Beds

Three nights at the vacation rental approximated the charges for a one week cruise in the Caribbean although it didn’t include breakfast, lunch, dinner and a chocolate on our pillows each night.  However, it did have the worst beds we’ve ever encountered except for the roots under our tent at Tombstone Campground in Canada’s Yukon.  Karen and I opted to climb an almost vertical ladder into a funky loft with a double bed providing the comfort level of a Salvation Army thrift store reject.  Too soft proved to be just one of it's failings.  Worse, whenever one of us moved -- like scratching their nose or rolling over -- the entire bed rocked like a half inflated rubber raft on the Bering Sea.  Karen would get seasick in any rubber raft on the Bering Sea -- or at least get vertigo. 

Meanwhile down below Mandy commandeered a mini-futon which she described as tantamount to sleeping on a piece of cardboard.  With her reputation for being able to sleep on any surface including a piece of cardboard, it became obvious the next day that this was not “corrugated” cardboard.  To add insult to the situation, we paid an additional $25 per night for use of that derelict futon.

The remaining nights Mandy borrowed a cushion from a porch chair while now seasick Karen abandoned the rocking raft to join Mandy using an air mattress for reinforcement.  Alone on the upstairs "craft" I slept like a golden retriever on a living room sofa.

Unlike past road trips, the curse of the beds followed us off and on throughout the trip. Sometimes we both slid into the center of the bed like positive and negative charged ions “spotting” each other in a physics lab.  Other nights we vied for position on that one high ridge knowing that a shift to the left or right would send us on a prolonged slide towards a precipitous cliff.  Yes, we also found comfortable beds, but fewer than we find at any Motel 6.

On our way south (actually in a north-easterly direction along this stretch of highway) to our destiny with the beds, we paused at Seeley Lake, British Columbia.

There we thought we were enjoying the peak of color in the autumn foliage.  Wrong!  Three weeks later we echoed the same statement.

Further south at Spences Bridge, British Columbia we stopped for Karen's forth pass through a thrift store, conveniently located next to a somewhat moribund church.  Judging from the condition of the structure, it may be fortunate that the door was locked because Karen sure wanted to go inside.

We rendezvoused with our daughter, Amanda, at La Conner, Washington where we found beaches much to our liking...

                   Except where access to the beach at our vacation rental was blocked by a previous tenant.

                                      To add insult to the situation, this gull thought it was all pretty funny.

No problem.  We just headed on down to Washington's Deception Pass State Park.  Er -- Mandy, what did that sign we just passed mean -- I think it said something about leashes?

We also connected with friends John and Michale Edgington who abandoned Petersburg several years ago to enjoy the benefits of a more temperate climate.

We ate breakfast the last morning in La Conner where the bakery was stuffed with people stuffing themselves so we sat outside.  Although a tad chilly, a fringe benefit was the presence of the diner at the next "table" -- a great blue heron.