We thoroughly enjoyed our B&B stay. Thank you to the kids for the gift certificate. We toured the shops, restaurants, the Rose theater and Fort Worden. Our stay was at the Blue Gull Inn. Cozy, quiet, comfortable, excellent breakfasts and a jacuzzi tub. Clam chowder at Fins ($12) was superb. They use butter clams, shell and all and it is really really good. Of course, we also had salmon and shrimp and wine and a real big check. Ice cream at Elevated Ice Cream Co. was nice. Macadoo's Barbecue is just like in Tennessee. They have catfish and hush puppies!!! We [View Full Entry]

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Washington's incredibly bipolar spring weather teased us with another glimpse of the elusive sun this weekend. Thankfully we were in a perfect place to enjoy this rare scrap of warm weather-the Olympic Peninsula. My parents moved back to Sequim after years of restlessly circulating around the U.S. and now occupy the house that once belonged to my grandparents. Despite leading what I feel to be a rather nomadic existence, the Olympic Peninsula has been one place I have returned to frequently. Port Townsend in particular is a great town. Discovered by the western world during one of Captain Vancouver's exploratory journeys [View Full Entry]

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Here is a lovely spring visit to the Olympic Peninsula, west of Seattle, WA, USA. We enjoyed this special time with our daughter, two grand-daughters and many 'critters' but mainly dog Shadow and the cats. I show a few of the neat things we saw and enjoyed there. Tami is a young widow, for nearly 5 years now, and she has raised her three daughters through high school and out into the world. She is ready to return, herself, to univsersity to get her degree and become a teacher. All of these changes require much effort and we spent two weeks [View Full Entry]

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Some in Port Hadlock, others on ferries and across WA to Idaho and nearing the Canadian border [View Full Entry]

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June 10, 2007 At home in Port Townsend, Wash. Approx. 6 months after our return The following letter was mailed in April to the 160 families we came into contact with (!) on our trip. It's been updated through June 2007 and, along with a separate entry detailing our trip statistics (see Final Trip Stats), is intended to be the final entry of this epic travel blog. Thanks for following along! 2006 was a life-changing year for us, and we will always remember your role in it. We write to update you on the conclusion of our round-the-continent road trip [View Full Entry]

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"WALTZING MATILDA" TRIP STATISTICS • Spent 300 days on the road. • Visited 41 states, 5 provinces. • Spanned 20 degrees of latitude and 62 degrees of longitude. • Put 26,225 miles on the odometer. (Link to Wayfarer route map with cities and states identified.) OUR VEHICLE • Gas mileage: appr. 20 mpg. • Estimated gallons of gas: 1,300—a 747 could fly only about 25 minutes on this much gas! • Estimated amount spent on gas (average $3/gal., which included higher Canadian prices): $3,900. • Number of oil changes: 8. • Number of mechanic shops Matilda visited: 5 (in Blaine, [View Full Entry]

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Who knew that one could ride out of one's driveway in Vancouver, BC in the morning and be in Bellingham, Washington in time for 3 o'clock tea? Well, that was DAY 1 of the great cycling journey to San Francisco. I arrived back in Vancouver on Wednesday (from Thailand) and we started riding on Sunday morning. So basically I had time to unpack, do laundry, eat and sleep a lot, get bike road-ready, re-pack and go. As anyone who has been following my blogs already knows, I have not been doing much (okay, any) training over the last few months. [View Full Entry]

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November 10 - December 10, 2006 Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah - Port Townsend, Wash. 25,796 miles wraps up our road trip 2,097 miles this final leg At 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Nov. 17, Matilda crossed into the original time zone from whence she came, and well after dark at 7:30 p.m., we crossed the state border between Idaho and Washington and were HOME! Our road trip officially ended a few days later, on Nov. 20, when we pulled into the driveway of Jeff’s parents’ house in Coulee City, Wash. We thought the Thanksgiving holidays made a convenient [View Full Entry]

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