The Stelzle's Trailer Travels: July 4,5 & 6: Victoria

The Nalley's Officer's Housing. Anyone bring a banjo?

(Jake's camp buddies)

The last day of the cruise was spent on board until arriving in Victoria for the evening. Jake and I slept in while the rest of the gang took a guided tour of the "underbelly" of the ship. It is amazing to think about how the boat functions, from the laundry facilities, crew quarters, kitchen, etc, so they got to see much of the behind the scenes stuff. Jake had his last day in Kids Club, which he will miss! Once again, great weather. We got off the ship anxious to get to a pub for Hunter's first legal beer. He had to wait a while, because the walk from the cruise dock to the spot Kelley had picked out was long. I don't think it hurt any of us though after days on end of eating and drinking. Victoria is a beautiful city, especially in the evening sunshine. It has been nice having the long evenings. Our sunsets have been as late as 10:30pm during the cruise. It was the 4th of July, which wasn't much of a big celebration on the ship or obviously in Victoria. But we wore red, white & blue tie-dye shirts made by Kelly and Madison for the occasion. By the time we woke up Sunday morning, the "Pearl" was already docked in Seattle and they were anxious to get us off the ship to prepare for the next voyage leaving the same day. The mountains of supplies were being loaded on as we were leaving. We couldn't pick up Clover until 2pm, so we spent a few hours in Seattle going to the Pike's Place Market. We got supplies for raclette that evening in the campground in Port Townsend. We were so happy to see Clover, and she was pretty happy herself! We had missed her so much! After picking up the kyper and running out of gas, we then headed to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula where my parents used to live. It's a great town, full of charm. We stayed in Fort Worden State Park (where "An Officer And A Gentleman" was filmed). Our campsite was nice, but the Nalley's rental, former Officer's housing, was not so nice. We also seemed to be under close scrutiny by the park rangers, who take their volunteer jobs very seriously. So far our opinion is that the Oregon Sate Park system can't be beat. We absolutely loved the cruise, but it was also nice to be back on "terra firma" in the kyper. And Jake was very happy to jump back on his bike in the campground. As usual, he found some fun boys to play with! Monday was spent touring the town, walking through Fort Worden and playing games at the campsite. We had a great campfire and dinner complete with s'mores.