We’re back from our much-needed 2nd-anniversary-palooza. We’re well-rested, well-fed and ready to face the real world again. Well, kind of. If we have to. Ok fine, I have no desire to go to work on Monday.
Mike did an amazing job planning the weekend, which is particularly notable because he HATES to plan things. Like, seriously, it’s his least favorite thing in the world. He would much rather wander through the day and just take things as they come. I, on the other hand, feel loved and comforted by knowing what the day will bring. So the fact that he thought of activities, made reservations and generally stuck to the plan is proof that he still likes me.
We left Thursday for a couple of days in the Olympic National Forest, which necessitated a ferry ride. Who doesn’t love a ferry? For some reason, and maybe it’s just the novelty of moving a car across water, like fording a river Oregon-Trail style but modernized, I get really excited when I go somewhere on a ferry. I can’t wait to get out of the car and walk around the boat, even though it’s nothing new. Of course, then on the way back, I get super annoyed and impatient with the whole process, but that’s just because I’m usually tired and cranky. Shocking.
Anyway, the ferry ride was cool.




I made it through the entire ride resisting the urge to pull a Titanic and instead only looked off the side of the boat demurely. I feel like that was a big excercise in self-restraint.
After the ferry ride, we hit the road again and drove to our adventure of the day- kayaking in the Straight of Juan de Fuca.

We booked with Adventures Through Kayaking. They were super professional, easy-going and reasonably priced. Plus, when Mike got a little seasick (which we both totally forgot that he was prone to, but yeah, he totally is) our guide happily towed him while he gathered his bearings and gave me pointers on where we else we should explore on the peninsula.


I don’t have any pictures of the actual kayaking to share because we were too nervous to let the camera loose out on the water. They did sell waterproof cameras, but they were traditional film style, and lord knows I’d never get around to developing those.
During the trip, we did get to see bald eagles, harbor seals, Dungeness crabs and all kinds of other fantastic critters. The only negative was Mike’s queasiness- now we know that I need to add Dramamine to the pharmacy I carry in my purse whenever we travel.
However, the entire adventure ended on a definite high point- once we headed back, we found out that every trip with Adventures through Kayaks includes a free wine tasting at their sister business, Harbinger Wineries. Free wine tasting = just about the greatest thing in the history of the universe. There was even one variety- a white blend called White Dynamo- that Mike liked enough to buy. As for all the other varieties that he didn’t dig so much, I gladly helped him finish some of those tastings. By the time we left, Mike was feeling better and I was feeling faaaaabulous.
We headed to our hotel, checked in, and promptly took a really fantastic 3 hour nap. I like to think of myself as somewhat of a nap aficionado, and this was a particularly wonderful one. Unfortunately, by the time we woke up and got out the door, it was after 8. Since we were staying in Port Angeles, there weren’t a lot of dinner options left that were still open.




So we succumbed to tourist cheese.

Yeah, that’s right, we ate at Bella Italia, the mediocre Italian restaurant that was made famous in Twilight for being the site of Bella and Edward’s first date. What it lacks in actual good food (it’s not terrible, but it’s decidedly “eh”) it makes up for by sheer inundation of Twilight-related memorabilia. Movie posters? Check. Twilight-themed wine? Check. A list of daily specials that always features the mushroom ravioli that Bella ordered when Edward told her he was a vampire? Check.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel, where we laid in bed and watched CNN. For old married folks, it was a perfect night.