We were right about the campground reservation and were told we could either move up one sight or get a refund. Refund please. We’re outta here. There was a “RV Rally” going on that weekend. We got to witness some of the rally folks driving in. Wow. These rigs cost more than our home – by a long shot.
Jack and Trish - this is the future of the Jeep, but you'll have to teach the girls to refer to it as "Toad". ;P
We were happy to get out of there and we drove to Illahee State Park in Bremerton. We found a spot (we were one of three campers in the campground including the hosts) and quickly set up.
We never got that laundry done while at Ft. Flagler, so we located a laundromat and took our things in for an exciting laundry outing. It cost us nearly 20 bucks to wash our stuff. It usually costs me about 8. The dryers weren’t working – just cold air, not hot – and when we told the attendant about it, she wisely pointed out that the slippery fabric sometimes sticks to each other and takes longer to dry. WHAT?!?! Let me back pedal. We wear all that quick dry, UPF, blah, blah, blah stuff from REI. You can literally be doused by water and then stand in the sun for 15 minutes and have this stuff dry. When I wash clothes, I put all this stuff together so I can save some money on the dryers. They usually only require one or two cycles on high before they’re completely dry. After three 8 minute cycles, my temper was the only thing that was hot. So, needless to say, when the attendant informed us that the quick dry fabric was “slippery” and “stuck” to itself (now think about that a minute), I nearly flipped. Fortunately, all my flipping is done on the inside and I calmly told her that I would try to run another cycle and then transfer them to another dryer if need be. This would be difficult to do since literally half of the machines in the place were out of order. Nuuuuh, uh. Shocking.
We wrapped up - hours later – and then rewarded ourselves for enduring the traumatic laundry experience with dinner at “Simply Pho”.
Simply Pho is deceiving. There was nothing simple about it. The menu consisted of a wide assortment of Asian food options. Pho AND jap chae were on the menu. Wait, let me get this straight, I can have TWO of my favorite meals TOGETHER in ONE restaurant? I told Bill that if they had Pad Kee Mao on the menu I’d think I’d died and gone to heaven. :) We asked one of the waitresses if “Korean Noodle” was jap chae. She said “it’s Korean Noodle”. “Yes, but do you know if it’s called jap chae?” “It’s called Korean Noodle.” Never mind. Fortunately, Korean Noodle was indeed jap chae. We ordered the jap chae to split and we each got a bowl of pho. It was beautiful.
Rather than the usual (and very annoying) traditional Vietnamese/Korean/Thai (take your pick) music we usually hear playing in the background, we ate our pho to the sounds of Jim Croce, Blondie, Stevie Winwood, Genesis, and several other assorted artists with popular hits during the 70s and 80s. I mean, hey, you should always be reminded while you’re enjoying your Vietnamese beef noodle soup that “you don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the ole’ Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Jim, uhhh-huuuh, yeah, yeah.” It made us laugh. We’re going to go back. :)
We promptly headed back to the "house" (as is always recommended after consuming pho) and spent the rest of the night relaxing.
Okay, I wouldn’t call it “relaxing”. I tried to catch up on the blog. This is NOT relaxing. Bill relaxed, I think. I was mostly just shocked that I did not experience explosive, seat-belt-yourself-to-the-toilet diarrhea. This is what usually happens to me after pho. Or Thai. Or Korean. Perhaps I should learn that, while I love spicy hot foods, my intestines do not. Eh...totally worth it. It's so yummy. If this place had Pad Kee Mao and Thom Kha Gai on the menu, I'm fairly certain we'd move here. :)
Before we headed to bed, we took the Boys for a walk around the campground. We were told by the host that they spotted a mountain lion in the campground last week. Are you for real? We’re 5 minutes from town!?! We’ve been hanging out in National Parks and National Forests for months and when we come to some urban park surrounded by shopping centers and fast food restaurants that’s when we hear about a cougar sighting. Weird.
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