We woke to rain and decided it was a good day to take the ferry to Victoria, British Columbia for a change of pace.the ferry leaves from Port Angeles several times a day. We olanned to take the 8:20 am ferry and return in the 3:00 pm as we were leaving the next day. We had a bi of difficulty finding parking and when we did find a spot, the ticket machine wasn’t working. The parking lot was part of a local hotel so we ran in to try to pay inside. It was 8’10 and the boat was leaving at 8:20 a few blocks away. The desk clerk said don’t worry about paying, and gave us a pass to put in our car as he thought we wouldn’t make it any way. We sprinted to the dock and made it just as they were about to leave. Phew!
It was a 90 minute ride across the Juan de Fuca Srait. Donna spent most of that time talking with a woman she met from Minneapolis. They really hit it off and had a lot in common. We have met so many nice people on our trip.
We walked around the harbor, downtown and had a delicious lunch in Chinatown. It was a great change from our usual peanut butter sandwich for lunch. Victoria is a beautiful city.
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We headed to Fisherman’s Wharf and decided next trip we would eat there. The fish and chips looked amazing. Maybe next time we will stay over night – just for the food.
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The next morning we packed up and headed for Port Townsend. We planned to take the ferry to Whidbey Island and camp for the night there before we headed to North Cascades. Taking the ferry would save us several hours and we would not have to drive thru the Seattle traffic. We were able to get a reservation at Fort Casey State Park, just past the ferry dock.
We made it on the 8:30 pm ferry with no problems and were in the front row. The woman directing the vehicles onto the ferry, exclaimed “You guys are Mainers” when she saw us. She told us she lived in Maine for about 10 years working on a lobster boat near Waldoboro. She loved Maine but left because it was too cold. It was a beautiful ferry ride and included a beautiful sunset.
Fort Casey State Park was adjacent to the ferry terminal in Coupeville, Washington and it was beautiful. We were very happy to have a pull through site as it was after 9:00 pm when we arrived. We kept the trailer hooked up and after a short walk around went to sleep.
The next morning we went for a walk around Fort Casey. It was a beautiful spot. It was built in 1890’s to protect Puget Sound from navel invasion especially from the UK and Germany. We talked with a volunteer and he gave us a rundown on the history of the fort and the rare 10” disappearing cannons that took 100 men to deploy. The fort became obsolete with the advent of airplanes.
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After walking around the fort for a couple hours we headed over Deception Pass and on to North Cascades National Park.
