Victoria or Bust...

Okay, so for all of you who have never been to Port Angeles before ~ DO NOT go up WA-16 ~ you will not get there that way!!!! Oh man. We got to the point where you are supposed to turn to cross the Hood Canal Bridge (not knowing it was the Hood Canal bridge) and saw that it was blocked off, so we went down the road a bit and found a gas station and decided to stop there for information. Thankfully they had a ferry schedule and MAPS of the Peninsula. As it turns out, we should have taken the road through Shelton, but the google map I printed out showed Hood Canal around Shelton, so I thought that was not the right way to go. EEEIINHH!!! That was the RIGHT WAY to go!! Oy! So, the gal at the gas station told us we had to take the Kingston to Edmonds ferry and then take another ferry to Port Angeles...well, she was sort of correct. It was either that or go back to Tacoma/Lakewood area and cut across to HWY 101 from there. That just felt like admitting defeat, so we chose to go to Edmonds, but in looking at the map (which has the ferry routes on it) there was NO ferry from that area to Port Angeles. We stopped at the park next to the ferry dock and I ran in and asked the attendant if there was a ferry to PA or any other way to get there from here. He said "Nope" and promptly gave me a map telling me we had to go back to the Shelton area!!! AAAHHHH!!!!! NO WAY! There HAS to be a way! So we looked a bit closer at the map and saw that if we took the Clinton to Mukilteo ferry and drove all the way across Whidbey Island to get to the Keystone to Port Townsend ferry we could then drive to Port Angeles. YES!!! Success! It took a bit longer than going back to Shelton and going up that way, but well worth it not to admit defeat. =0) Beautiful drive though. We learned a lot about ferry travel. It's very interesting to watch the people in the other vehicles. You can definitely tell who is new (like us) and who rides the ferry all the time. Anyway, we found our way...stopped at a great little family restraunt called Traylors (if you're ever up this way. Their menu has a little bit of everything...seriously) and are now staying at the Quality Inn Uptown. We got the last room that will hold 3 people! SWEET! And there is this beautiful building from the 1800's right down the street (which of course I had to take photos of). It is used as their courthouse, sheriff's dept., police dept., and city hall, as well as a WSU extension. If you walk 50ft. from here you SEE the ferry. There is NO WAY we are missing the 8:20 sailing. Victoria is calling...but right now the bed is calling.

Night everyone.