| UW Move in and Olympic Peninsula August 2022 | |
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| Sarah and Robert drove down to Huntsville for one more week at Space Camp where Robert served as Flight Director for two of the simulated missions. (And he played underwater basketball with a bowling ball in the training tank.) |
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Sarah and I flew out to Seattle Saturday the 20th to help him move in. We got to watch the graduation ceremony on the plane (thank you T-Mobile WiFi on Delta). Most of Sunday we spent being Seattle tourists — the weather was fantastic (or maybe even a little hot, but a dry heat). We had a lovely rooftop snack, visited the Burke Museum and took the first of many selfies for the trip; this time, in front of the giant UW W. |
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| We picked Robert up from the airport and took him to Ivar's Salmon House for a lovely dinner. |
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The next day, we helped him move in to his dorm room (temporary for the early fall start class) and met his roommate, Ben. Ben seems like a great guy and they have hit off. The next day, we did a bit of shopping for Robert and then started to truly feel like empty nesters: he was doing his thing, we were off to do ours. While Robert and Ben learned their way around UW, we drove out to Sequim (pronounced squim) and a lovely bed and breakfast Sarah arranged. We even stopped in at Evergreen on the way to compare their very not urban campus to UW's very urban campus. After checking in, we checked out the water by the B and B before driving up the coast a little bit to the Dungeness spit. We hiked out a little ways, but decided not to try to get to the lighthouse, 3 and half miles away. |
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| While we were on the spit, we got a check-in call from Robert. He was doing well and figuring out the meal options — including Sushi Burrito, which could become a favorite. |
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The next day we headed towards Neah Bay and Cape Flattery. On the way, we stopped at Lake Cresent and hiked the short trail through the pine and fir trees up to Marymere Falls. Which was, again, beautiful. After that, we continued on the way to Cape Flattery. It is a spot I visited when I was going to Evergreen in the late 70s and is known as the furtherest Northwest point in the continental US (the lighthouse island is an island). On that first trip, my roommate, Andy, and I saw whales between the point and the island; on this trip, Sarah and I saw seals on the mid-channel rocks — you may need to check the large version of that photo to see them. |
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| From there, we drove around the point a bit to the Shi Shi Beach trail. The nice ranger we talked with at Lake Cresent mentioned that as another nice hike — and indeed it was. |
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That got us back to the B and B pretty late. The next day, we packed up (took a few more photos of the lovely Dungeness Barn house) and headed to Hurricane Ridge. While the main trail was closed (for mountain goat management), the other trails were open. Again, the weather was stupendous, as were the views. In the surprisingly warm weather, we ran into a deer happy to star in photos in a bit of shade. |
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We came back down and headed to Bainbridge Island for the night where we had a lovely dinner at Doc's Marina Grill. The next day (which started out looking more like the Seattle weather we all expect), we took the ferry back to Seattle. We headed to the MoHAI from the ferry. After a lovely lunch at the museum, we ran into this final day activity at the Center for Wooden Boats: these kids built boats and then raced around the little island next to the dock — well, if they stayed upright long enough to go around the island — eventually, they all did. |
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| The Perry the Platapus clearly showed the value of simplicity. The crew claimed first, second and third place because it took that long for another boat to complete the course. |
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After we checked in to the hotel, Robert came by and we had one last family dinner for the trip. The hugs outside his dorm after dinner were lovely. To round out this week mostly as empty nesters, when we got home, Robert and I texted during the F1 race. Something he turned us on to after watching the Netflix show, Drive to Survive — highly reccomnded.It's quiet around the house, and I think we're all a little blue with Robert off on the other side of the country. But every time we talk or text or follow his Twitter feed, he seems to be having a great time. As well he should. |
| And we get to look forward to more trips to the Pacific Northwest to visit with him. And I'm sure some of those will overlap with David Z. and Lynn being in town as well (they were out the week we dropped Robert off). |
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Vacation notes:
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