so how did we celebrate...

..our new found freedom without the twenty houseguests? We decided it would be fun to take off for the weekend and head over to the Olympic Peninsula. Having had a nice nap on Saturday morning, with nothing on the docket for the rest of the weekend except for bills, laundry and housecleaning, we packed up the Jeep with the dogs and headed over to Port Townsend.

We caught the 4 pm ferry (with an almost hour wait), hoping that the weather on the other side would be better than what we'd be in for if we stayed Seattle side. We had initially entertained the idea of taking the Harley over, but with no room at the kennel for the dogs and the unpredictable weather forecast, I was glad that we ended up taking the Jeep instead.

We rolled into Port Townsend just before 6 pm and immediately set out to find a room for the night. No Vacancy, No Vacancy, No Vacancy. Hmmm. For someone who doesn't typically go the spontaneous route, this certainly wasn't building a good case for doing this without some planning ahead of time the next time around. At this point, it seemed that our only options were to sleep in the car (with the dogs) or drive back home later that evening after a nice dinner.

I was pretty disappointed, as I had grandiose ideas for getting up Sunday morning and roadtripping around the Peninsula. Heading back home after a four hour visit wasn't really what I had anticipated. We took the dogs over to Fort Warden to let them run around for a bit and get out their pent up energy. Zoe and Beaux had a great time frolicking in the waves and sandy, while I tried to avoid their body slamming into my kneecaps as they ran laps around us.

Dinner options were a little hard to narrow down, but we came across a quaint diner off the main street, which was much quieter than anything on the main street. After dinner, we were resigned to the fact that we'd be catching a ferry home, and with one last ditch effort, Rick pulled into a gas station to ask about alternate lodging options in the area. While he was inside, the gadget geek in me came out, and I did a search on my cell phone for hotels in the area. Knowing the status of all of the places in Port Townsend, I moved on to Port Hadlock and called the first place on the list.

To my surprise and glee, the woman said they had a last minute cancellation and that there was one room available. I about jumped out of my skin with excitement, and Rick, walking back to the car, could see something was up. I excitedly told him that I found us a place, and again using my cell phone, mapped out the hotel. Twenty minutes later, we were checked in to a clean, motel room in Port Hadlock.

Since I didn't want to taint our opportunity, I didn't ask if they were dog friendly, so when no one was looking, we snuck in the crate and the dogs into the room. Not too shabby. Rick went off to QFC to pick up some supplies and we spent the evening reading our magazines and watching The Wedding Singer.

Sunday morning we got up to a rainy outlook, packed up the car and dogs, and headed back to Port Townsend for a scrumptious breakfast at The Landfall. By 11 am we were on the road, heading over to Sequim to see the sunshine and then back to Seattle via Silverdale so that we could pit stop at the Harley dealership there.

Sequim was beautiful and we happened upon a great little set of cottages that we want to stay at the next time we're up there -- right along the coast with a view of the water. We chatted with the proprietor for a bit before making a detour to the state park to see the spit and bluffs. We spent a lot of time in the car, but it was great to just check out the scenery.

We headed toward the Bremerton ferry and wanted to get dinner before heading back across, but the recommendation for a "nice" restaurant from the cashier at the AMPM was Noah's Ark, a dilapidated hamburger joint. No, thanks. Fortunately we found Anthony's at the ferry terminal and ate there. Beautiful ferry ride home -- our car was second from the front, so we had a great view as we pulled into Seattle. And despite all of the construction issues, we were home in 20 minutes.

Dogs were happy to be home and raced inside. The weight of needing to pay the bills hit me and I immediately sat down to knock that and some laundry off of the list.

Now it's back to work, reality and rainy weather. Where has the summer gone?