[Stacia] - We packed up in off-and-on drizzle this morning, which continued throughout the drive. Welcome back to the Pacific Northwest! :-) After temps in the 90's for much of our trip, we were glad for cooler, if wetter, weather.We took a bypass freeway around Portland, on a tip from the AAA trip guide. So we crossed the Columbia River on a bridge I'd never taken before. We were all on the lookout for that "Entering Washington" sign and finally, there it was! Tynor took a quick break from his Gameboy to snap a photo for posterity.
We stopped for lunch at a rainy rest stop just north of the state border. There were covered picnic tables but it wasn't clear if they would actually keep the rain off us while we made and ate our sandwiches. So I set up shop with our backpack of bread, utensils and plates and our cooler of food on the bench outside the restrooms. Lots of comments from people coming and going: "Is that sandwich for me?" "How much for a pbj?" I told one guy $50 for a ham-and-cheese and he said it'd almost be worth it so he didn't have to make another stop. :-) He settled for the free coffee and cookies offered nearby.
By the time I got all the sandwiches made and other food parceled out, I almost wished we'd stopped one last time at McD's. But I just couldn't stomach another meal there, especially after our experience in Northern California. So at least the food was good, if time-consuming and inconvenient (life is full of trade-offs, right?)
Back in the car for the last big push: through Olympia, Tacoma, and then back up good ol' I-405 bypassing Seattle and Lake Washington and onward home. We arrived back at the ranch in the mid to late afternoon and it didn't feel at all like we'd been gone for 2 1/2 weeks. It's nearly the same amount of work to unpack after a three-day camping trip as an adventure as long as we'd been on. But the exhaustion factor kicked in shortly and I knew we'd been gone a LONG time. A worthy trip with lots of fabulous memories...but incredibly good to be back too.
Home sweet home.
