Thursday June 30 (Victoria to Port Orchard via Port Angeles)

We were up on time today and were to meet a friend of Cheryl and Jim for an early lunch at a nearby Denny's. I had the French toast and it was very good. 

Later, we drove to the Ferry Terminal and there were already quite a few people there

We had to be there 90 minutes before sailing time as USA border security is carried out in the parking area. We had a nice guy who cracked lots of jokes and, of course, I had to answer several questions especially why I was travelling in on my British passport. The ESTA, electronic visa, is on that passport.

I walked up to the passport office and when my turn came I stood in front of a woman for a while, during this time they checked the car rego for some reason. Then I was told to go back outside and wait until my name was called. 

Finally, I went back in and had to have my fingerprints scanned as well as look into a camera. Then he stapled a paper to my passport and told me I would have to hand it in when I left. 

Apparently, they do not cope with the ESTA so I now have a paper VISA Waiver in my passport. What a performance, lol! We had to plae a pink USA Security tab under the windshield, it had the number of people in the car on it!

We finally boarded and were up very near the front, the cars were parked so close together it was hard work to make our way out of the area lol!! We went up towards the front of the ferry and once under way we were allowed to go right up front. There was a large cruise ship in port, Explorer of the Seas.

 A coolish breeze was blowing but the sea was flat for the first part of the trip, once we hit the open sea there were some white caps but it was not too bad. We passed another cruise ship on its way into port. 

There were some whale watching ships in the distance and a woman was watching with her binoculars, we did see a water spray indicating a whale was blowing but we were too far away to take any worthwhile photos. There was a lot of sea mist hanging around and seemed to be rolling in from the west.

We arrived on time and were off the ferry fairly smartly, we did have to answer a couple of questions again on our way out in the car but all was well.

We then drove the 17 miles up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park. We stopped a few times on the way up and there were some spectacular views. We also saw quite a number of black tailed deer. 

At the top we parked and it was magical to be up in the mountains and seeing more deer. 

The sun was shining out of a blue sky with enough clouds to add to the beauty. I love the sea but there is something so special about the mountains. 


After a while we started back down but had to stop when we saw a deer with a fawn. She walked along for a while and then started up a steep slope. She had left her second fawn tucked away so was going back to collect it! 


There was another deer with twins a bit further on but she was spooked by an idiot driving too fast!! 


We finally arrived back down and drove through Port Angeles to a place where we had our dinner. We arrived home just after 11 pm after a long but thoroughly enjoyable day.