Road Trip! Day 1 & 2

Day 1: On The Road

First thing we needed to do: pick up the rental car. We didn't want to put upwards of 2,000 miles on either of our cars, plus we got an awesome deal through Joe's work. We started out with an Impala, but decided it didn't have good gas mileage. Then we switched for a Nissan Versa, but after driving it for a few blocks, Joe decided it was too small and while I went home to finish packing, he returned to the lot to switch for *third time's a charm* a Corolla.

We had planned on leaving town by noon, but we were finally on the road by 1:30. We decided we would drive to Portland the first day, so we drove straight through - it only took about 9 hours. We stopped along the way to see the beautiful Lake Shasta.

Joe drove most of the way, but about an hour or so out of Portland I took my turn until we got to our motel for the night. Thanks Motel 6 for always keeping the light on for us!

Day 1 - View of Lake Shasta, CA

Day 2: Green, Green and....Blue

We had originally planned on trying to wake up before 7:30 so we could make the 12:00 ferry out of Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, British Columbia. We woke up a little bit late, but managed to make it to Port Angeles on time.

Washington is a beautiful state - I guess you have to put up with the gloomy weather to have a gorgeous landscape! It was gray and misty our entire drive through Portland to Port Angeles. 

I told Joe I was excited to go to Port Angeles because it was where vampires lived. (Clearly, I was kidding, but it didn't stop the Twilight jokes all day, nor my taking a picture of the sign for Forks, which is where we all know Edward Cullen lives....hehehe.)

We ended up on the "waiting list" for the 12:00 ferry, and didn't make it on that boat. They let us park our cars to get ready for the 4:30 ferry and then we wandered around the little town on foot. First we stopped for a bit of lunch at a cute Chinese food place - note picture of my empty Hot & Sour soup bowl. 

Then we found a fantastic little antique shop where we fell in love with an antique secretary desk. Two problems: 1. it was too tall to fit in the corolla, and 2. what in the world were we going to do on a ROAD TRIP with a secretary desk in the backseat. I guess it wasn't meant for us, but we did find a hidden gem: a Mickey Mouse comic from 1970 from Italy. Joe laughed as I tried to pronounce the words, but he diligently translated for me as we read it in the car later waiting for the ferry. 

Day 2 - Waiting for the ferry in Port Angeles, WA

We got on the 4:30 ferry in Washington and were in Canada an hour and a half later. The customs agent in Canada did not give me a stamp in my passport (that's twice I've been to Canada with NO stamp!) and smiled when I told him I was a first grade teacher. 

After checking into our hotel, we explored downtown Victoria and stopped at the famous Fairmont Empress Hotel's Bengal Lounge for drinks! A grapefruit cosmo for myself and a mojito for Joe :)

Day 2 - Aboard the ferry, nighttime in Victoria, BC

Read about our next day in Victoria and our first night in Seattle soon! (Oh my goodness, you won't want to miss the story about the 1am ferry to Seattle!)