside the door.  They have so many different donuts to choose from it was hard to make up our minds.  The Cyclist donut looked tempting, but we went with

the tradtional glazed raised donuts.  The taste took me back to my school days when we used to have 'hot dog day' and the glazed donuts that would accompany them.

Keeping with our international theme for dinner, Ed and I selected Swedish cuisine.  There is an Ikea about a 10 minute walk from our hotel and the catch of the day was salmon fillet.  Perhaps not one of Portland's culinary secrets, but when you're on a holiday, any place where someone else is doing the cooking is fine with me.

Tomorrow we say 'Good bye' to Portland and get back on the road to Whidbey Island, Washington.

Ocean Shores to Portland should only take 3 hours.  That is if you don't stop along the way, or get side tracked or re-routed because of a crash on the I-5.  All of the above happened to us on the drive today.
First stop was in Aberdeen, the home of Kurt Cobain.  Who knew that Ed was a fan?  We heard that there was a statue of him in the Aberdeen Museum.

The museum was worth a stop even without the tribute to Kurt. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg

They have a very good collection of memorabilia from early days in Aberdeen. 

 http://www.aberdeen-museum.org/exhibits.htm

It was now time for our mid-morning coffee & muffin and with the temperature now in the high 20's, we found an air conditioned Starbucks.  The first one we have seen since arriving in Washington! 

After a refreshing break, back on the road.  Thank goodness for A/C.  Most of our road trips take Ed and I down the same road - Memory Lane - we spend a lot of time reminiscing about the holiday car trips we took with Natalie and Emily.  The trip we took to the Oregon coast and Portland in 1990 comes to mind.  A 1981 Toyota and no air conditioning (and no laptop or Blog).  

Our route to Portland was along Highway 12 connecting with the I-5 and then on to Portland. We arrived at the ramp to the highway only to find that it had been blocked off. We could see the traffic backed up along the freeway and nothing was moving.   A logging truck overturned on the freeway and spilled its load. The southbound freeway was blocked for a couple of hours. Fortunately there were no fatalities. We kept driving along Hwy 12 east and soon came to a convenience store.  There was a table, a bench and shade in the front and thought that this would be a good time to have our lunch, and to see if could wait out the delay. The friendly attendant gave us directions to an alternate route and after our rest stop we were back on our way.

We arrived safely in Portland and our hotel the Hyatt Place at 3pm.    Temperature 34C!  

We stayed at this hotel on our last visit to Portland in 2012 and were looking forward to staying in the spacious room that awaited us.

After a short rest, we were soon on our way into town aboard the MAX light rail line.  We were happy to ride in air conditioned comfort and not deal with the rush hour traffic.

Dinner tonight was at Mama Mia's Trattoria.  Penne pasta and a local ale for Ed and I had a glass of Chianti and the cioppino.  Delicious food and great service.  We would recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for Italian food - and they can do GF.

After dinner we took a stroll through Macey's.  We we came out of the department store we were drawn up the street by the sound of music.  We came to Pioneer Courthouse square and the Oregon Crusaders giving a free performance as a preview to their summer tour.  A Drum and Bugle corp made up of 200 students.  It was quite a performance.

We took the train back to our hotel.  The stop for our hotel is Cascade Station and it is directly across from Cascade Station Shopping Centre, home to Starbucks, Banana Republic Factory Store, Ikea and YoCream frozen yogurt.  A cool, sweet treat to end a very warm day in Portland.

Ed and are off on another holiday.
We had been planning on taking a road trip for several months, but couldn't make up our minds on where to go.  Finally on Friday we decided on returning to Portland. In 2012 we drove along the Oregon Coast turning inland to Jackson.then Bend and ending up for 2 nights in Portland.  We really enjoyed the city so made some reservations and are now on our way.

On this trip we have decided to go down the Washington coast before continuing to Portland.

We had a smooth sailing aboard the Coho, arriving in Port Angeles at noon.  After filling the tank with gas (1.47 US/gal - $1.24Cdn/l-premium), we were on our way.
We had a very nice drive.  The first 100km was like driving from Port Alberni to the Tofino/Uculet junction.  The second 100k was like driving from Tofino to Uclulet.  We had a pull-over at a beautiful beach, Ruby Beach, and you would have thought you were in Tofino - except for the rocky beach.  

Our first night is in Ocean Shores.  Ed and I were here 34 years ago on a belated honeymoon.  Neither of us remember which hotel we stayed in, only that it had a nice view of the beach.  Lots has changed in 34 years (including me and Ed) but the hotel we are in does have a nice view of the beach.

For dinner we thought that seafood would be fitting. In our search for restaurants, we found the Galway Irish Pub.  What  better way to relive our Gaelic Getaway of last year than with a pint of ale and some delicious Irish soda bread.  Ed had a so, so burger and I had a very tasty clam chowder.  Though the decor was somewhat dated, we both agreed that we would have had to go back to Ireland to hear the music that they were playing there tonight.

Driving and navigating is tiring business, so it is an early night before we are back on the road tomorrow.