32nd Wedding Anniversary Road Trip to the Olympic Peninsula

My parent's 1984 Winnebago Chieftain 33' motorhome at my Boise home in 1992.

When Laura and I began planning our summer vacation, we knew the time in our 1996 Safari Sahara motorhome would overlap with the thirty-second anniversary of our marriage. We decided it would be fun to retrace some of our 1986 honeymoon on the Olympic Peninsula and return to a wonderful place first visited while vacationing in our 1984 Winnebago Chieftain 33' motorhome.

We came to own the Winnebago because I lost my mom to cancer less than a year after my marriage, and my dad three years later.  The Winnebago was one of the items I inherited when Laura, Sean, and I return to the USA in 1991 after an overseas assignment for HP in Singapore.  We lived in the motorhome in Boise, Idaho as our home was being built, and in the fall we joined Laura's parents as our two motorhomes toured the Olympic Peninsula.

On the 32nd anniversary of my marriage, I also recognized that Laura and I were married thirty-two years after my parents' wedding in 1954.  Stranger still was coming to understand how similar our honeymoons were, and yet my mom never let on even as I shared with her the plans for my own honeymoon.  Growing up I didn't really know the details of my parents' wedding, then last year I completed a project that involved digitizing all my family's photos, slides, negatives, and movies. Hidden in the negatives were images I had never seen, and hidden in the collection was a honeymoon incredibly similar to my own.

Ila Jean Cotter marries Chester Allen Mack on June 13, 1954.	Laura Ann Crowe marries Dale Allen Mack on July 26, 1986.

My parents spent the night in their motorhome parked in front of my home in Roseville, CA the evening before my wedding.  Five years later that motorhome would allow Laura, Sean, and I to experience the Hoh Rain Forest and relive a honeymoon night spent at Lake Crescent.

Vallejo, CA	Davis, CA.  Dale's mom's back is to the camera, to her right is her mother Frieda Maria Louise (Hommert) Cotter, and to Feida's left is the Winnebago.

The World's Fair was in Vancouver, BC the year Laura and I got married, so it figured into our honeymoon plans.  Our honeymoon was a combination of camping using a domed tent borrowed from Laura's mom and stays at Bed & Breakfasts.  Our camping kit was cooking gear pull from our kitchen, a Coleman stove we got as a wedding present, and a couple of thin sleeping bags set atop cheap air mattresses we kept rolling off of.

Laura and I took our honeymoon in my 1985 GMC S-15 pickup, while my parents took their honeymoon in their 1948 Ford Woodie station wagon.

Our itinerary for the honeymoon was Ashland, Vancouver and Stanley Park, Anacortes to catch the ferry to Sidney on Vancouver Island, Victoria and Butchart Gardens, the Black Ball ferry "Coho" to Port Angeles, Lake Crescent, Port Townsend, Seattle, and home to Roseville.  My parents' route was Red Bluff, Olympia, Port Angeles, the Black Ball ferry "Chinook" to Victoria, Butchart Gardens, Nanaimo ferry to Vancouver, Stanley Park, Seattle, Oregon Caves, and home to Vallejo.

Heading north on Hwy 99.  There was no I-5 in 1954.	Heading north on I-5.  Excuse the glasses, it was the 80's.

Victoria, BC.  "Coho" ferry in the background.	Victoria, BC.  Dock in the background that used to host the "Coho" ferry.

Vancouver, BC.  In Stanley Park with the Lions Gate Bridge.	Vancouver, BC.  In Stanley Park with the Lions Gate Bridge.

To this day Vancouver, Victoria, and the Butchart Gardens hold a special place in Laura's and my hearts.  We fell in love with bicycling around Vancouver's Stanley Park, and in 2014 we had the joy of sharing the park with our son Sean and his then-girlfriend Madison Bates (now fiancee).

Madison Bates and Sean Mack overlooking the Lions Gate Bridge, Vancouver, BC, 2014.

Victoria, BC and the Empress Hotel.	Victoria, BC and the Empress Hotel.

Victoria, BC and the Parliment building.	Victoria, BC and the Parliment building.

Ila Jean Mack at Butchart Gardens	Laura Crowe Mack at Butchart Gardens

Fast Forward Thirty-Two Years

To celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary, Laura and I decided to revisit the Hoh Rain Forest, Lake Crescent, and venture to somewhere new, the Salt Creek Recreation Area.

Day One, Tuesday, July 24

Our three-day adventure started with leaving our Safari motorhome in Anacortes and driving our Honda Fit from Fidalgo Island to Whidbey Island an onto the ferry landing at Keystone.  The ferry was $17.80 ($14.45 for the car and driver, $3.35 for the passenger).

The ferry from Port Townsend arrives at the Keystone ferry landing on Whidbey Island, near Fort Casey.

Fort Casey Historic State Park campground.

Hudson Point Marina, Port Townsend

Once we landed in Port Townsend, we headed to the Point Hudson Cafe so I could enjoy their signature "cornmeal and cherry flapjacks".  After our late breakfast, we headed to Port Angeles where we had booked two nights at the Days Inn (1510 E Front St, Port Angeles, WA 98362).
..

Cornmeal and cherry flapjacks.

Upon arrival in Port Angeles, we dropped our bags off at the Days Inn and headed to Salt Creek Recreation Area.  The county campground was very nice, and the scenery was spectacular.

Laura and Dale Mack at Tongue Point in the Salt Creek Recreation Area.

Tongue Point looking east.

Tongue Point looking west.

Laura walking on Tongue Point.

Salt Creek meets the sea.

After Salt Creek, we drove to Log Cabin Resort on Lake Crescent and then journeyed to the Fairholm National Park Service campground at the west end of the lake.  Laura and I tent camped at Fairholm on our honeymoon in 1986, and we return in 1991 in our Winnebago motorhome.  It was surprising as we drove past all the campsites that we didn't find a single site suitable for a sizeable RV, and yet in 1991 our 33' Winnebago was in one site and Laura's parents' 31' Bounder was in another.  I wonder if the Park Service reconfigured some of the sites because RV reviews of Fairholm today say it can only handle RV's under twenty-five foot.

Lake Crescent view from 48°04'24.30" N   123°46'24.31" W on the east side of the lake.

Dale Mack at Lake Crescent.

Day 2, Wednesday, July 25

Port Angeles to the Hoh Rain Forest is a one-way trip of 88 miles and roughly two hours in travel time.  We packed a lunched and headed west.  The stretch of Hwy 101 running past Lake Crescent was being repaved.  Vehicles only got through in escorted caravans, and the typical wait was twenty minutes.  The Hoh Rain Forest had the slowest ranger on the planet.  The single ranger had things so backed up, that it took thirty minutes and $30 to get into the park. Once inside it was a quick drive with no waiting to the visitor center.

Laura hiking the "Hall of Moss" trail in the Hoh Rain Forest.

Hall of Moss.

Ferns on the "Hall of Moss" trail.

One of many trees brought down by the wind.

Hall of Moss

Day Three, Thursday, July 26

Thursday was the actual day of our wedding anniversary.  The unseasonably warm weather continued as we enjoyed a sunny day.  Our return ferry to Whidbey Island was reserved for later in the day, so we slept in before getting ourselves together and heading back to Port Townsend.

It had been two years since we last visited Port Townsend.  The main street through the Victorian old town section had seen a lot of improvements from intersection plantings to sidewalk replacement and widenings.  One of the improvement casualties were some mature trees that provided shade on sunny days.

2015	2018

2015	2018

Laura with a new blue & white find in Port Townsend.

It had been a wonderful three days reliving memories and making new ones.  We had done a lot of walking to the sound of waves, amongst towering trees hundreds of years old, and over streets that echoed another time.

Live well, Laugh often, Love much