America 2015 - part 3

On the way out of Shelton we stopped for a geocache in a lovely but stiflingly hot park. That cache evaded us, as so many did this trip. Perhaps I was feeling patriotic, taking the picture above. Did you notice the totem pole?



Seems to be weed everywhere.



Getting back on the ferry, our car won a discount for being tiny. 14 feet is not tiny in Germany, but we were happy to get it, and insisted upon our discount the next time we rode the ferry. We had a Hyundai Accent hatchback in case you have that car and want a discount on a ferry.




I loved that we got to ride the Issaquah this time. Issaquah is where Baasha lived most of his life, and whose mountain trails I know so well, I dream of riding them again someday. On this ferry we paid attention and sure enough, the captain does move from one tower to the other when it switches directions.




Better views-from-ferries to come, I liked the way the sun was hitting the water here and blinding us.




Not rush-hour ferry traffic, I love it when the ferries are nearly empty. As usual, I ordered my bowl of Ivar's clam chowder, and this year it was 5.70$ for a little bowl. That is it, I drew the line this year, I won't be indulging anymore in ferry chowder. It wasn't even fully cooked, the potatoes were hard. Ugh! I've got a New England clam chowder recipe that rocks, so I'm just gonna treat myself to that.




I wore that shirt an awful lot.



I was trying to do a photo series on textures, and this is one of them. In upcoming posts you'll see more interesting textures than this, I think.



When the engines hit reverse coming in to dock, I love the turquoise angry water.



So you can see what we were on, here is another that passed us. You can see the two captain's cabins above, and the fact that this ferry has two levels for cars. J pointed out later that the Hyak (?) , and perhaps others, have only one row of cars and two rows of windows. These are things I never noticed living in Seattle.



I have no idea what those black birds are - cormorants? Waggle-necked crows? : )



Just to make you worry as you ride a ferry, they post these disaster scenarios. Washington state ferries never crash, so no worries.



On the ferry there was a newspaper stand. I noted the headline and sighed - we planned on going to Mt St Helens, and now that it has developed the world's first non-receding glacier, I was worried about the level of tourism. I needn't have worried, it was fine.



On the ferry there are lots of tourist booklets pushing people to go see new places. I found two about Leavenworth, and since my husband was finally being forced to see Leavenworth this trip, I made him look at the pamphlet. His long-suffering look says it all. Germans don't go to "little American Bavaria."

(To my utter surprise, 3 weeks later, he loved it!)


If you're very lucky you get to see these. But also, the ferry will slow way down or stop, so...maybe not so lucky.




 
Not my photo(shop). Although we did see the incredible Blue Angels, they do not fly over Puget Sound as far as I know. Or, Orcas do not swim in Lake Washington. But whoever made this, good job on reflecting so much of the spirit of our trip to Washington in 2015.