escape from the city

Fall is definitely here. And I love it!

Since the end of August, every weekend has revolved around R's move, buying furniture for his new place, and running errands. It finally took a toll on the both of us, so when we woke up early Sunday morning, saw the sun breaking through the morning fog, R suggested we put everything aside and take a day trip to the Peninsula. Yippee!

We loaded up the dogs in the back of my Jeep and headed for the ferry. No real schedule, no real itinerary...just enjoy the day. Crisp air, blue skies and a slight breeze.

We arrived to Kingston and started to make our way up toward Port Townsend, where R's second cousin lives. On the way there, we stopped in Port Gamble at a quaint Sunday Farmer's market. The fresh fruit was incredible -- plums, nectarines, peaches. They had cut up samples by each of the boxes of fruit. We feasted on the samples, walked around the rest of the market and then bought some sweet nectarines for the road.

Back on the road, we listened to the iPod, sang along and marveled at the changing colors of the leaves on the trees. Two lane highway with hardly a soul on the road. I could live out here -- ok, maybe have a vacation home out here. :)

I've never been to Port Townsend before, so this was a real treat for me. Cute seaside town with lots of little shops and restaurants, and what seems like a million little churches on every corner.

It was well past lunchtime and we'd only had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, so we stopped at a small tavern overlooking the water. A German singing and performing group had arrived just before us, taking up most of the bar. R and I sat outside and quickly realized that our waitress and the kitchen were overwhelmed with the large group, so in the interest of eating we ordered some soup and went on our way.

The dogs had been real troupers, and they needed a break, so we took them out of the car and walked them by the shops in town. As we were heading back, I saw a familiar face -- a colleague from my former job. Said hello for a few minutes and then mosied back to our next stop -- Fort Warden.

It's an old Navy post, I believe. There was beach access, and so we took the dogs down to the beach. It's the first time Beaux has ever been to the beach. Once we got to a place where there wasn't anyone else, we let the dogs off leash and they romped around in the water in the sand. Sadly, we left the camera in the car, and didn't get a chance to capture the memories.

A last ditch effort to get some pictures, R walked back to the car to get his camera and we attempted to take a self portrait of us and the dogs. Yeah, that was a fantastic idea. Wet, sandy dogs jumping all over us and we try to get them to pose on the rocks with us. Not happening. :)

It was nearing 6 pm, and R's cousin Julie wanted us to stop by before we headed back home. We had a lovely visit with them. Their home overlooks the Sound and it was incredibly serene on their front deck. We'll be back to visit them in a few weeks when they hold an annual Pumpkin Carving extravaganza for their extended family.

By the time we left their house, it was getting dark, we were famished and knew that we had to make a dash to catch the return ferry. I pulled out the iPod again and started playing old 80's songs so that R could guess the name of the song and the artist. That pretty much kept us entertained all the way home.

We got to the ferry line and the back up was insane. With the car in line for a ferry that was to depart 45 minutes later, we walked over to a small bar, ordered and quick dinner and chowed down. I, of course, was paranoid that they'd start loading the cars on the ferry while we were in the restaurant, so I was anxious to get back. From the restaurant window, I saw cars unloading and tail lights moving, and so I tracked down our waitress, paid the tab and we ran back to the car. Only to find out that the earlier ferry had been late and we were no where near loading.

R was bummed because I'd rushed him out of the restaurant, so he'd left the rest of his burger behind. And only having soup for lunch, he was still hungry. Fortunately, our ferry wasn't too far behind and we were able to get loaded pretty quickly.

We finally got home around 10 pm and crashed.