(Pictures are all available in an album in FaceBook.)
Current Location: Bremerton, Washington
No man needs a vacation so much as the person who just had one.
~ Elbert Hubbard
After a busy week in the printshop, we looked forward to a long holiday weekend. As always, the itinerary was packed full and we didn’t quite get to do everything we’d planned for.
Friday night Ashley had to work, helping in the shop for the monthly Art Walk. Jackie and I went as “dates” since ours were both unavailable at the time. We stopped by to see Ashley, then went on and checked out one of the art galleries – who had an all-electric car from 1911 on display out front, how cool is that! It was featured in one of the paintings inside, as well.
Mikel made it into town and met up with us just as Ashley was getting off work so we went out for supper before heading back home.
Saturday morning we packed up and hit the road, aiming for the Dewatto River Campground where everyone had reservations for the weekend. We set up camp, chatted and ate, and then went to the nearby lake for a bit of swimming and rope swinging before the sun started to set and it got too cold.
Sunday we enjoyed lounging around the campground for a bit, including some reading in the hammock. But then it was time to change gears. We packed up our stuff and headed back into town to water the garden and repack for our next adventure. On up to Fort Flagler, which used to be an Army fort but is now a state park. Marit’s family rented one of the barracks for a week, as they do every year. We got to explore a new place and meet lots of amazing people!
Monday morning we woke up and the power was out due to heavy winds the night before (it was pretty cool listening to the wind howl through the old building as we fell asleep). While frustrating for the family reunion plans, this had no effect on the fun we had hanging out and getting to know everyone. We went for a bicycle ride, walked along the beach a couple of times, learned how to play bocci-ball and generally hung out and chatted with everyone. We feel very blessed to have found and be surrounded by such amazing friends and family. It will definitely be hard for us to leave Bremerton at the end of the month, but at least we know we have a great community here should we ever return 🙂
Ashley had to work Tuesday morning, so we’d already planned on returning Monday night. We headed back early enough to miss most of the holiday traffic. After getting settled back in at home, we sat on the roof of the RV and enjoyed the fireworks that were being set off all around us. Good shows, good view, and great location!
This week’s flown by! Ashley worked all day Tuesday (and everyone was recovering from the long weekend) and yesterday we were both in the shop for most of the day.
- Lessons Learned (or relearned):
- Vacationing is harder than travel.
- Everyone has an interesting story if you take the time to listen.
- Forming new relationships with people and reinforcing the old ones is one of our favorite parts of the nomadic life.
Today we’re packing up and heading south to Mount Rainier. Time for us to visit a new National Park! There are quite a few long distance trails that have caught our attention, but it’s still a bit early in the season to explore them so we’re putting them on the list of things to do next time we’re in the area. We’re going to explore for a couple of days and share the adventure with Jackie and Mikel when they join us on Saturday.
Exploring away,
Matthew & Ashley