Saturday, April 30, 2016

Elma RV Park, Elma, Washington; 8-1 to 10, 2015

 Elma RV Park was pretty dismal, but we had air conditioning and wi-fi, so that helped. Our first day we stopped at the Rusty Tractor for breakfast. Big mistake. Although this place was highly rated on the foodie apps, we had a far different experience. Both our breakfasts were bad enough that after getting our order after a 35 minute wait, we sent them back and left. And all we ordered was an English muffin and a sweet roll! The rest of the day was better! We drove to the coast and I got to stand on the Pacific coast!
We drove through the little sea-side town of Westport, and had good lunch at a little Greek restaurant, then back home. The next day we took a beautiful drive through the mountains looking for a place for lunch that Rich remembered. We finally found it, but it was closed for the day, so we headed back. Since I had always heard about the Pike Street Market, we took a drive up to Seattle the next day. I have to say it was a big disappointment. The traffic was crazy, parking expensive, and Pike Street Market was more like a flea market than anything else. We had a decent fish lunch there, 
but got a couple other lunch items that were pretty lousy from a couple of other little shops along the walk. We finally called it a day and headed back home. I have to admit that we would probably enjoy it more if we went a second time and if we lived there it would probably be a favorite haunt, but for a day trip and not having any insider info, it was a bit much.


The state capitol, Olympia, was about an hour drive away and they were supposed to have a good farmer's market, so we decided to head that
way the following day. We took a tour of the capitol building (did you know the state of Washington has the distinction of being the only state named for a U.S. President and they have 21 different variety of trees on the campus?), walked through the big farmers market and picked up fruit, veggies, and wonderful jam, found a great little cafe that served wonderful gyros, and stopped at the home of a couple Rich knew from years ago. We ended up having lunch the next day with them at the Brooklyn Tavern (the spot that had been closed earlier in the week), and joining them for dinner the following
day. Our time in Elma had come to an end, so we spent the next day doing our usual cleaning and rearranging of gear to get ready to travel to Packwood, Washington and Mount Rainier and
Mount St. Helens.