Oh Brother!

And so off to see my nephew, David. David has one of those smiles that light up a room. He has a sweet nature, a curiosity for the world, and once he makes up his mind to do something he is unshakable. During his undergraduate education, he studied spiders and went to Australia (where they have some of the worst ones in the world), and from there went to New Zealand to see Hobbiton. Causing extreme jealousy in me. He is currently in medical school with the intention of becoming a physician for the underserved, and I can’t think of a better person to do that. Pacific Northwest University is in Yakima, Washington, which is, once again, over hills and valleys with unexpected and beautiful scenery. We’re getting used to long drives but looking forward to the next leg of the trip which will have shorter distances. At any rate, we reached out to David to find out where we should spend the night and where he might like to meet us for dinner that night.

David suggested the Oxford Suites in Yakima, very near his school, and Norm’s Restaurant, which sounded perfect. I booked the hotel online, and when we arrived, Penny was once again the star. The hotel management even moved their van to give Penny prime parking in front of the hotel. And when I mentioned we were there to see David, who was a student at the University, they gave me the University Friends and Family discount, which knocked a nice chunk off the bill. We’re going to use David’s name everywhere from now on! Our dinner at Norm’s was great and we had a great time laughing and catching up.

Next day, we headed to Bremerton, Washington, by way of Seattle, where we met up with my brother Ron, and Penny had her first boat ride on the Chimacum Ferry. She was a little anxious about clearance but the tide was in and it was no problem. We have taken the ferry in the past and they offered food and beverages but, like everything else, Covid has taken a toll, and only the vending machines have survived. But it was great to see my little brother, and we planned to spend several days with him, my SIL Sharon, and my niece, Christina. And not to forget Buddy (also known as Shadow) and Barty, the family pooches. Ron is one of my favorite people in the world. If I can brag about him for a minute (and he can’t really stop me) he is a retired Navy Captain, Board Certified in Family Medicine, is currently a practicing faculty physician and medical practice director for the Northwest Washington Family Medical Residency Program, and in spite of all that, is one of the most down to earth and approachable people I know. He’s smart as a whip, loves his family, and true to form, he had gone into Seattle that morning to pick up some smoked salmon from the Pure Food Fish Market, since that is one of Bob’s and my favorite treats in Seattle. And those crafty people had come up with a new temptation: smoked scallops. They looked like slightly wet pretzel nuggets, but they tasted like I think heaven would taste and we scarfed them up pretty quickly. At $60/lb, we didn’t want any to go to waste!

We had several possible plans for the days at Ron’s house, and it took us awhile to settle on a few. One option was to go for a sail on David’s boat, and we did have a nice day for it, but I am a noted sailboat puker, so we decided to forego that one. Ron’s house overlooks the Olympia mountain range, and the mountains were out the day we got there. We decided to take a drive through the Olympia National Forest to the Hama Hama oyster farm and restaurant for lunch. This place is awesome. They have covered individual shelters set up outside and the oysters are incredibly fresh. In fact, you can sit at your table and watch the oyster farmers pull them from the water. On the way back, and not because we needed any more food, mind you, we stopped at the Chimacum Café, as Ron, Sharon and Chrissy told us they have the best pies. And do they ever! You might have gathered by now that eating is one of the things we do best, and you would be right, especially with Ron and his family. And pie is a favorite of all of us. But which pie? There are so many choices! We committed to coconut cream, and decided to let fate help us choose the rest. This was the first place that we had to show our Covid vaccine cards, but we were prepared, and then we masked up. We bought three slabs of coconut cream, one slab of raspberry rhubarb, and a whole pie of blueberry/marionberry. Then we had to be dragged out. We carefully packed our pies into the Suburban, and headed to their cabin to get some things we would need for the tandem trip coming up. Ron and Sharon have a terrific cabin overlooking the Hood Canal, and we gathered some supplies, took some pictures and headed home. Ron cooked spare ribs, Sharon had chili and home-grown veggies, we devoured pie, and ended the day fat and happy.

Next day Bob wanted to drive into Tacoma to see a car museum. The LeMay Auto Museum is a 165,000 square foot facility and is recognized as one of the 10 best auto museums worldwide. Of course Bob had to go. Now I am a very good sport about Bob’s obsession with cars, and I love Penny as much as he does, but I generally get bored after an hour at a car museum. And this time, my little brother agreed to take the bullet. Provided he could drive Penny. That worked for everyone, so Bob and Ron headed off to Tacoma. The weather in the Pacific Northwest that day called for a massive rainstorm in the late afternoon, with high winds and downed trees. What we in Virginia Beach would call a Nor’Easter. So they headed off early with a plan to leave early and beat the afternoon traffic. I stayed behind to help Sharon pack for our next adventure, which was to take their Winnebago, follow along in Penny, and head down the Oregon Coast to Cannon Beach. Ron and Sharon’s oldest, Michelle, lives with her husband Matt in Fresno, and Ron, Sharon and Chrissy were heading to visit them, while Bob and I made a side trip. We planned to catch up with Michelle and Matt later. But for our first night, we were all going to camp out in the Winnebago at a KLM Resort.

Have I mentioned that my siblings and I camped quite a bit as kids? Our dad worked for the Boy Scouts of America and had several years as Camp Director at summer Boy Scout Camps. Our mom was a nurse so it made sense for us kids to go to scout camp with dad for the summers to soak up the clean camp air. I suspect those experiences gave Ron his love of camping. My sister Lynn and me, not so much. Now I will grant you that being one of only two girls with hundreds of boys during the summers was pretty good odds. And I’m sure that accounts for my unwarranted confidence in my attractiveness. But the idea of hanging out in a cabin or a tent in the woods for any length of time gives me hives. But I was game for spending one night in the Winnebago. After all, I had done so well glamping in Mt. Rushmore! So I helped Sharon pack while Ron and Bob went looking at cars.

I have determined that if there ever is a zombie apocalypse, I want to be with Sharon. She maintains intricate lists of necessities that most people wouldn’t even consider, and is even better at jenga packing than Bob and I have become, given the limited space in Penny. And she is a master at packing not only food items, but everything you need to make a meal an adventure. She is glamping personified.

Ron and Bob made it back long before the bad weather, and while there were power outages and downed trees across Washington that night, Bremerton was spared. So next day, we put the finishing touches on our packing and headed our caravan down the coast. I love driving Penny, but I sure am glad I don’t have to drive anything as big as the Winnebago. It’s like driving a house around. But Ron handles it with aplomb, and we reached Ocean Shores Beach in Washington. This is a really cool beach that you can drive your vehicle on. We didn’t want to chance that with Penny, but there was plenty of close parking, and Ron drove the Winnebago onto the beach. Of course, that was after we stopped to get fish and chips from a local restaurant. Bob wanted clam chowder in a bread bowl, and I told him he would have to eat the whole bowl, because we had no place to store it. Of course, once we saw the huge bread bowl, we knew that was impossible, so Bob and Ron decided to feed the bread bowl to the seagulls. It took all of about 20 seconds before every seagull in a mile radius was swarming them.

From there we headed to the KOA campground where we had a reservation. My camping knowledge is limited, but the place seemed very nice, although we were shocked to see that several campsites had built fires. With the pacific northwest having so many fire issues, I wouldn’t have thought that was allowed. At any rate, their fires were short-lived, because it started to rain and rained all night. Ron taught Bob how to play cribbage, we ate more food, then made all available things into beds, and went to sleep. I generally have terrible insomnia, and fully expected it under those circumstances, but to my surprise I slept like a baby, and woke refreshed.

Our destination the next day was Canon Beach, Oregon. Chrissy decided to ride with Bob in Penny and they had a blast. Bob put Penny’s sound system to the test and he and Chrissy like it loud! If you are a Goonies fan (and who isn’t?), you may know that the opening sequence was filmed on Canon beach at Haystack Rock. The rock formations on the Oregon Beaches are otherworldly, and Bob and I had a reservation at a hotel right over the massive rock formation, while Ron, Sharon and Chrissy would be moving on to Fresno. Because the drive hugged the coastline, we stopped at several amazing sights along the way. And I began to change my mind about Montana being the most beautiful state, now that I had some data from Oregon! So we had one last meal together at the Pelican Brewpub, and said our goodbyes. We checked into the hotel and were thrilled to see that we had a view over Haystack Rock.

Our final plan for the day was to catch up with Bob’s nephew, Don and his wife Sheila. Bob’s sister, Mamie Ellen, or Sis (as they all call her) lives in Arizona, and our plan is to stop and see her as we make our way back across Route 66. But her son, Don, planned to meet us at Canon beach for a quick get together. And we were pleasantly surprised to see that Sis was visiting them and came as well. We had enjoyed the Pelican BrewPub so we all went there for dinner and Bob and Sis told stories of growing up (I think Bob makes this stuff up) and we had a great time. Bob hadn’t seen his sister in years and it was great for them to get together again.

It occurred to me at this point how special it really is to have siblings. Whatever your birth order, the experiences you share with your sisters and brothers are truly unique. Not only do you share the same DNA, but you share the same experiences of growing up. You learn from each other, first learn to socialize with each other, experience friendship, love, jealousy, anger, loyalty and trust with your sibs. No one else can ever know you as a child like they can. No one else can ever see all the essential building blocks that went into making you who you are from the beginning. I consider myself pretty lucky to have such a terrific sister and brother. If you have any, hang onto them.

When we got back to our room, it was pretty hot. I like a cold room to sleep, so I tried to turn on the air, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I called the front desk, and the very pleasant guy told me they did not have air conditioning, other than the breezes from the Pacific Ocean! I have always been used to an oceanfront room having dire warnings about having the door open and the AC on, but here I am not only allowed to do that, I have to! Awesome. I can hear the ocean all night!

Our final night on the Oregon coast was at Newport Beach. We spent the night at a Best Western Plus at Agate Beach, but not before a stop at Depoe Bay and Boiler Beach. The Pacific is much wilder than the Atlantic and this area demonstrates that very well. All in all we were somewhat sorry to be leaving the Oregon Coast for our next destination: Crater Lake National Park. This park is high in the Oregon Mountains, has only a few months of no snow, and is another long drive. We almost decided not to go, but we paid for a cabin and it was too late to cancel, so onward.