When Dave and I started dating, he was living in Wisconsin and I was 2000 miles away in Portland.
He came out to visit a few times before he was able to move to Oregon, and in April 2015 he was in Oregon for a month. (He telecommuted to his job in Wisconsin during that time.)
One day, during this long visit, he said,
“Pack a suitcase for 2 nights.”
“Why?” I asked.
Drawing a zipper shut across his mouth, he said, “Zip!”
“But where are we going?”
“Zip!”
“Okay, but do I need nice shoes or hiking shoes?”
“Zip! And just pack something comfortable.”
He picked me up after work and we hit the road, heading north to Washington.
Dave zoomed my little Geo Metro Eggbeater up I-5 (it only has 3 cylinders – not a lot of power,) then turned west onto Hwy 101 at Olympia.
Ooh, I’ve never been over this way!
I love exploring new places.
We turned north on Hwy 101 and drove north, up the east side of the Olympic peninsula.
During a quick pit stop for both the car and the humans, we texted pictures of bathroom vending machines, complete with commentary, to each other:
(Brace yourself. We have a bizarre sense of humor.)
Of course sketchy gas station restrooms carry The Gold Standard in latex products.
And reloaded? …Eww, no.
“…Please use fan…”
For what?
Also, I almost bought the tattoos. I was curious how two gas station temporary tattoos could be the ultimate in fun and fantasy. Still regretting not getting them.
Restroom humor and snarkiness complete, we marveled at the misty, foggy mountains on the left, and oyster farms and resort towns on the right. What a gorgeous area. I made a mental note to check out the resorts for a summer getaway, for some time in the future.
Washington has some very interesting place names, especially up on the peninsula, past Olympia. We saw the turnoff for the town of Gravelly Beach (and I guess it would be wise to wear water socks when swimming there… due to the gravel on the beach, right?) We then passed through a couple of blink-or-you’ll-miss-it towns named Lilliwaup and Hamma Hamma, as well as Dosewallips State Park.
All these names make me giggle, but the state park name makes me think of getting hit twice, in Spanish: dos wallops. Kapow!
Our first stop:
Whitney Gardens, which is a huge rhododendron garden. I love rhodies.
Did you know they’re the Washington state flower?
So pretty.
As the garden closed for the day, we hopped in the car and continued north to our next stop, which I’ll share with you in Part 2.
The Zip Jar 
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