Day #32—KOA Cabin, Sequim/Port Angeles, WA-- June 23, 2011

Today after breakfast of sorts, I drove the Prius to the Toyota place. They found a hole in the side of the tire, one that could not be patched. I needed to buy two new tires . . . but, since the 2010 Priuses (Prii?) had switched from Goodyear tires to proprietary tires, there were none to be found in the area. They then searched the area for a very similar Goodyear tire, but it was not to be found either. So. . . though we have a 500-mile day tomorrow, we will not be leaving until after 3:30 PM when the 2010 Prius tires will be delivered. We must get to mid-Oregon tomorrow because Sarah must be at work at 8 AM Monday and we left ourselves only Sat and Sun to get back. We’ll be zinging down I-5 and probably crossing back over the mountains to Sarah’s on Rte 20 again. This will be the fourth time on this trip that I will have to crawl around Clear Lake and Upper Lake. 

Because we’re driving on a donut, we could not go too far afield today. Thus we drove down Kitchen Dick Road to the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and the Dungeness Spit, which curls out five miles from the mainland into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The south side of the narrow spit is closed to all public access and truly is a refuge for wildlife. We walked along the north edge of the Spit at low tide obsessively collecting beautiful stones . . . until it occurred to us that we were in a National refuge and that we should leave nothing but our footprints and take nothing but photos. We put all of our stones back . . . with the exception of a couple we just couldn’t part with. 

The spit from the trail on the way down to it

The beginning of the spit 

A stone-and-wood sculpture created by time, wind, and water

A beautiful but dying starfish

Sarah was smuggling her two stones out of the Refuge in her raincoat pockets, until she realized that the pockets were mesh on the inside and every time her jacket opened, the stones were in full view. She transferred her stones to my purse where a couple of others were hidden, so I became her stone mule. 

After spending most of the day at the Spit, we drove into Sequim and the 101 Diner where some locals told Sarah we could find a good old-fashioned burger. The diner was tricked out like a movie-set 1950s diner, and we enjoyed the jolt back in time as well as good burgers. We both had a cup of clam chowder and then Sarah had the Louie Louie Burger (blue cheese and bacon) and I had Duke of Earl Burger (cheese and onions). We were too full for dessert.

We then poked around in second hand and antique stores before heading back to the CG. On the way back to the CG we stopped for ground coffee and some sorbert at Sunny Farms. Ended up buying coconut milk mango ice cream. Much better for me (and Sarah) as I have lactose intolerance with too much cow’s milk. 

Since we’d eaten close to 3, we had only honeydew melon, the ice cream and coffee for supper. Then it was Sarah’s turn to do the laundry, so she headed for the laundry room and I sat at this computer to write up our day. 

Not sure what we will do tomorrow. We must be out of the cabin by 11, but do not need to be at the Toyota garage until 3:30. We’ll probably walk around Port Angeles and do some more poking into stores and museums.