Port Angeles, WA - Day 1

Saturday, October 5

Up early this morning to catch the ferry from Whidbey Island to Port Townsend, Washington. When navigating to the Olympic Peninsula, there are two choices: either take a short $41 ferry ride across Puget Sound or drive south through Seattle on Interstate 5 and cross over onto the peninsula in Olympia. Since we were traveling from the north, we decided the ferry would be faster and more scenic.

Reservations fill up quickly for the ferry — especially on a Saturday morning — so we bought 10:00am tickets the day prior, not exactly sure how long the process to get our RV onto the ferry would take. That morning, it took us about 40 minutes to drive from Deception Pass to Coupeville, and we ended up arriving about an hour before it was time to load onto the ferry. Andi hoped we might be able to stand by on an early ferry departure, but the boat was full. So, we turned around and killed time at the nearby Fort Casey State Park while we waited for our 10:00am departure time.

There was no entrance fee for Fort Casey State Park and not another person to be seen there, so we pulled into a parking lot overlooking the water, ate breakfast and watched the ferry come in.

Before long, it was time to return to the ferry terminal. I’m always so impressed by ferries. The process is really quite easy and efficient. Cars, RVs and passengers filed out of the terminal in one section of lanes while cars, RVs and passengers filled onto the boat in another. RVs happen to be the first vehicles loaded onto the ferry so we didn’t have to wait long for our turn.

You can choose to ride inside your vehicle, or walk upstairs a lounge area with a small cafeteria. There’s also an upper deck where passengers can walk outside to see the scenery. People were quietly reading books, doing puzzles, having coffee or milling about the boat. It’s interesting how the ferry is a part of daily life for those living in this area.

I felt fine inside our RV, but as soon as we walked upstairs to the top deck and I could see the horizon moving I was instantly nauseous. The four of us walked outside to get some fresh air and that helped a little bit. It was cold and windy up there though!

The ferry ride was a short 30 minutes and I felt fine once we were back inside the RV. Strangest thing!

We were the second RV loaded onto the ferry, and the second one off! We drove away from the boat onto the Olympic Peninsula in Port Townsend, Washington. Without knowing, we expected Port Townsend to be a dumpy port town, but that couldn't have been further from the truth! Immediately, we came across some sort of parade happening downtown. Cute coffee cafes, shops and restaurants lined the streets. We figured there had to be a farmer’s market happening in town on a Saturday morning (it just felt like the type of town that would naturally have a Saturday morning farmer’s market) and a quick Google search told us we were right. We plugged in the address and made our way over to it.

The lively farmer’s market lined the street with fruit and vegetable vendors, bakery goods, food trucks, artists and live music. It was super adorable and … pretty expensive. Yikes! It was lunchtime, so Andi ordered he and I a bowl of paella, crab chowder, and two crab cakes to share. I ordered Tory and Aden a Nutella crepe to share and it cost $12! Can’t say I would have splurged on that purchase had I read the sign more closely. Of course, Aden said he wanted the crepe but ended up eating all of my paella instead.

We walked around and looked at all the products for sale, purchasing a few veggies to take back to the RV with us. Andi and I weren’t expecting Port Townsend to have so much to offer and would have loved to stay and explore some more. Unfortunately, we had plans to move onto the nearby town of Sequim to wash the RV, do laundry and buy groceries.

Interestingly, Sequim (and surrounding towns such as Port Townsend and Port Angeles) are located in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains so it experiences significantly drier and brighter weather than surrounding towns in northwest Washington. Growing up and all of my life in the midwest, I didn’t know there was such a phenomenon, but it was true! It was rainy and wet on our ferry ride over to the Olympic Peninsula and in Port Townsend, but warm, sunny and dry in Sequim.

I don’t know why, but Andi and I had both envisioned Sequim to be an adorable town. I guess it was because I’d read that Sequim is the “Lavender Capitol of North America.” We were pretty unimpressed by Sequim though — the parts of town we saw were full of fast-food chain restaurants and not a lot of unique charm. Maybe it would have been different if we’d traveled there during the summer months.

After we finished our errands, we booked it over to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center in Port Angeles. Because it’s the off-season, we’ve noticed a lot of the visitor centers and services in both national and state parks are closed or have reduced hours, and we wanted the kids to be able to earn a Junior Ranger badge from Olympic National Park. According to their website, the visitor center in Port Angeles was open until 5:00pm so we had about 1 1/2 hours to check it out.

Inside the visitor center, we collected the Junior Ranger books and walked around a bit. Andi had a few questions about driving to Hurricane Ridge and open campgrounds in the park. While he was talking to one of the employees, the man interrupted him mid-sentence and got on the loud speaker. “The visitor center is closing in 5 minutes.” I get that it was a Saturday afternoon and the guy probably was ready to go home for the day, but we thought that he was pretty rude.

We decided to camp at Heart O’ The Hills Campground inside the park. We drove through both campground loops twice before we finally settled on a spot. The campground wasn’t very busy, but the sites were short and uneven … and it seemed like we were growing increasingly picky about where we stayed with each passing day. Eventually, we picked a spot and setup for the night.

It was rainy and wet outside and we were all in a bit of a funk. It’d been a long day. Tory and I sat inside the RV and worked on her Junior Ranger packet while Andi and Aden walked around the campground to check it out. We grilled chicken fajitas for dinner and called it an early night. Unfortunately, the campground neighbors next to us partied it up all night long so it wasn’t the best “first night experience” in Olympic National Park.

Unfortunately, the campground neighbors next to us partied it up all night long so it wasn’t the best “first night experience” in Olympic National Park. Tomorrow, we planned to check out Hurricane Ridge.