May 13, 2013 Pacific Beach, WA to Stanwood, WA

May 13, 2013 Pacific Beach, WA to Stanwood, WA

Today was a backtrack and travel day through some of the nastiest traffic we've ever been in. Sorry those of you who live in the Tacoma/Seattle area but I-5 and I-405 has more traffic than we've ever encountered. At least it is polite traffic with most everyone doing the speed limit and using signals to move lanes. But the volume!  An accident on the south bound side of the 405 had traffic at a standstill for over 10 miles. We always figure at least with the TC if we are in one of those jams, we have a bathroom and kitchen with us!

Left Pacific Beach State Park and backtracked to 101 at Aberdeen and then 8 to McLeary. We had discussed taking the ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island but didn't plan ahead. There were no spaces until tomorrow. We should have booked a slot, driven 101 around Olympic National Park and stayed in Port Townsend overnight. Oh well. Instead we followed 101 to I-5 at Olympia, then I-405 at Tacoma past Seattle and then back on I-5 through Everett.

We did stop at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA and I came to an abrupt stop when I walked in. It was about the size of a BJ's warehouse and overwhelming. Found the tubes of desert colored beads I wanted and quickly left before I overdosed.

Best part of the day was meeting up with Mitzi and Pete Kerwin. They had come to one of our North East Truck Camper Rallies years ago. They hosted us for supper at a lovely Italian restaurant in Stanwood, WA. We had a great time chatting and sharing places we had all been. They enjoyed seeing our camper which was parked just outside the window.

We're now north near Lydon ready to cross over into British Columbia tomorrow on the way to Banff and Lake Louise. We will stop in Bellingham at the Alaska Ferry terminal to gather info for a future trip. No idea of the next time we will log in. Might get lost in the wilds of BC.