La Conner, WA - Ferry Cross the Mersey

‘You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.’

                                                                                                 Rabindranath Tagore

We have moved across Puget Sound from Port Townsend to La Conner. It wasn’t easy - our RV doesn’t know how to do the backstroke nor does it float but here we are. Of course, you have guessed that we took the ferry across from Port Townsent to Whidbey Island and up the Island to La Conner. A much shorter trip than circling south around Puget Sound and braving the Seattle traffic, much cheaper to pay the ferry costs than to drive around and certainly many fewer headaches avoiding Seattle and Tacoma. All great reasons, but the best - I love ferries. Show me a ferry and I’m on it. Actually, I just love being on the water and a ferry is a way to do this.

We got to the ferry about 8:25 so we’d be ready for the 9:15 but - they asked if we’d like to take the 8:30 ferry and we jumped at the chance. We had checked the costs earlier and drove over separately rather than hooked up. Gary got on first in the RV since he was big and tall.

I followed in the Jeep which meant that I got to take the pictures.

Someone was whiling away the time on the ferry.

We got to our next campground, about 42 miles away, about 10:30, set up, had lunch and headed out for some errands.

A new campground, new neighbors, new roads, new scenery, new grocery stores, new everything. Sometimes, I have to think really hard to remember where we are now and where we just were. Change is the name of the game when you’re an RV’er. You have to groove on change to enjoy RV’ing. But then, as we were driving to a new grocery store, we looked up and - there was a Panera. Oh, boy, something familiar. I know what to order: bearclaw. I know how to mix my coffee: 1/2 de-caf & 1/2 hazelnut. I love the classical music. I can feel comfort in familiarity. As much as I like change and moving around, I enjoy seeing something familiar sometimes.

We have visited many hometown coffee shops in the last few months: some cozy, some starkly modern, some with ocean views, some on the river with McCullough bridge views. Some were like Cheers where all the locals were talking about the latest wedding. Others were filled with tourists, maps and brochures spread out on the table before them. We’ve enjoyed them all but none felt familiar. Next time through, they will.

Then we began our errands and stopped at a Costco, a Safeway and a Camping World. Does the fun never stop?

Now, I’ve got to find places to store these things in our RV.

Enough said about this day. To paraphrase Caesar: we came, we saw, we bought.