We've Crossed the Columbia -- With Short Hair!

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February 2-16, 2006
Port Angeles, Wash. - Portland, Ore.
Mile 323


Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! See the cute Valentine I made for Jeff at a Montesorri school gathering? It’s in the shape of Matilda, our trusty VW van. Which has been running like a charm, by the way, since its engine trouble last month.

And we have finally left our home state of Washington! On Feb. 11 we crossed the Columbia River into Oregon, so the road trip is officially interstate. This is our last day in Portland, where we have been lying low for the last four days because…

…I (Shelly) got sick. Yes, the latest test for us intrepid trippers has been a cold-turned-sinus infection for yours truly. The origin of the virus is unknown, but since every family we’ve been staying with has kids, and some of them have been visibly under the weather, transmission was bound to happen sooner or later. In addition, I always seem to get sick when I’ve passed through a stressful period and think I’m in the clear. And that was how I felt after our shake-down cruise (see last entry).

One ruptured eardrum and three entire boxes of Kleenex later, I can finally breathe again after a week and half of groggy stuffiness. On my slow road to recovery, we’ve slowed down a little, too, lingering longer when we needed the rest or wanted to deepen our connection with our hosts. Without a strict itinerary, we have that luxury.

To sum up the past two weeks, we have gotten a crash course in how to be visitors. Every night of this month so far, we have been hosted by friends, old and new, who have made us feel very welcome. We, in return, are learning how to accept their hospitality graciously and how to give back (tapioca pudding made from scratch, anyone?).

That’s why most of the photos in this entry are of the people who have so far made our trek through familiar territory surprisingly memorable. As one five-year-old friend in Port Townsend said, “Why don’t you come for a sleep-over again?” That is a good question: why don’t we make the time for extended visits with friends who live across town?

From Anacortes, we bid farewell to my parents on Feb. 2 and headed back to the Olympic Peninsula, with Port Angeles as the destination. Matilda had been put on the “Jenny Craig diet” and slimmed down considerably. Jeff estimates we lost nearly half of our added weight when we decided to leave our two kayaks behind. It was a difficult decision, but they simply were too heavy—with the weight up high, where we didn’t want it—offered too much wind resistance, and were not a big enough focus of our trip to justify their coming. Matilda drives so much better without them on her racks.

In Port Angeles, we spent two nights with old friend and new mom Amelia (dad Thad was on a business trip). This was our first time meeting 10-week-old Nora, and she charmed us all. See more pix of her and us on baby’s website.

On Feb. 3, we both “went to work”: Jeff by attending a special meeting of a nonprofit board he sits on (he just happened to be in town for it), and I by going on my first assignment for WoodenBoat Magazine. From Port Angeles I took a passenger ferry to Victoria, B.C., where I spent a delightful day interviewing folks involved in the restoration of the 1897 sailing yacht DOROTHY. The Maritime Museum of British Columbia owns the boat and the SALTS Heritage Shipyard is doing the work. Look for my write-up in the Currents department of the May/June issue (#190)!

On Feb. 4, we headed back to Port Townsend for five nights so we could check off every last item on our to-do list. This included filing our federal taxes, checking in with our tenants at The Roost, installing some extra irrigation lines in the landscaping beds, picking up items we had forgotten to bring the first time around (binoculars, bike gloves), and getting haircuts at Jim’s Barbershop. Jeff’s curls were cropped and I chopped off 15 inches (donated to Locks of Love for wigs for kids) in favor of a chin-length bob that is quick-wash, quick-dry and much more practical for traveling. (See before and after pix below.)

In Port Townsend we watched the Super Bowl (go Seahawks…go, go…awwwww) with Dave, Laurie, Claire and Brooke; drank root beer floats with Jeff’s former co-worker Jean and her family, Gail and Ethan; stayed at the new home of Judy, Troy and Claire; had a sunny February deck picnic with Geoff, Teri and Micah; and spent our last night parked across the street from The Roost at the home of our valued friends and property managers, Randy and Jen (and their little girls Charlotte and Olivia).

We noted the odometer reading when we left Port Townsend for the last time on Feb. 9 and, at the suggestion of one of our hosts, will label this and subsequent entries with our total mileage from home.

Matilda crossed the Hood Canal and the Tacoma Narrows bridges on her way to Auburn, where we spent two nights with a high school classmate of Jeff’s, Jill, and her husband Avery and red-haired 8-year-old Alex. Unexpectedly, we woke up to a power outage the first morning, from one of the wind storms that have been sweeping Washington lately. Jeff got a fire going in the fireplace, and we spent most of the day “camping out” in their big house. This is also where we were introduced to Attack Uno, a chancier version of the game we learned as children. At the nearby Ikea store, we took the advice of a fellow VW van tripper and bought two big rag rugs to cover the carpet in our camper. They can be easily shaken out and washed along the way.

Which brings us to Portland. My cousin Louise and husband Josh and kids Elijah and Ezra welcomed us to stay as long as we wanted, so we parked for five nights on their big property on the southeast fringe of the city. Their wood-fired sauna has helped my sinus infection immensely. We’ve taken the bus downtown a couple of times, and visited the Oregon Maritime Museum (more about maritime museums in the next entry). Jeff also observed at the kids’ Montessori school to learn more about that system of education.

And we visited with recent Port Townsend transplants Jeff (first-year Lewis & Clark College law student), Janet, Lucy and Jake. They say hello to everyone back in PT!

Today we’re heading west to the coast, and from there, south! Until then…

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