Ocean mist and mossy trees (weeks 12 & 13)
It rained a lot. The water pooled under us, though we did our best to avoid dips, and soaked up through the sleeping bag where it had rolled off the mattress. We packed up in the downpour and drove right to our AirBnB in Portland, someone's cute little Japanese-style garden (complete with a koi pond) and stayed in their garden house for three nights. It was a welcome break from the rain; though we had a hailstorm one afternoon, we both missed our tent and the sounds of nature.
Portland was nice despite the rain. We mostly spent our time trying coffee shops, finding the types of food we were craving, and stopping in some cool vintage/second hand stores. We did check out a little home museum we'd seen a listing for on the Atlas Obscura: the Zymoglyphic Museum. The owner and artist (though he humbly refuses to call himself one) kindly scheduled a visit on a day he is usually closed; we both thoroughly enjoyed his collection and assemblage of weird and wonderful odds and ends. His marvelously surreal scenes were all very intriguing. It wasn’t a style that everyone would enjoy, but then again, what is?
Portland was nice despite the rain. We mostly spent our time trying coffee shops, finding the types of food we were craving, and stopping in some cool vintage/second hand stores. We did check out a little home museum we'd seen a listing for on the Atlas Obscura: the Zymoglyphic Museum. The owner and artist (though he humbly refuses to call himself one) kindly scheduled a visit on a day he is usually closed; we both thoroughly enjoyed his collection and assemblage of weird and wonderful odds and ends. His marvelously surreal scenes were all very intriguing. It wasn’t a style that everyone would enjoy, but then again, what is?
We spent some time thinking about the last leg of this portion of our trip. We were a bit ahead of our flexible schedule, but we did have flights to work around (one final trip to LA for our friends' birthdays); after much figuring, we decided to spend only 10 days on Vancouver island, then come back to Seattle for our flight.
The rain only cleared up once we were halfway across the Juan de Fuca strait, the narrow channel separating Washington from Vancouver Island. In Victoria, I was able to take a break from my usual job as navigator as Luis showed me around his old home town.
We spent a few nights in Victoria with some friends, detoured north to Nanaimo via Duncan (which has a great collection of totem poles), then drove south and camped on Sombrio beach for five nights. The weather was mostly clear with ocean mist mornings; the beach was full of scurrying creatures. Mice by night and shy raccoons, big hairy spiders ducking out of sight by day, and purple crabs in the boulders at low tide. I spent a good deal of time exploring the miniature worlds of tide pools; our best find was a small bright orange/red starfish, but we didn't pause for a picture. It was stranded on the beach, so we got it back into the water without delay.
The rain only cleared up once we were halfway across the Juan de Fuca strait, the narrow channel separating Washington from Vancouver Island. In Victoria, I was able to take a break from my usual job as navigator as Luis showed me around his old home town.
We spent a few nights in Victoria with some friends, detoured north to Nanaimo via Duncan (which has a great collection of totem poles), then drove south and camped on Sombrio beach for five nights. The weather was mostly clear with ocean mist mornings; the beach was full of scurrying creatures. Mice by night and shy raccoons, big hairy spiders ducking out of sight by day, and purple crabs in the boulders at low tide. I spent a good deal of time exploring the miniature worlds of tide pools; our best find was a small bright orange/red starfish, but we didn't pause for a picture. It was stranded on the beach, so we got it back into the water without delay.
The seals barked in the mornings, and we spotted at least one otter gliding through the kelp. Stellar's Jays would come around cleverly trying to steal food scraps, and one evening, just as we had finished roasting potatoes and peppers with herbs and garlic on our campfire, a neighbour came by to warn us of an approaching black bear. Sure enough, he was wandering over following his nose...we decided to eat as fast as we could and burn the evidence. A few people left, but we weren't too worried; there were a lot of people camped on the beach for the long weekend, and everyone was alert. The bear ended up detouring back into the woods to check out the first stack of bear boxes while people rushed down the beach to hide their food in the ones farther away.
We had another unwanted visitor: a mouse had gotten into the car and decided to start a nest right on the car battery. Luckily, it seems that it had also gotten back out; we took everything out of the car, re-sorted it, and re-packed it. It was about time we did, too!
After a bit more exploring in the forests around Port Renfrew, we boarded the ferry back to Port Angeles, heading to Seattle for our flight, and a long weekend in LA. Once there, we split our time between our friends' place in town and the house they rented in Malibu for the birthday party, where we saw pelicans and parakeets, dolphins catching fish in the shallows, seal lions, and even a whale and her calf swimming by close to shore!
We had another unwanted visitor: a mouse had gotten into the car and decided to start a nest right on the car battery. Luckily, it seems that it had also gotten back out; we took everything out of the car, re-sorted it, and re-packed it. It was about time we did, too!
After a bit more exploring in the forests around Port Renfrew, we boarded the ferry back to Port Angeles, heading to Seattle for our flight, and a long weekend in LA. Once there, we split our time between our friends' place in town and the house they rented in Malibu for the birthday party, where we saw pelicans and parakeets, dolphins catching fish in the shallows, seal lions, and even a whale and her calf swimming by close to shore!