Sketchy Start to the New Year

On New Year's Eve, Kevin and I went on an adventure.  He unexpectedly took the day off and offered to go for a drive. But: I had to choose the destination.  The weather is complete crap right now so this presented a specific challenge.

There wasn't snow in the mountains, or shall I say near enough to make it worth the effort.  Crossing the border on New Year's Eve would be particularly stupid, as would be traveling to Seattle.

This leaves the coast.  It's only a day trip so my choices were limited, a bit.

I chose to go to Fort Casey. (click the link) I've been there a handful of times but as a younger person and loved it.  As one would guess by the name, it's a former military fort that is now a state park.  It's beautiful and feels a little like time travel.

It was over an hour away, a little short on the drive part, but it was bucketing down rain and windy. Because I make good choices and Kevin is silly enough to support those choices, most times.  Armed with coffee, a full tank of fuel, and breakfast burritos for Kevin (yuck) off we went.

This is where I mention that it was stormy all day. Not your usual dark, dreary, wet, beautiful PNW. Wind warnings, rain accumulations, avalanches in the mountains, and slides in some lower mainland areas.  PERFECT time to take a drive.

It wasn't bad while we traveled.  We got to Deception Pass, where I ALWAYS stop, and the rain was sideways across the bridge.  Yeah, we didn't stop.  I mentioned that we could try on the way back.

Taken through the window

When we arrived, it was raining but not bad. Not bad being on a scale of folks from the PNW. Natives don't use umbrellas, natives don't always use hoods or even raincoats.  We had hoodies and regular jackets.

Depending on where you were standing, the wind was tolerable.  On top of the fort, for example, was super windy, as one would imagine.  We hiked one of the trails but didn't go far because of the rain. There were a handful of washouts and it felt like one gust of wind and I would be in the water. We walked through the embattlements (where the guns and turrets are) and read all the signs like tourists.

This is where I say that Kevin has grown patience with my photography.  I only heard "What are you doing...oh." once.  To be fair, it was raining and windy on the trail so pausing to take a photo of a tree probably not my best idea. (but I got the shot)

Weird lighting because rain.  Or ghosts.

I have no idea how much time we spent there, between the hike and the climbing/touristy thing.  We went to the truck as the dark clouds really rolled in from the water. Kevin mentioned getting lunch and a coffee so I began to look at my phone for nearby places.  We were in an area where the service is sketchy, great signal one place and nothing at another.

Instead of turning left to return home, we turned right to head to the ferry.  Because taking a ferry during a winter storm is an excellent plan.  When I finally got a signal again, nav said the ferry was 45 minutes away, which seemed strange. Even though we both have grown up here, we had never gone this direction so we had no idea where we were, mostly. Regardless, that was too far for this adventure so we pulled off in Freeland to have lunch. We would make a plan over lunch.

After chatting with the waitress, it turns out the nav had grabbed the mainland side of the ferry route instead of our current location.  The ferry was indeed only 10 miles away.  But I hesitated. A ferry in a windstorm is not the best idea.

Because we were outside in a storm, I was a hot mess.  Between the wind, the rain, and the hoodie, I had reached crazy homelessness in a windstorm level of messy hair.  Not cute.  Before we went into the restaurant, Kevin mentioned the mess.  Knowing that there wasn't much to be done with it, I ran my fingers through my hair a few times, twisted it into an unsecured ponytail, and called it good.  Then it poured down rain between the truck and the restaurant.

So when I hesitated about going on the ferry, Kevin was curious as to why.  I'm usually all-in, despite any misgivings or sense of self-preservation.

"Are you scared?" he asked and I said no, I wasn't.
"Is it because of your hair?" he asks, completely deadpan.

I burst out laughing loudly in the middle of the restaurant.  Yes, Kev, it's because of my hair.  If people weren't looking at me strangely before, they did after that actual laugh-out-loud.

We finished lunch and headed to the ferry.  There was a minimal wait - go figure - that provided us the opportunity to watch the whitecaps.  We jumped out of the truck once parked on the ferry and went upstairs, like children.  Of course we went immediately outside because we have no sense in our heads.  In case you hadn't figured it all out yet.

I was only able to take about two photos because the wind was making holding the phone difficult.  Probably the universe forcing me to make better choices.

It's a short ferry ride so we stood next to the windows and watched the waves for just a few minutes before having to return to the truck.  Even though it was a really short ferry ride, it was still Ferry Ride.

Once we were on the mainland, it was mostly rain.  Once again, the nav added to our adventure. The freeway was backed up so they gave us a different route that took us along the waterfront.  So much more enjoyable than the freeway.  Once past all that and on the "real" way home, we stopped and got another coffee for the rest of the trip, turned up the music, and came home.

All in all, we left about 10:00 a.m. and we were home by 6:00. We ate dinner then celebrated the New Year at 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time by watching the ball drop in NYC.  Oh, and we had ice cream.

There's just something about making questionable decisions, risking your life a little bit, and going on an adventure that makes you feel a little more alive and ready for whatever this new year is going to bring.

And I got some fantastic photos out of it.