Saturday – June 30, 2012
Naval Ships in the Harbor
We checked out of Hotel Le Soleil in Vancouver and said our good-byes and thanks to the staff for a pleasant stay. The valet brought around the car and off we went. This is a holiday weekend for the celebration of Canada Day tomorrow on July 1st. Many streets in Vancouver were closed to traffic for the weekend and transformed into pedestrian walk-ways.
Bremerton Harbor
Our plan was to drive about five hours and to arrive somewhere on the Olympic Peninsula. We calculated that it was about 200 miles from Vancouver to Seattle so we expected that leg to take about three hours. It took about an hour to get to the US/Canada border and that’s where our plans fell apart. All three lanes of traffic stopped and we all crawled slowly to the gate. We sat in line in the car for a little more than two hours, slowly inching forward until we finally reached the border gate. Two minutes later, we were on our way, but far behind our plan!
Hope on the Horizon
We stopped at the next town for cups of coffee and a chance to get out of the car. We continued south on Route 5 and spent the rest of the day driving. At about 5:00 PM we arrived in Bremerton, WA. We consulted tripadvisor.com and chose the Hampton Inn located right on the harbor near the Convention Center and the ferry. We discovered that Bremerton was the home of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. There was a huge Naval base there and we saw several old ships near the shore.
The Battleship Turner Joy
We checked in, dropped off our luggage, and walked along the harbor in front of the hotel. It was still drizzling slightly but it didn’t feel especially cold. At the end of the walkway there was a battleship tied up at the dock named the Turner Joy which was available for tours.
Walkway Along the Harbor
We walked for a short while. It was getting late and we were tired from driving and being in the car all day. There had been heavy traffic during most of the drive and especially around Seattle. It had taken us six hours to drive 200 miles from Vancouver to Seattle, including waiting time at the border. At the end of the day, we were happy to have found a clean reliable hotel for the night.