0003 More Anacortes

As we prepare to set off north on Tuesday morning, I thought I had better post about some of the things I have been doing while I waited for Janet to arrive. Otherwise you might think I have gone to sleep, or fallen off my perch, or something !!

Over Easter, all the daffodils (etc !) and spring blossoms started to appear around Anacortes, making for beautiful scenes in town for the many tourists who had come to see the Tulip Festival that I referred to in my previous post. The old part of Anacortes (an old fishing port) is very pretty, and wandering around enjoying it was time well spent.

A few days later, I went to a  Kangaroo Park ! I just cannot believe I went to a Kangaroo Park in America ! 

4 year old Zoe is my sister's daughter's daughter - My Grand Niece ?  Great niece ? Anyway, at  Zoe's pre-school they have been learning about kangaroos, and this project culminated in a visit to a local kangaroo farm north of Seattle - Actually it was on the Oso road, which is where the recent terrible landslide happened. 

Anyway, suffice it to say, that Great Uncle Giles was required to go because "as an Australian, I could talk Kangaroo" !! Actually it was very interesting, and they have several albino roos there, which I have never seen in the wild in Australia because they don't survive too well in the bright sunlight and heat in Australia. They even had a gorgeous little albino Joey that the kids of course all loved.  They also had emu's

and wallabies there, as well as peacocks and donkeys and a number of other animals.  They even sell 'Roos as pets for quite an exorbitant price - Don't know that I agree with that - A bit like keeping tigers or other exotic animals -  I don't believe wild animals, even when bred in captivity, should be kept as pets ......................
Anyway, interesting and unexpected sight to see in the middle of America !!

Most of my time here in Anacortes has been spent trying to sort out Troopie and trying to fit everything in !  I thought the Elise was small, but I am having all sorts of issues with space.  If it was just a case of packing stuff in there to be unloaded at the end of a short journey, there would be no problem, but packing it so that you can not only find things but then also get them out easily every night when you need them while you are on the road  (and it is probably raining !) is a totally different matter !  I know it will all settle down once we are on the road, but it is so much easier if you can get it reasonably right in the first place - I am sure those of you who know me will be laughing by now !!  Everything has to have its place !!!!  Have also been finalising insurance and AAA, and local cell phone details (after quite a few problems !!), and getting some oil and coolant to take for emergencies in the car. Also had to get my propane gas bottle filled - Not straightforward because of course the American connections are all different sizes to Australia's !!  Have also got a very small electric heater so that we can better combat the cold when we get to Alaska !!  (The heater therefore needed US style extension cords and adaptors, as well as  110 V battery charger.)  

Yes - No wonder I am having trouble fitting everything in !!  And of course I had to keep in mind that Janet is due to arrive shortly, with her stuff !! Hmmmmmm.

Some of you may remember some photos taken of my Lotus in 2012 with a large
stuffed toy moose, called Alice ?  Well, my sister now has a large bear to keep Alice company, and he's called Beary Manilow ! (Don't ask !!)  Anyway, my sister decided they both needed to go for a drive in Troopie, so as you can see, they had a fun time exploring on a sunny afternoon !!  I hope that is the last time a bear is inside my car !!


This past week, the cold weather, which has seen me wearing thermals almost every day since I arrived, suddenly disappeared, and for two or three days we had 80 + deg F / 26 deg C (which is high summer time temps for Seattle) and clear blue skies !  I have minimal clothes for hot weather, and, far worse, hot weather will melt the snow I have come to see !!  So I am hoping that the weather will cool down as we head north ! Not much we can do about it now !!  But it is good to be at least back in sight of some beautiful snowcapped mountains again - I have missed my mountains !!

Last week I met up with a local Lotus friend who I met 2 years ago, who is also a great Moody Blues fan - And in fact John gave me a couple of their early albums which I had never heard before, and which I played a lot on my last trip !   So he and I met up for lunch this week,  and had a great time catching up - I think we discussed most subjects - Including, of course, our favourite Moody Blues !!   He also recommended I

go to the Lemay Car Museum in Tacoma - John is a volunteer at the museum, and also has his Lotus Europa on display there, and after he told me more details of some of the wonderful cars there, I made arrangements to go.  Janet was due to arrive from Australia on Saturday, so I contacted other Lotus friends in Seattle who I had met on my last trip, and I offered to take them out for dinner if they could give me a bed for the night !!   So I drove down on Friday, Doug and Carol Jackson and I had a great evening and meal at Ray's Boathouse restaurant overlooking Puget Sound, and then, after a very comfortable night at their house, I set off in the morning to Tacoma to the LeMay car museum. 

Harold LeMay of Tacoma built one of the world's largest private car collections, with over 3000 vehicles at its peak, and before he died in 2000, in order to prevent his collection being split up after his death, he set the wheels in motion to create a permanentmuseum to be open to the public.  This museum eventually opened in 2012, and houses just a small part of his private collection, with vehicles being rotated regularly.  I won't detail all the cars here - I will let the photos speak for themselves.  But the 1930 Duesenberg  was spectacular, the hot rodded Rambler with a Ferrari engine and running gear was incredible, and the 1948 Tucker with a helicopter engine and many safety ideas that were not common place until the 80's was amazing.   Meanwhile, the little BMW Isetta reminded me of the music teacher we had at Junior School (1960 ?) who had one, and we had lifted it over a wall into a garden and he got really angry because he couldn't drive home until he found us and we had lifted it back over the wall again !! 
Anyway, I strongly recommend this museum to anyone visiting the Seattle area, and here are a couple of links for those who would like to know more.
http://www.lemaymuseum.org/vehicles.php
http://www.lemaymarymount.org/

And by the time I came out of the museum, the weather had REALLY changed, and it was raining heavily.  I headed to the airport to pick up Janet, and fortunately left a bit of spare time because it turned out the car park had a height limit of 6 ft 10 ins, and Troopie is 7 ft !!  Suffice it to say, finding the "Overheight Parking Area" proved to be a nightmare !   After about 30 minutes of driving round in circles in the rain, I eventually parked in a big no parking area and ran over to an airport official and he said "Follow the Departures sign and you can't miss it".   Of course, silly me, why would one not follow the Departures sign when you are trying to go to Arrivals ????  Common sense, really !!  Anyway, finally got parked, and Janet had just arrived in the terminal when I showed up - Phew !!  Once we had her bag, we set off back to the overheight car park in Departures (even though she had just arrived !), and got out of the airport !

Next stop, a big camping store in Seattle to get some thermals and other warm clothing for Janet - I have all mine from 2012.   REI is a national US store for which Seattle is their main store, and it is enormous.  So we were able to find all we needed fairly quickly, and were soon back on the road for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Anacortes.   After a bit of a chat and some supper, it was an early night for all as Janet and Janet  (wife and sister !) were heading down south of Seattle at 7.30 the next morning for grand niece Zoe's 4th birthday party.

That done, and having had a delicious piece of Alaskan Sockeye Salmon for dinner, we now have just tomorrow to finish packing Troopie, and then at 7 am on Tuesday we have to be at the Anacortes Ferry terminal to catch our ride across to Vancouver Island to start our journey in earnest. 

Ready to go !!!!!!!!!!

More pics of the last few days here. https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0003MoreAnacortes?authkey=Gv1sRgCMGX1OioyOqTQw#