Sometimes you just need to reset your entire brain. Turn it off and turn it on again and see what comes up. So on August 2nd, we left. WE just left. We decided to leave….. after a year and a half of covid and then the 2 weeks of being UNDER THE heat dome and then another month of smoke and fear of fire. We decided that we had built our home as fire proof as we could and there was little we could do here anyways ……. other than go MAD……😤

We packed up motorhome and drove down to the Olympic peninsula, and …. rebooted. Tried to find that place of mind that we always get to when we go away in the winters, where all we really need to worry about is …. where we are going to camp today, what will do DO today and what we will have for supper.

Because it was peak of summer, we could not find a camping spot anywhere, and Tucker gets so pissed at all the other dogs in campgrounds anyways…. so we dry camped, which Ken has us set up for in this new RV. We have enough solar to be able to run the CPAP (Ken’s) all night and have plenty left over for charging things and lights. No Air-conditioning though, which was only an issue one night. There was a heat wave while we were down in Washington and coastal towns that usually never get that hot, were well over 35 C 95F….. But we have resolved that we could rectify that easily by getting a small fan, just to move air. The nights were cool.

We were able to travel down to Washington, because we have dual citizenship US/Canadian. The US border is closed to people from Canada and Mexico driving across border, but flying is totally open. Seems kind of crazy. We were not even asked about Vaccination or covid tests. We camped for the most part at Casinos. No booking required, and long as you are self contained, people just seem to come and go as they wish. You DO have to check in with the casino and some places you had to get a “rewards card”. I usually (purely out of obligation)went into casino and “parted with some money” 🙂 for our camping. WE WERE impressed that being on indigenous lands, they were quite strict about masks. I read somewhere that First Nations have the highest rate of being fully immunized.

Our destination was La Push, a place we DID have a reservation on the western coastal side of the Olympic penninsula. It is a First Nations resort area, and they were VERY strict about masks, because they had been closed down for a year because of covid. Many lives and livelihoods would be affected by an outbreak.

These are Poppy Jasper, the rocks that are unique to the olympic penninsula. The way that the different coloured minerals settle creates a lovely poppy appearance which is accentuated with polishing them (with tumbler).

These are turtle rocks, another stone found primarily on the olympic penninsula. They ALSO polish up nicely, and I am hoping to put the poppy jasper and the turtle rocks into the floor design. (they match my cabinets 🙂)

Thanks to the rock books we were able to find many lovely beaches that were empty except for us and a few other rock hounds.

This was a scene I thought I captured on camera, on a farm, in a rural area. After I watched for awhile, I realized that both of them were statues…. ODD place to have statues this perfect.

OH and beer….. the Pacific Northwest is known for the beer, so we filled our growlers (a few) times.🐅

These are called concretions…. rock has formed around bits of grass or something and formed these symmetrical shapes. The beaches north of Port Angeles were covered with them, very interesting, some of them that had worn away had crystals in them.

Tucker is NOT a water dog, but just wandered out during the heat wave.

We USUALLY travel in the winter, and the tides tend to be higher in the winter, and lower in the summer, so in the summer THESE are the kinds of things we get to see with the low tides.

We DO love the ocean, and we found ourselves wondering what we are doing living where we are. There seems to be no signs that, despite the horrendous summer we have had, that anyone is willing to do anything to alter the course of climate change. So we will likely continue to have very hot, very smokey summers. The almighty dollar will always win. We are about to have a federal election and there is very little talk about climate change…… SO we did find ourselves looking at places we might dream of living. We are like that. We do those kinds of things, I guess it goes along with the vagabond way we are.

I just LOVE these HUGE barnacles.

We got home a week ago, we had to get covid tests and fill out all of our info on arrivecan app. The covid test was $189 each and it was hard to find a place that we could get the test. The results took about 36 hours.(we found a lab called anylabtestsnow……)

Many years ago we went to a medical conference that was geared for physician health. They introduced us to a concept that we were just reminded of on this trip. TARZAN HOLIDAYS. Tarzan never let go of the “rope” before he had another one to grab onto. The suggestion was that you never come home from a holiday until you have planned the next one. SOOOO we have booked our next trip a month after we got home from this one, and will be back on the olympic penninsula soon.

Oh and ONE more thing. I turned 65 on this trip and decided to make the day special, I would get a hair cut. I have not had a proper hair cut in over 2 years. (I have been cutting it myself). I found a very lovely salon in La Conner and had a wonderful visit with a stylist whom I just loved. I have decided that I am going to go to La Conner for my haircuts from now on.

Back in BC…. we encountered very heavy smoke on the Coquihalla, and even donned our N95 masks. But by the time we got home our lake has cleared out and we have had great clear skies since.

We have been home a week now, I am back to work and mask mandates have been implemented. I am totally appalled at the number of people still wishing to work in LTC (with the most vulnerable people) who have not been vaccinated. MORE ON THAT IN NEXT BLOG

Much love to all, Janet, Ken and Tucker the OCEAN dog.