Blogs from Tacoma, Washington, United States, North America - page 2

I am now a week from departure. As of Thursday of this past week I had experienced my first trial of the Camino. If its any indication of arranging transportation in Europe boy am I in trouble! I have been trying for well over a week to book my train from Barcelona, Spain to Bayonne, France and then from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied de Port where I actually start the physical Camino de Santiago. The piece from Bayonne to St. Jean was not the problem, but the longer first leg was! Rail Europe kept saying tickets weren't available or some other problem and I would need to call. Every other online service I used kept routing me back to Rail Europe where I got that same response over and over again. Finally this past Thursday ... read more

Spent a whole 2 hours moving from our Silver Cove camp to the new camp at Fort Lewis. Once we were set up in camp we headed to the BX and Commissary to stock up. We figure we won't be at a military base again until we hit Fairbanks which will be a month from now. We stopped here for a couple of days so tomorrow I could get my RA infusion done at Madigan Medical Center. Of course it was another day of rain and cold. Forecast tomorrow is scattered showers and a high of 59.. In other words, more of the same old sh--.... read more

Saturday 11 August After a 7 hour flight to Philadelphia and a 6 hour flight to Seattle, we finally arrived. Tim and Stacey were waiting at baggage claim and got there long before our luggage did! I still find it weird that baggage claim is next to the exit in American airports if you’d already landed somewhere else within the States. Glyn and I were relieved to get our baggage through after telling customs we had no alcohol or food when our luggage contained M&S Jubilee beer and chocolates that barely kept us within the weight limit. So concerned I’d been about the weight and had left clothes behind, that I clean forgot to check how much alcohol I was actually allowed to bring in - if any! We’d landed at around 7pm local time and ... read more

Today was another day mostly for chores and driving. At least the scenery was nice. The first notable sight is Manchester Beach. This beach is located in downtown Manchester, one of those small towns where everyone seems to own a boat. It is also located almost directly across the water from Seattle. The beach gives a fantastic view. On the southern end was something that rarely appears, snow covered Mount Rainer again looking like a white mirage. The next notable thing is Bristol Bay. The highway runs along the side of the bay, directly opposite a Navy base. Two aircraft carriers were sitting directly in front of it. Needless to say, stopping on the road to take a picture would be a rather bad idea. Incidentally, the Navy is incredibly open about this base compared to ... read more

I had set my alarm which refused to work so I woke at 7.50 which was when I was planning to be on the metro. Tahnkfully I had packed so through my last bits in the case, stripped the bed and ran. i ran though Union Station and managed to get there in time. The bus was packed so I sat next to a good looking guy (it was that or the toilet). Unfortunately I still had my PJ bottoms on (under my trackies but was still a surprise when I went to the toilet to find I was still wearing them), morning breath,no make up, black eyes and a mass of hair so hardly looked at the guy as I felt as bad as I looked at this point.I had a ginger biscuit to help ... read more