Purple Sock Spot: water comes from the sky

So driving through Oregon and Washington isn't very exciting, though it takes a while. It turns out that you're not allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon. That was a little weird. The internets tells me that apparently, the general public can't be trusted to pump their own gas (even though 48 other states think it's ok... it seems New Jersey has a similar law). It was a bit odd. I'll just have to try to avoid getting gas in Oregon on the way back. At least it's not any more expensive than it is anywhere else.

I spent Thursday night just outside Portland, and left on Friday at what counts as rush hour in Portland. It was kind of slow, but not that bad. Then I crossed a river, and ended up in Washington.

Washington, it turns out, also has a lot of trees. And rain. And a tiny bit of sunshine. But mostly rain. And some windy road (with a lot of signs about turning off to let people pass if there's more than 5 people behind you). I ended up about two cars behind someone going a couple miles/hour under the speed limit... and there were not 5 people behind him, and he didn't turn off. The person ahead of me and I passed him, finally, on a long straight stretch that didn't have a double-yellow center line. Gah. I barely made it to the ferry.

It's rather cramped on the vehicle deck of the ferry. First you sit in line outside the ferry for a while, sorted by approximate size. They then have you drive up into the ferry - the lanes are just wide enough for the cars, and there's an attendant guiding each car so that there are just a few inches between the bumpers. One then gets out of the car - it's kind of a tight squeeze - and goes up into the passenger area of the ferry. The weather was a little grey on the crossing over to Vancouver Island, but not terrible, and I sat inside and knitted. Did see a few dolphins through the window, which was cool. On arrival in Victoria, after quite a wait (and waiting for a semi truck to unload from the other side of the ferry), I sat in another line of cars for customs, and then entered Victoria.

I didn't see much of the town - I was much more interested in following the directions I had to get to my aunt's house. I found it without much trouble, and settled in. We had dinner with my cousin and his wife, which was nice.

Today (Saturday), I spent some time with my grandparents, met up with my cousin again, saw their new house (liveable, but lots of potential - though they've got the kitchen completely gutted right now in the process of fixing it up), met their dog, learned some of the plans for expansion and renovation, and saw a bald eagle out their window - there's a view out over a lake.

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Here are the pictures. Picture-heavy posts are a pain because the post editor and I don't agree on where the pictures should get put. It's easier to just do them all in a row.