The Long Way Home

First off, I just want to apologize for not being able to make it to the party at Chukkie’s house on Sunday. I had been really looking forward to seeing and hanging out with everyone, and I know that Rachel had really wanted me to be there. I even included the festivities in my daily planner, along with my many other plans, but all of my plans changed about a billion times because I didn’t have my car with me in PA last week!

Aside from driving into town with Caitlin and Stefan on Saturday the 14th and spending Sunday the 15th at the lake, I did not have any concrete plans at the beginning of my short break. I did some fun things like pick blueberries with my mom in Sequim, and go to the library, and make a delicious recipe for Turkey Chili that I found in a magazine. I did some important things like give blood at the blood drive and mow the lawn. However, I was trying to schedule the 2 things that I wanted to do the most into the last part of my PA stay, and that was when things went awry.

So, when I didn’t have my car with me my first 2 years at the UW, I would take the bus to the ferry and get picked up by a friend on the other side if I wanted to go home. Since I’ve had my car in Seattle for the past year, I’ve enjoyed the sweet freedom of being able to chauffer myself around. Ah….blissful! When Caitlin asked if I wanted to drive to Sequim with her, I was excited! Since money is tight, I wouldn’t have to pay for gas for the ferry expenses. I had planned to take the bus or get a ride to the ferry the following weekend, after which I would hop a city bus and ride it home to my apartment. After mentioning this to Caitlin, she offered to pick me up on the other side so that I wouldn’t have to lug my stuff onto the city bus. She just made me promise that I would tell her when I was coming home a day in advance.

Well, I wanted to cram two important things into my stay in PA. First, I wanted to get together with my friend Katrin. We’ve known each other for years, having danced together for a long time. She goes to college in southern Oregon and we don’t see each other very often. Whenever both of us are in town, we make it a point to hang out. Usually, we get coffee together (like last Christmastime), but we’ve been trying to work out a time that we can go hiking because we both love being outdoors.

Second, my mom and I wanted to go to Silverdale with my grandma Lemon. My mom wanted to go on Friday, but my grandma was on a camping trip down the Oregon coast, and we weren’t sure when she was going to be back. So, I called her cell phone and we made arrangements to head to Silverdale on Friday, and Katrin and I decided to hike up to Mount Angeles on Saturday.

On Thursday, my grandma Lemon got home and called us, asking if we could go to Silverdale on Saturday because she had forgotten that she had an appointment on Friday. So, I had to reschedule with Katrin for Friday instead. The news predicted that the weather was supposed to get colder on Friday and be the coldest on Saturday, so we decided to postpone the hiking excursion yet again and meet up for coffee. Although coffee was fun as usual, the weather was not nearly as bad as was predicted, and it would have been a perfectly fine time for hiking. My mom ended up going to my dad’s office Christmas party on Friday night, and we got ready to go Silverdale in the morning.

I called Caitlin and told her that I would be coming home on Saturday evening because my grandma was going to drop me off at the ferry. Caitlin and her boyfriend had called it quits the previous Monday and she and our friend David were planning on visiting his grandma on Vashon Island…and staying on Saturday night. So, I told her not to worry and I would just catch a city bus home. I wasn’t worried about my bags. My family is planning on having a garage sale in September, and I brought home a suitcase with a bunch of things for the sale. Since I wouldn’t be returning with them, I figured I wouldn’t need my suitcase at all. However, I had to pack my books into it because Rachel made me an amazing glass art piece for my graduation present that I wrapped in my clothes to keep it from breaking. I ended up carrying a bunch of really heavy and cumbersome stuff. Then, there were the purchases that I made in Silverdale. I ended up having too much stuff to carry with me onto the ferry and on a city bus. So, I called my dad and asked him to make a reservation for me on Olympic Buslines to take me to the ferry on Sunday, and I asked Caitlin if she could pick me up in Edmonds the next morning. Caitlin didn’t think that she would be back from Vashon in time, so she offered to drive all the way to Port Angeles to pick me up, which she did!

She ended up getting to PA at about 4:30, but said that the traffic and ferry lines were really backed up, so my parents and I took her up to Hurricane Ridge were we saw the cutest little fawn and some blue grouse and other deer. We left for Seattle at about 6:30 or 7:00, hoping that would give us time to bypass the insane ferry traffic. However, when we drove through the sign in Discovery Bay, it said that the Kingston-Edmonds had a 3-hour wait with a tally! We decided to drive around the canal, which was actually a lot of fun because it gave us time to talk and it is such a beautiful drive. We admired to beautiful sunset and the moon (which almost full) shining on the very calm water. It was about 11:00 or 11:30 by the time we got home!

Phew! I hope that everyone else had a good time at Chukkie’s though and I’ll will do my best to join you all next time!