Mostly water

At each of my family member's homes where we stayed in America, there was water nearby. Mostly salt water but my sister lives by some nice lakes.

It's something I'd never take for granted (and never have), especially because of the lack of water here. Our watershed is quite near, but it's drinking water, not playing water. People in Washington, Oregon and California know how to recreate properly with the various water options.

The beach by my mom's house, where we had our family reunion at low tide. Very low tide, I couldn't make it to the water because the seaweed got too thick. That smell! I love it. Every rock you turn has crabs scurrying, and the entire time you're walking on barnacles.

We took ferries four times this trip, it's so much easier than driving around to the peninsula where my dad lives. It's the largest fleet in the country and there has never been a fatality due to an accident. They've bumped into docks but never come close to sinking. However they are a terrorist target, for a while each ferry had a Coast Guard escort. For me part of the experience is eating Ivar's clam chowder but due to corona, there's no food service: ( 

 Going back to July, we got off the ferry and as you already know, I was quite ill with viral laryngitis. We knocked on my dad's door and said, "Sorry, I don't want to infect you - we'll be in town at a hotel." 

That Super 8 hotel was a Godsend. It was blessedly cool, dark, and I lay in bed for 4 days being spoiled by my husband. Did I mention I was so ill I couldn't swallow water? But this awesome hotel had an ice machine (non-existent in Germany) so J fed me ice chips. I was so happy to have a fridge and microwave, cuz I had a 30 pack of tiny corn tortillas and a can of refried beans and that was what I lived on for a shameful amount of meals.

The root beer I drank - well, I drank so much of it I can honestly say I'm not craving it at the moment *lol* 

Culture shock. Why?

On this logging road trail system we were alone except for one wild animal who scared me a lot because I was alone and it was loud. I'm not used to the possibility of dangerous animals anymore. We spent 3 hours caching this logging road system and the same the next day, only seeing people once. It was a familiy of salal harvesters. A hispanic family: mom, dad, boy, girl, and they worked separately so they shouted in Spanish to each other across the forest. I bet they know about the geoaches hidden in there. Salal collecting is mostly illegal (and it is terrifying to horses because suddenly there's this person with an enormous amount of brush on his back, towering over his head). This family was so friendly to us. When we greeted them the father said, "How are you doing?" with a big smile. They had a key to the gate as they drove out, so I guess they were there legally. I really wish salal grew here, it's such a pretty evergreen ground cover.

I joked to my sister that Washington state is so dry now, I'm certain she could go to Eastern Washington and collect sage and plant it and it would be fine on the West side of the mountains! Really, someone should try that.

 I don't know what those white evergreens are, probably firs? They were plentiful and pretty and I wanted to take a teenaged-size one home with me. We came to a pond but alas, no geocache for us. I did dip my hat in it and let the water run down over me, that felt good. It was as hot as the surface of the sun. 

Washington state must relent to Oregon's amazing Pacific coastline in most cases (with some exceptions). This is the view from Highway 101 when you first enter Oregon, it is my favorite.

More water later, thanks for reading.