America

Sailing boat seen from the Coho Ferry between Vancouver Island and Port Angeles

I don't know why but whenever I come to America, there's a big part of me that feels as if I am coming home. And that's how it seems this time. I feel very comfortable here, really alive, forever striking up conversations with complete strangers. Our English accents can be a useful key.

Yesterday we arrived in Port Angeles from Victoria. It was nice to arrive in Washington State by boat and the customs official in the port didn't give a damn about what might be in our suitcases or whether or not we had paid our ESTA visa fees.He was more interested in where we were going. And we were going to Ocean Shores through the woods. Tree after tree after tree after tree after tree. We stopped in Forks - a main location for the "Twilight" series of films that mean absolutely nothing to me.

I bought a "Forks" T-shirt and we talked to a little old lady who was down on her knees in her front garden - trimming the grass with kitchen scissors. She said her husband had "left" her two years back and I presumed this meant he had died - though he could have run away with the mayor's daughter - speeding through the woods to some distant motel in some distant city.

Deer in the dunes at Ocean Shores

Ocean Shores was an odd place - spread out amidst the dunes. So many hotel rooms and yet it felt so quiet - almost melancholy. After breakfast this morning we headed on foot across the dunes to the sea and came upon a female deer grazing. She looked at us nervously as I reached for my rifle camera. The beach is hard and never ending and you can drive your car there. Last night we watched the sun go down as seabirds paddled in the shallows.

Seabird in the sunset at Ocean Shores

On the way to Olympia we stopped at Aberdeen. We had lunch in Anne Marie's Cafe and met Anne Marie herself - a cheerful and redoubtable woman who should lead courses in customer service. Then to the Aberdeen Museum where I chatted with the curator about local history. He told us how to get to Kurt Cobain's childhood home for this demigod hero of the musical world was born and raised in this old logging town. He died just like Jimi Hendrix at twenty seven.

Kurt Cobain's childhood home in Aberdeen WA

Then on to Olympia - Washington's state capital. We are staying in The Governor Hotel and have a magnificent view from our room of the capitol building, the Capitol Lake and out towards Puget Sound. There was a bit of a palaver with the plastic room keys and finally they had to move us up to the seventh floor. Shirley is already in the huge kingsize bed while I tap away at the keyboard. Olympia seems a lovely little town and the walk along the wharf spoke eloquently of civic pride. Everything in its place. Huge locally sourced  timbers forming the solid boardwalk.

Tomorrow after more investigation of Olympia we will be leaving for Portland, Oregon and no doubt there I will once more say to myself - "I wish I could stay here longer". You simply cannot do everything and we are missing so much along the way. I just love America.

Whale watching in Aberdeen WA

My tower of beach stones at Ruby Beach