Year Two

July marked the beginning of the second year of retirement for Paul and Kathy.  Family drew us to several great events: a HS graduation party for Haily Hage (who is moving on to the UW), a gathering of the McDonald Clan and an old friends reunion.  Before we left, the Land Yacht dashboard A/C and heater was repaired and a visit to the shop took care of routine PM and a list of things that should receive attention on the next visit.  Then it took us on a voyage back to Bayshore RV Park in Tokeland the week before the old friends reunion in Onalaska WA and then to Totten Inlet to see, and participate in, an old friends geoduck planting operation.

Tokeland was again a nice quiet stay on the north shore of Willapa Bay and this time, with warmer weather, included a long walk out on the tide flats.  Much to our surprise, we learned for the first time that Jack could swim.  Previously he had strongly avoided water.  This time there was no transition - he just walked out in the water and swam - truly amazing.   Making the best of our time, we assembled a jig saw puzzle of New Yorks' Times Square, and then traded it at the park clubhouse for a puzzle we had not seen for assembly during a future trip.  Kathy continued to get the most out of our small galley with a little help from Smoky Joe, and we enjoyed a couple of meals at the nearby Tokeland Hotel.  The picture below is the view from our site at Bayshore RV Park.  Jacks first swim was out to Paul knee deep in the ocean while we were walking along the shore in the distance.  On the way back he was fifty yards ahead of us just swam across the twenty yards of three foot deep water in the foreground.

From Tokeland we drove east through Pe El to Centralia then to Onalaska.  We spent Friday before the reunion with an old friend and his new wife.  We broke bread, made a new friend and reminisced with an old one.  One benefit of RV travel is visiting with minimum imposition (provided there is space) on the visitee.  Saturday morning we drove a few miles to another friends place where family and friends made up a gathering of maybe a hundred people.  For many of us, we were rejoicing fifty or more years of friendship.

We were two days ahead of our geoduck engagement in Shelton, so we cruised 20 miles further to enjoy the waterfront at Potlatch on Hood Canal.  It was a beautiful respite.  Then back to Shelton.

After a half day of bending down to plant geoduck, we were fed well off of the beach.  It was very interesting.

Rather than hurrying back to a ferry home, we made a way point on the trip and spent the night at Belfair State Park.  We have been most impressed with state parks on our voyages and Belfair (picture below) is yet another wonderful example.