September 11...Illahee State Park (Day 4)

(Merlin's Perspective)
Mommy and Daddy had a long day planned in Seattle so they decided it would be best to take us with them and let us experience big city life. Our adventure began when we hopped on the 11am(ish) Bremerton to Seattle ferry. We’ve been on a ferry before, but not one this big, so it was exciting to stick our heads out the window and check out all the activity.



Mommy and Daddy wanted to visit the Museum of Flight and for some reason, pets aren’t allowed to see cool planes and exhibits, so we had to stay in the truck. There was a nice breeze and we had our pillows in the back so we took a nap and spent our time dreaming about our upcoming adventure. Fortunately, they weren’t gone very long - they have really short attention spans – even worse than a cat’s!

Mommy took a bunch of pictures of the planes to show us. Here’s one of Daddy messing around and pretending he was getting sucked into the engine of a 747. Twister thought that was really funny, but I wasn’t very amused. I have a weak stomach and it made me verp a little bit when I saw it.


Here are a bunch of other things that I could care less about but she thought would be “interesting”. She and Daddy clearly have a penchant for super secret squirrel go fast stuff. Did somebody say squirrel?!??!?


















After the museum visit, Mommy and Daddy thought it would be best to just drive around awhile and see if there were any food places that looked yummy. I’m not sure why they have to drive around – we can smell the yummy places from blocks away. ???

Daddy finally found a parking spot near the Pike Place Market/Waterfront area. He parked the truck, Mommy gave us water, told us they’d be back soon and that they’d bring us a treat. Twister and I were debating what kind of treat they would bring us, but I quickly grew bored with his stupid suggestions so I told him to shut his dog food hole and go mash some grass. I have to put him in his place cuz he’s getting a little too big for his puppy britches and is trying to take my alpha spot. That is SOOO not happening. I heard Mommy say she would never let him have my alpha spot. HA! Take that little brother! Who sleeps on the bed with Mommy and Daddy? That’s right! It’s me and don’t you forget it!

Now, where was I? Oh…our adventure. I smelled a rabbit and followed the trail…so anyway…

While we were sleeping, Mommy and Daddy stopped at the Korean joint again and got a jumbo sampler platter of fried whole shrimp, calamari, spring rolls, teriyaki chicken and some other stuff that was difficult to identify.


Mommy ate the shrimp – Daddy was too grossed out to eat its head. I think that’s gross too. Why would anyone want to eat a shrimp's head? They also stopped at the yummy cheese place and got more of the world’s best mac n cheese and then went to Piroshky Piroshky for some, uh, piroshky. Actually, Mommy got an apple cinnamon roll and Daddy got a potato, onion, and mushroom piroshky.

They finally made it back to the truck and, just like Mommy promised, they had saved us some mac n cheese and some piroshky. Mommy said it was the best mac n cheese she ever had, and she was right! It was the best mac n cheese I’ve ever had too. Though, now that I think about it, I probably haven’t had any mac n cheese that Mommy hasn’t had. Hmmmmm…. No matter. It was barkilicious and Twist and I WOLFED IT DOWN. Ha ha ha ha! I said WOLF. Get it? Woof? Wolf? We look like wolves…we woof….ha ha hahaha.

So, after we had our mac n cheese and piroshky treats, we finally got to go on our URBAN ASSAULT. Alright, fine. It was a walk. We got to go on a walk.

Still, it was AWESOME!!! We headed over to the pier where Mommy made us pose for stupid pictures.


Twist wanted to chase the seagulls but I told him there was no way he’d be able to catch them. They can fly, stupid - we cannot. We walked around and peed a lot and everything was great until the point when Mommy dragged me onto an elevator so we could get to the Market. Twist, dummy that he is, walked right on. Helloooo!! We could die on this thing you moron! We are dogs – we are not birds – we should NOT be leaving the ground. It is a death trap and no one realizes this but me. Well, me and probably Lassie if Timmy was ever stupid enough to get on one of those things.

We FINALLY got off the wretched elevator and walked across a bridge thingy where we could see Mt. Rainier.


Mommy was oooing and aahhhing it. I really don’t see what the big deal is – it’s just a mountain. What does it do? It doesn’t give kisses, it doesn’t snuggle, it doesn’t sit, stay, speak, shake, leave it, roll over, find Daddy or any of the amazing things that WE do. (Chuff.)

Lots of people asked about us while we were assaulting the city. Fine. While we were walking the city…on our leashes…like common prisoners in chains…

Mommy wanted us to get pics taken next to Rachel the pig. WHAT?!?!? I am NOT having my picture taken next to a pig. THAT is DISGUSTING. I tried my hardest to escape, but she just kept dragging me back insisting that we stand next to this foul creature and look happy about it. Whatever. Just make it snappy so not too many people see us.


We left the market and then headed back down to the waterfront where we walked the sidewalk among the tourists and the restless natives. Locals. I think they’re called locals. We walked around for a LONG time and then Mommy and Daddy said it was time to go so we headed back to the ferry terminal for the 7:50 ride back to Bremerton. It was a super fun day. We prefer to play stick, but this was good too. So many sniffs, so many poles, not enough pee.

September 10...Illahee State Park (Day 3)

(Kim's Perspective)
I spent the entire day trying to catch up on the blog. Literally the entire day. I started at 10 am and stopped at 6pm. Even after 8 hours of typing, copying and compressing pics for upload, I still didn't get totally caught up. Someone better be reading this. :P

We left around 6:30 and went to the Mart to pick up bread and a few other grocery items and then stopped at Simply Pho for another round of pho and jap chae. This time, we each got an order of jap chae. The waitress looked at us like we were crazy. The guy who brought our food commented that we must have come with big appetites tonight. I snickered. Yes, I'm a pasty white American who overeats and indulges herself with two of her favorite meals at once. I was going to say "I'm not eating ALL of it tonight!", but I figured this was the last time we'd be eating there and their opinion of my gluttony was of no consequence to me. :) For the record, we both brought large quantities of jap chae home. This stuff doesn't just grow on trees you know. It's hard to come by when your cross country travels generally only take you (via back roads through podunk towns) to National Parks and Forests. What can I say? I'll weigh in when we return. :)

While dining, the music selection continued to entertain. If you're bored, here's a little lyric trivia mash up... what six songs did we hear while we were there?

The forests will echo with laughter
and will reminisce about the days of old

It's closer to the truth to say
the days go by like a strand in the wind

but one of these nights you will lay your weary head to rest
and will cry no more.

We came home and I suffered from the pho experience. It was too good to be true. No way can I eat pho twice in a matter of days and not have it result in intestinal distress. Oh well. Still so tasty. Some things are just worth suffering for. :)

September 9...Illahee State Park (Day 2)

(Kim's Perspective)
Today was spent in Seattle at Pike Place Market.




We took the ferry from Bremerton...




...and drove around downtown a bit just to get the lay of the land and to find a parking lot with a spot that we could actually fit in. We ended up at the corner of 8th and Pine Street and walked the 8 or so blocks to the Market.

Seeing it on TV is one thing, but witnessing the hustle and bustle of it firsthand is something else. If you've never experienced the Market, you need to. If you have, you know that it can't really be described - it really is more of an experience than anything. It's kind of overwhelming actually. There are SO many people and so many vendors and so many shops and so many good sniffs and so many food stuffs that it's hard to decide where you want to go and, most importantly, what you want to eat. :P

Since we had no idea where to even begin, we decided we would just wander around a bit and see what there was to see before deciding on what we wanted to eat. I've never seen so much produce in one place. It was a beautiful thing. I kind of thought it would be cheaper though. I was surprised that the prices weren't much different than what you'd find in the grocery store. Of course the one major difference is that most of this stuff is picked fresh every morning and didn't travel across the country in an 18 wheeler like most grocery store produce does.

Owners stand at their tables offering up free samples of this and free samples of that. If I remember correctly, we sampled peaches, nectarines, several different flavors of raw honey, multiple types of candied/smoked almonds, beef jerky, and spiced glazes. If you really wanted to, you could no doubt just fill up on the free samples that are offered up.

We saw some of the "famous" stuff. Like the gum wall in Post Alley,


the very first Starbucks (still using their original logo),


and of course Rachel the Pig.


As we found ourselves back at the starting point - the famous Pike Place Fish Market (yes, we did get to see one of their famous fish tosses) - we decided it was time to start buying some yummy stuff.


Knowing I would be trashing my stomach, I wanted to get something to line it and protect it from the torture that would follow. Bread seemed an ideal solution so we jumped in line at Beecher's Handmade Cheese for a breadzel.


I don't know exactly what a breadzel is, but it's really good and performed extremely well as an absorber of all things nasty. While in line, we opted to try an 8 oz. serving of the "World's Best Mac n Cheese". Having never traveled the world over, I can't really speak to the accuracy of that statement, but I can honestly say this was, hands down, the best mac n cheese I've ever eaten. I don't want to know what they put in it - I can only imagine that something that tasty had to have exceeded my daily caloric and fat intake by 150% - but man was it delicious! We picked up some cheese curds while we were there - we just can't pass up the squeaky cheese - and off we were to find our next tasty experience.

Next, we stopped at Lowell's - a well known and popular seafood restaurant.


I had seen a menu at another shop for a Dungeness Crab Roll and desperately wanted to try it. I am from Maryland after all - what can you offer in the way of yummy crab dishes that will impress me??? The answer is Dungeness Crab Roll. Pretty tasty. NOT as tasty as lump Maryland crab cakes from Mealey's (which of course I can no longer get), but a close second for sure. Bill and I split our "roll" and accompanying fries and hit the street for the next thing that struck our fancy.

We stumbled upon Dog Alley - one of a countless number of shops in the Market and picked up a much needed "Caution: This area patrolled by the Belgian Sheepdog Security Company" sign. (It is currently hanging on the front door of the trailer.) :)

Next up was a jaunt into the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. One Milk Chocolate Hawaiian Caramel Apple for me and one Butterfinger Caramel Apple for Bill. At 7.75 each, they were ridiculously overpriced - and as we would learn later - worth every penny. :)

Bill wanted me to pose next to the "Gimme Some Chocolate" bear, but I figured that would just be PMS fodder for him to use later. Nah, I'll pass.


Next up was the Korean stand for a Kimchi Wrap to go. (Eating this in a crowded market setting is not advisable.)


After our Kimchi Wrap purchase, we stopped at the Organic Smoothie stand. One Strawberry, Banana, Pluot Smoothie, please. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.


We took our wrap and our smoothie down to the waterfront and parked ourselves on a concrete wall and people watched while we tore up the wrap and downed the smoothie.



Surprisingly enough, these things went together pretty well. The smoothie had a palette cleansing affect on the post kimchi death breath. It was really quite nice.

Since the day was waning quickly and we needed to get back to the Boys, we hoofed up the hill climb and raced back to the truck to make the 4:20 ferry departure.

We got to the ferry just in time - for them to take our money and let us be one of the 5 cars in line that wouldn't fit on the 4:20. Sooo... we had to sit and wait for the 5:30 ferry. We watched a K9 Unit Police Officer play ball with his dog - I suppose one of them was off duty - and entertained ourselves by eating the gourmet caramel apples we bought while watching the baby seagull beg us and then its mama for food.


We got back to Bremerton by 6:45 and took the Boys for a long walk. We let them off leash in the day use area for a bit just to get rid of some of their pent up energy, and then we hiked down to the marina area. We chatted with some older folks who were relaxing on their cabin cruiser and then headed back at dusk when the day use area officially closes. It was somewhat difficult to see the trail as we hiked back through the heavily canopied trees, but we made it back without incident and spent the rest of the evening kicking back and watching a couple episodes of SG1.

It was a good day. I've never been much of a city tourist type, but I really enjoyed the Market - more than I thought I would. It was surprisingly fun.

September 8...Illahee State Park

(Kim's Perspective)
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.

September 7...Olympic National Park (Day 2)

(Kim's Perspective)
We woke up this morning (not early, but we knew full well that wouldn't happen) and tried to be as productive as possible. The trailer was trashy (HA!) and covered in sand, so I vacuumed – ow - while Bill showered. We had some English muffins for breakfast and left at 10:30.

The campground/state park's Ranger booth is only open 12-5 (AKA completely useless) so we crossed our fingers, self-registered for another two nights and headed to the park’s Visitor Center. There, I learned that the temperate rainforests in the Olympic National Park have more biomass per square inch than the tropical rain forests in the Amazon. There…a little educational something for the kids! Sorry if I just made more schoolwork for you guys. ;P

The weather was cold and generally yucky, so we drove around Port Angeles to get some coffee. There must be some rich folk who live around here. Note the helicopter on top of the luxury boat.



We got white chocolate caramel mochas with "beans and straws" at a drive through coffee joint called "Higher Grounds". I like the righteous sound of that. :)


The chic at the window was super nice and offered the Boys some biscuits. They accepted. I was shocked.


We drove around town a bit more and then headed into the park. (The park's visitor center is actually in Port Angeles outside of the park boundaries. Kinda weird.)

We drove through the park to see what there was to see. Neat, but not as nice as North Cascades or Mt. Rainier. So far anyway. It's rainy and foggy here so maybe we just can't SEE the cool stuff yet. Plus, parts of the park are closed for road construction. :(




We hadn’t eaten lunch and were starving, so we found a restaurant at Lake Crescent Lodge and had dinner. Fish and chips for me, wild mushroom risotto and a burger for Bill. Bill offered me the first bite of risotto. He gave me a generous fork full and I popped it in my mouth. My eyes proceeded to tear up and I quickly grasped for my water. The mushrooms were cooked in olive oil and the cheese in the risotto made it boiling lava hot. Hey, I think Mt. Rainier just blew and I caught a piece of lava rock in my mouth. OOOOWWWWWWW. HOT POOOOCKET.

I had a bowl of North Western clam chowder, which, for the record, is not as good as New England clam chowder. Of course, that’s probably not fair since half of my taste buds had been annihilated by the magma laced risotto. I had promised the Boys that I would bring them some fries, so I packed up my leftovers and we headed out. The Boys were happy to see the fries and devoured them so quickly that Twist barfed them up moments after consuming them. Unfortunately, I had fed them in the truck. Sigh. This poor truck has seen it’s better days. The word “new” just no longer applies.



Not super thrilled with our current camp accommodations, we checked out the Park’s campgrounds and then walked a short loop hike through the “Ancient Forest”. Very cool.


I felt like Frodo as we walked through this obscenely green and mossy forest. Some of the trees have stood here since Columbus' time. Contemplate that awhile...














I noticed the leaves are starting to turn.

Humpf. I guess we've been gone awhile.

We headed back to Ft. Flagler in the dark and got back at 9:50. There was a note on the door from the Ranger. There was a “problem” with our reservation and we needed to see the campground host if we got back after 5 pm. After 5, huh? Yeah, you could say that. We walked over to the host but their “off duty” sign was posted. Eh, we'll address it in the morning. Assuming the problem was that our site had been reserved and we would have to relocate, we discussed our options and started researching other campgrounds.

September 6...Olympic National Park

(Kim's Perspective)
We pulled out of Big Creek campground around noon and headed west towards Olympic NP. The weather was crappy most of the day so the drive over wasn’t very entertaining. Truthfully, this area of Washington state just isn’t very pretty so there’s not much to bother taking pictures of.


Our goal was to find a campground that could be a home base for us while we do the park and visit Seattle again. We stopped by a couple of campgrounds (Dosewallips and Ft. Wordon – where we stopped to make lunch) along the way before we decided on Ft. Flagler.

Truthfully, the “camping” at Ft. Flagler is not ideal for our tastes (mostly open, crowded sites with sand everywhere – blech), but we wanted a site with water, electric, and decent signal so I could catch up on the blog, and someplace close enough to a town where we could get some laundry done.

We got to the park around 6pm, set up and then had dinner. We took a walk to check out the area. We’re actually on Indian Island so we’re surrounded by water and are now in danger of bone crushing tsunamis. First volcanoes, now tsunamis. Sweet.




Run to high ground? It’s an ISLAND people – there IS no high ground.







After the walk, Bill utilized our full signal to do some internet research on the area while I sat on the couch with the heating pad and my Kindle. I took a break from reading so we could watch the 2nd half of the TBC on SG1 (the Season 2 finale was a cliffhanger, give me a break!) then resumed my reading until 1am when I finished. Good book. :)

We headed to bed with the expectations that we’d be up earlyish the next morning. Yeah, right.

September 5...Mt. Rainier National Park (Day 6)

(Kim's Perspective)
It rained today. Shocking. It was cold. And dark under the canopy of thick trees we've been camping under. In Stanley, we never wanted to get out of bed till 9 cuz it was too cold. Here, we don't want to get out of bed till 9 because it's still dark outside. In fact, it doesn't really lighten up unless the sun is completely out and there isn't a cloud in the sky.

Anyway, we spent the day at the campsite chillin' (in both senses of the word). Bill was braver than I. I spent the day lounging IN the trailer, he spent the day lounging OUTSIDE the trailer. ;)


We felt guilty for being lazy all day and not entertaining the dogs, so after dinner we took them for a drive (they now love to ride).

We went back some forest roads (and had to turn around on one cuz it was rough and killing my side) and then took 12 towards Packwood. There was some event going on there. Not sure what, but by the looks of things, it wasn't something I was extremely interested in.


I commented that we haven't really seen much in the way of wildlife on this trip and within 2 or 3 minutes, a herd of elk ran across the road in front of us. The Boys thought that was cool. Especially Twister who was intent on climbing into the front seat to get a better look. I have a video - it's very cute.

We took a different route home through Morton, Mineral, up to Elbe and back to the campground. Another uneventful day.

See? I told you the posts wouldn't always be very exciting. :)

September 4...Mt. Rainier National Park (Day 5)

(Kim's Perspective)
We took Merlin to a veterinary hospital in Puyallup today. He's been having issues with his right ear. I was hoping it was a bacterial ear infection and had tried to treat it with Clavamox (ran out after 2 days) and then some Doxycycline, but since it wasn't improving, I figured it must be a yeast infection so began to research local vet services. We had actually contacted a vet who was just a couple miles from our campground, but after two days of playing phone tag, we decided we'd find a vet who could actually afford to pay someone to answer their phone.

As we drove through Puyallup, we noticed a little farmer's market or fair of some type. Our vet appt. was at 2pm so we had just enough time to grab some food and be on our way. We found a dog/burger stand and grabbed cheeseburgers, chips and a Coke for a mere 5 bucks each and while we were waiting for our burgers to come up, we bought a Belgian dessert waffle and proceeded to eat our dessert before our meal. It was covered with blueberries, strawberries and whipped cream and was extraordinarily tasty.

The guy was from Belgium so we chatted about...duh...our Belgian Sheepdogs. We received a brief lesson on how to properly pronounce Groenendael and Tervuren - neither of which we have been pronouncing correctly for the last 11 years. Oh well. I'm American not Dutch and my efforts to sound Dutch simply result in me sounding like a drunk Austrian with a speech impediment.

Anyway...like any other vet visit he's ever experienced, Merlin did not enjoy himself (Sorry Dr. M but it's true). We paid the bill (OUCH!) and were on our way with what we needed to cure Merlin's ear infection.

We headed back to the campground and took the Boys for a walk on one of the trails.

It wasn't a particularly exciting day, but one that needed to happen to get Merlin back in good health.