A Day Trip to Orcas Island

We couldn't decide where to go for Memorial Day Weekend this year and we couldn't decide what we wanted to do with that same weekend.  We stayed home, got stuff done and Ben went to a birthday party.  I wanted to at least go somewhere one day of my mini vacation.  It was hard to decide on a place because Ben wanted to go somewhere I haven't been before...and I have been just about everywhere between Washington, Oregon and some of Idaho.  We decided on Orcas Island.  Back in 2011, my family and I, went to Friday Harbor and we've always wanted to go see Orcas Island.

Over the next few days we both did some research on it and since we were only going for a day we were very limited.  We did have some time to go up to Mount Constitution in Moran State Park and explore the island a little bit.  I also found out they had a brewery as well.  I found the address and we planned on stopping there before getting on the ferry back home.  We were both happy with the trip and got some of our stuff together the night before.  I told Ben that we would have to get up at 5 a.m. to make all of this work.

When we looked at the ferry schedule and it confused the heck out of us.  It was not very user friendly and the columns did not make any sense.  I really thought that one of the ferry's going to Orcas Island left around 8 or so that morning.  If we left around 5:30 we could totally make it.  There shouldn't be any traffic that early on a holiday.  We took the Escape and I made sure to get gas the night before and to stop by the ATM to get some cash.

The alarms went off at 5.  Ugh.  I do not miss this at all.  We got dressed and Ben grabbed a snack for the road.  I had a banana and a breakfast drink...I figured that would tie me over until something more hearty.  Off we went around 5:30.  I was right about the traffic; hardly anyone on the road.  That made it nice though Dupont, Tacoma, Seattle and Everett.  Those were usually the slow down spots.

We finally got to Mount Vernon and got off I-5 and headed west towards Anacortes.  That didn't take us long either but driving through Anacortes to get to the ferry terminal took a while.  We got in line to pay for our ferry fee and the lady told us that the first ferry to Orcas Island didn't leave until 10.  Ugh!  How do you read the damn ferry schedule!?  She showed us how.  We were so off.  Now we had to wait almost an hour and a half.  We went through the McDonald's drive-thru for a breakfast sandwich and coffee.  We never go to McDonald's.  We ended up at Safeway as well for Starbucks coffee because he didn't like the McDonald's coffee.  I took him to Sante Cap to see the view of the town and harbor.  I discovered this spot last year with my mom and grandma.

Ben grabbed the cache that was nearby and it was almost time to go get in line for the ferry.  We drove to the other end of town again, paid the lady who had told us how to read the ferry schedule, paid our $60 and got in line.  We didn't have to wait too long.  We got out and walked around a bit and tried to look for a cache that wasn't there. I did have Ben do the earthcache that was there too.

Once we were on the ferry and parked, we turned off  the Escape and grabbed some stuff to hang out with on deck for the next 45 minutes. 

It was cold and overcast but you could tell that the clouds were going to burn off eventually.  We went out to the deck to take a few pictures and to have that iconic Titanic moment at the bow of the ship.  It was cold so we went in moments later to warm up and chill for the rest of the trip.

The ferry stopped three times.  Lopez Island, Shaw Island and Orcas Island.  As soon as we got off the ferry we headed to Moran State Park.  We stopped at a pullout just to take a few pictures.  Ben found a stick and we pretended we were ninjas.

We followed Nuvi's directions to Moran State Park.  The entrance was really cool.  Moran State Park was the first “major” Washington state park, was largely owed to prominent shipbuilder and two-term Seattle Mayor, Robert Moran. In 1905 Moran began quietly buying up land on Orcas Island for his retirement. Though he proposed a state park as early as 1910, the idea took years to foment. In 1921, Moran donated more than 2,700 acres to the state for development of a park; he later donated over 1,000 additional acres for the park’s expansion.

The first place we wanted to go was to go see the view from the top of Mount Constitution.  Over the years I have heard great things about this spot.  Linda, a lady I worked with, said she used to spend a lot of time here with her family when she was a kid.  We talked about it often and now I was finally going to see it in person.

We followed the swirly mountain road and made our way to the top.  Along the way up we saw a few turn offs with various hikes and waterfalls.  We would have to make a stop on the way down.  There wasn't a lot of parking so we found a spot and went for it.  We got our food out, changed our clothes because the overcast burned off and found the trailhead to the top.  There were quite a few people up there and some hiked!  We were in awe of the view.

It was such a gamble coming out hoping that the weather would be clear enough to see the islands and Mount Baker.  I am glad the weather cleared.  We took at least a dozen or more pictures before we ate our lunches.

We took in the view a few more minutes and decided it was time to leave because more and more people were showing up and making it crowded.  We cleaned up our lunch and headed back down to the Escape.  Ben changed his pants and I went and used the creepy restroom.  We both went into the small gift shop just for fun and found stuffed animals to mess with.  Apparently birds like Ben.  Haha!

We went back to the Escape and started our descent down the mountain.  There was a family from Oregon in front of us and one of their teenaged sons decided to skateboard down the hill.  We made sure we had a large gap between us and them.  We really didn't want to run over a moron.  We stopped at a turn out that had a spring but we were disappointed and continued on our way.

I followed the directions to my 77th state park cache since the geotour began in June 2013.  Last fall the geotour ended along with the stamps for your passport.  Some cachers chose to keep them around but they really don't count for anything besides numbers and a going to a state park adventure. WaStatePks100:  Moran (GC464T2) was found just off the trail next to a trailhead marker hidden in a pile of rocks.  We almost didn't even need our GPS just because you just knew where it was when you got there. 

We stopped by Mountain Lake just to see what was there.  Two people with kayaks were gliding over the water nearby.  We sat at the dock and relaxed a little bit.  We just couldn't believe the weather was this awesome.  The water was very blue and serene.  Motor boats are not allowed which probably keeps it pristine.

We finally reached the turn off we wanted.  It was a waterfalls trail and it wasn't too long!  I found a place for the Escape to park...there were a lot of people here in their trucks parked really dumb, got out and started getting our stuff ready to walk.  Ben changed his shoes.  Just a few vehicles down, there was a very large Indian family and tons of kids just chillin in the dirt lot.  We weren't sure if they were coming or going.  There were two falls to the right and two falls to the left at the trailhead.  We started with the right falls.

We started with Rustic Falls.  The trail wasn't too bad.  There was a few muddy spots but overall wasn't that bad.

From there we walked to Cascade Falls.  This one was much bigger but unfortunately there were a lot of logs, stumps and other wood debris in front of the falls.  This one we explored more than the first one.  We got a bunch of fun waterfall pictures.

There were a few people walking around enjoying the nice day and the waterfalls.  I was waiting for someone to slip and fall into the water.  Unfortunately that didn't happen.  We walked to the other side of the trail to see the rest of them.

Cavern Falls was the next one we came across.

Followed by Hidden Falls.

We walked a little over 2 miles to see what this little waterfall trail had to offer.  We wanted to do some more exploring so we left the state park in search of the rest of the island.  We let geocaching lead the way.  The first one we came to was called Electric Avenue (GC2A5MW) and that one seriously lead us astray.  The coords bounced everywhere.  I finally just gave up and wandered to the other side of the road and started searching.  I ended up having to climb a tree to retrieve it.

Orcas Roots (GC73E17) was the next cache and it wasn't too far from where we were on the same road.  We found a wide spot in the road to pull over...luckily this road isn't too terribly busy.  We first checked in the obvious spot on the side that we parked on.  We didn't have any luck so we tried the other side.  We didn't find it right away but we kept looking.  I just happen to see a container tucked away in an unlikely spot and grabbed it.  It was a glass canning jar with a log and swag inside.  This has to be it.  You don't normally find glass cache containers.  We signed the log and put it back exactly where we found it.

The next cache took us to the Orcas Center Theater where there was plenty of parking and no one was around so we didn't have to worry about muggles.  The Center of Orcas (GC4DCBA) I was hoping that it was going to be near or on the Orca Whale that was on the street side of the building.  We were disappointed.  It was a green nano on the pedestrian sign in the parking lot.  That didn't stop us from enjoying Dorcas the Orcas.

From there, we tried grabbing two...one was not there and the other we couldn't actually grab because someone was right next to it.  We were pretty bummed because we didn't want to wait for them to drive away.  We headed back into Eastsound to see if we could find the brewery.  For some reason we thought it was in town.  We grabbed one more so we could end on a find, Madrona Point County Dock (GC5R4VJ) was near a really cool dock.  The cache itself was hidden in a stump.

We failed trying to find the Island Hoppin' Brewery in town so we had to put it into the Nuvi.  It was outside of town on a road that we were just on!  Ugh.  We flipped around and found the road.  The building was in a really weird area with a bunch of other buildings and no real indication of a parking lot.  When we did find out which lot was theirs we had trouble finding a place because it was packed!  We ended up making our own spot hoping we didn't get towed or in trouble with the other businesses.  We went in and checked out their beer selection.  The unfortunate part was they didn't have food. 

I ordered their Fishing Bay ISA and Ben also ordered the same beer.   We sat there and hung out while watching other people and talking to the bar tender who belonged down in Southern California surfing.  We bought a bag of chips to share just for something to munch on while we finished our beers.  We stayed for about an hour, paid and feverishly tried to get back to Orcas to get on the 7:00 ferry back to Anacortes.

When we got there we were very surprised and overwhelmed.  There were so many people lined up for the 7:00 ferry!  We really didn't know what to do so we waited in a line.  We had no idea what line we were in but we waited in it.  I asked Ben to go ask the ferry terminal worker what the deal was. He got out, walked over and I waited in the Escape just in case we moved closer.  He came back and reported that the people in the lines have reservations and we get to be in the stand by lane (which was the one we were in).  Oh?  When we came to Orcas Island we figured everyone would have left by now since everyone has to go back for work and school the next day and we didn't.  We also didn't think we would have to wait in any lines for the 7:00 and 10:00 ferries.  I was remembering how easy it was in 2011 when we came home from Friday Harbor.  He added, they now do reservations online on the WSDOT site.  Well if I would have known that I would have gotten on and done our reservation online.  We discussed that and he concluded with, the terminal worker also said that we might have to stay the night because the information they received said that the 10:00 ferry was also full.  My stomach dropped.  What?!  As we waited, Ben feverishly tried calling hotels to find out what kind of occupancy they had available on such short notice.  He found a few of them and would call them back if we didn't get on the 10:00 ferry. 

We did not make the 7:00 ferry.  We did get to move into an actual lane (which was also standby for the 10:00 ferry) so there was a very good chance we might get on that one.  We parked the Escape and waited the three hours.  Ben made friends with the guy behind us.  He and his girlfriend were also here for the day.  He HAD to be back tonight since he was in the military and on duty tomorrow.  They threw the football and I made a few phone calls.  I ended up getting bored and found the cache, Ferry Godmother - Whale of a Tale (GCK4G6).  It was a quick painless find.

I tried to remain inconspicuous since it was close to where everyone was lined up waiting for the ferry.  I took the trackable that was inside to move it on.  I called Trish while I walked to the next one near the ferry area.  I struggled to find that one.  Ben ended up joining me but there were too many places to look in the rocks and it was getting dark.  We abandoned it and went back to the Escape to wait some more.  We had "dinner" which consisted of our leftover sandwiches and chips.  We listened to the terminal updates while more and more cars got in line.  We both hoped every minute that we got on that 10:00 ferry.  We heard that the ferry was going to be an hour late.  That bumped it up to 11 which meant we wouldn't get to Anacortes until at least midnight then the 2.5-3 hour ride back to Olympia.  We might get home around 3:00.  I am so glad I took Tuesday off.

More and more cars got in line as we were reaching about the time the ferry should arrive.  We could see it approaching in the distance near Shaw Island.  It got there just after 11.  We watched all the cars drive past us.  We were anxiously waiting for our turn.  One of the terminal workers said there was room for the rest of us and we were ecstatic!  We turned on the Escape and followed everyone in front of us.  OMG OMG we're actually getting on the ferry!  Once on the ferry, we realized the terminal worker we talked to earlier that day totally lied to us!  The ferry was half empty when we set out towards Anacortes.  We wondered where they got their information from. 

We shut the Escape off and headed upstairs to sit and look at magazines and track the ferry's progress on the WSDOT app.  It could tell us exactly when we would be back to Anacortes.

We arrived around midnight and once it was our turn to get off we left the area immediately.  I was so tired I just wanted to be home.  Ben fell asleep several times and I wanted to as well.  I had to put the drive into chunks or it would have been more overwhelming to think about because I was pretty exhausted.  Each mile melted away but it seemed like forever until we got to Seattle.  I know the drive better from Seattle to home so I could gauge how long it would take to actually get home.  We finally got home around 2:30 a.m. and we grabbed the important stuff out of the Escape and literally went to bed immediately.  We were almost up for 24 hours.  I did not foresee the day going like that but I was glad we didn't have to spend the night on the island.

Lesson Learned:  Make reservations if you plan on going on a ferry.

Next Adventure:  Heading to Long Beach, Geocaching and Hanging Out at the Resort

Geocaching in Fort Steilacoom Park

The day before I had an itch to finally organize and clean out our garage.  It took me about 6 hours, it was hot and I had a shelf fall on me and hurt my arm but I am glad I got it done.  It looks so much better!

Ben hasn't seen some of his "up north" friends for a while, mostly because of his work schedule, and his friend Jeremey invited him out for his birthday. It was a three-part birthday party.  For weeks Ben couldn't decide if he wanted to go so that delayed my Memorial Day Weekend plans.  We couldn't decide where to go so we decided to stay home and take a day trip instead.  This was the first time in at least 20 years where Memorial Day Weekend was actually sunny and warm.

Jeremey's birthday consisted of a guys late afternoon stint at BoomShaka, an extreme air sports/trampoline place in Tumwater.  We've thought about going to this place for a while but we could never decide on a date to go with everyone for a game night.  Ben met them around 11 while I hung out at home and got a few things done.  They ate at the RAM in Lakewood in which the power went out and they got complimentary drinks and I was suppose to meet Ben at Fort Steilacoom where they were going to play ultimate Frisbee.  I decided not to partake in the ultimate Frisbee because I was just not a fan of it.  I went geocaching instead.

Ben and his friends got warmed up to play and I told Ben I was going to wander around looking for a few caches.  He told me to have fun and I told him to have fun and not get soooper sun burnt.  I set off for my first one, Farming Legacy (GC5RKF2).  I spent a lot of time here looking for it.  I knew where it was and what it was but I just could not get it off its hiding spot.  I called Bev to verify that's what it was.  She said it probably was but it's been a while since they found that one.  I called it quits and decided to come back another time with a tool to help twist it off.

I walked over to the next one, Ghostbusters - I Ain't Afraid of no Ghosts! (GC2AR3V) and found it near the cemetery.  It was pretty straight forward...tucked under the bushes near the headstones.

I checked the status of the next closest one, PET ME- PET ME! (A two finger cache) (GC6KV25) and it had a lot of DNF's so I didn't attempted it.  It was near the dog park. Hindsight I probably should have at least looked and confirmed that it was missing.

I was glad to see someone had found the next cache recently as I was walking towards it.  A lot of people were pretty impressed with the creativity of Just Go Find It (GC6N34W).  My curiosity got the best of me.  I was hoping it was pretty cool.  When I got to it I was pretty disappointed.  I've seen caches like this before but to a newer cacher I could see how this would be cool.  I walked right up to it.

I thought I had time for about one more so I continued walking towards the edge of the park.  Hidden Clues and Secrets (GC5PN6Z) was pretty hidden.  I searched everywhere and couldn't find anything.  It was either hidden pretty well or it was missing.  I put in a good 15 minutes or so of looking and called it quits.  I'm sure we will be back to Steilacoom at some point.  I will have to wait until next time.  I walked back to the fields where Ben and his friends were playing and I had some great timing.  They were taking their shoes and socks off and guzzling water.  It had to have been at least 80+ degrees outside.  I talked to a few of his friends before everyone scattered.  We told Jeremey happy birthday again and thanked him for inviting us.  He told us that we would have to do it again soon sometime.

We headed home because we had to get ready to go to Orcas Island the next day.  We had to have everything packed up and ready to go because 5 a.m. is very very early.  We ate some food, got cleaned up and relaxed for a bit.  We looked at the ferry times, maps of Orcas Island and which caches we wanted to get while we were there.  We made sure we had our Discovery Pass since we were going to visit Moran State Park and Mount Constitution.  I was excited but I knew it was going to be a long day.

Next Adventure: A Day Trip to Orcas Island

Hanging Out on Ruston Way

Mom wanted to go somewhere but we really didn't have enough time to do the ones she wanted to do on her list mostly because we didn't plan for it so we had to alter it a bit.  I told her we needed to go somewhere close-ish mostly because we got a late start on the day and it was Sunday.  I asked if she wanted to go down by the Tacoma Waterfront.  She said sure.

I drive into Rainier and unloaded the recycle on the way to their house.  Mom was ready with her backpack and camera.  She was excited to take pictures of the old docks and cement structures where we were going to go.  We went through Yelm and onto Reservation Road towards Mounts.  Traffic was backed up almost to the railroad tracks.  I have never seen Mounts Road backed up that far.  I was upset because I didn't want this to take all day.

We finally got to I-5 and it inched slow all the way through DuPont and up to Lakewood.  After Lakewood it finally thinned out.  No wonder I don't come north...the traffic sucks!  And it's getting worse almost to the point where I never want to drive on I-5 especially north.  I took the wrong exit and we had to back track a bit plus the road we wanted was closed and we had to take a detour through downtown Tacoma.  Ugh!  How could this day get worse?

We finally got down to the road we wanted and the place was swamped with people!  This must be where city people go to enjoy a nice day.  Everyone in Tacoma was here.  It took me probably 15 minutes to find a parking spot.  I hid all of my stealables and made sure I locked the door three times...it's Tacoma.

 
We crossed the street and walked north.  There were a lot of people here!  OMG!  I haven't been down this way since at least 2011 when I came down here for a few caches.  I can't believe it's been that long.  Mom came here to mostly take pictures but I came down here to get a few of the caches along this stretch of trail.  There were two within a quarter of a mile of each other.  I let mom lead the way.

We stopped by the Tacoma Firefighters Memorial and admired the statues, plaques and dates there.  I noticed that there was a chunk of the World Trade Center from 9/11 placed there.  I have been to several different pieces of the buildings around Washington that makes this piece number four for me.  I would really like to go to New York some day and see the museum and memorial.

We stopped along the way because she liked this shot of an old dock, that has since rotted away, with Mount Rainier in the background.  She spend a good chunk of time here trying to get the right shot.  I people and seagull watched.  She took a few dozen pictures and then I got my selfie stick out to take some shots of her and I.

That was our turn around point so we now started walking south towards Dickman Mill Park.  On the way back through we stopped to find Narwhals Narwhals (GC5RE3J) was tucked inside the rock wall on the water side just a few feet from the bench along the walkway.  What made the cache hard was trying to find it without all the muggles watching me find it.  I had to wait for people to walk by before I could grab it.  I wasn't sure what I was looking for but when I saw it I knew it was the cache.

I signed our names and had to wait for muggles to walk by before I could put it back.  We continued on.  The next cache was roughly a quarter of a mile away.  I read some of the logs on **I'll Be Boulder** (GC5EN7X) and it sounded like it was hidden in the rock wall.  Ugh, that could be anywhere.  We got closer and found the likely location of it.  I tried to zero in on it before I started looking in the rocks.  I looked down and noticed a guy and girl looking at their phones with gloves on.  I asked mom if they might be doing the same thing.  Sure enough they were.  I introduced myself and they introduced theirs.  They said they've found some of my caches before.  For the life of me I can't remember their name but I remembered where they were from, Lake Tapps.  We looked for the cache together.  After about 10 minutes, I found the darn rusty Altoid can.  He was like, "where was it!"  I showed him and he couldn't believe he missed that spot.  I signed my name and mom's and gave them a pen to sign theirs.  I got a quick picture and told them it was nice meeting them.  They said the same thing back.

We moved on to the other side of the shore near Dickman Mill Park.  I had already done the earthcache back in 2011.  The nine-acre Dickman Mill Park site occupies a significant place in Tacoma's history as a lumber-producing center. The Dickman Lumber Mill operated continuously from the 1890's until 1974. It was the last in a long tradition of lumber mills on Tacoma's ""Old Town"" waterfront to close down. Following a fire in 1979, the remnants of the mill slowly deteriorated. Metro Parks acquired the site in the early 1990s. Through the efforts and funding of the IAC, Washington State Departments of Ecology and Natural Resources, City of Tacoma, private donors and Metro Parks, the site was purchased, rehabilitated, and developed as a new public park. Located on Ruston Way along the Commencement Bay waterfront, Dickman Mill Park opened in July 2001.

There is still a lot of cement structures, old dock posts and some really cool places for wildlife to flourish.  Mom and I did some exploring for a bit.

We decided to call it a day since it was almost dinner time and we both had to get home to get ready for the work week.  We walked back to the Escape and drove through Tacoma which reminded me about wanting to go to the Washington State History Museum.  I will make that happen soon!  We were a little hungry after walking around so we both agreed to get some fish and chips from Ivar's off of South Tacoma Way.  We ate our dinner outside since the wind felt good. 

Traffic was pretty minimal on the way home.  I took mom back to Rainier and then headed home.  I got my shower in and got all of my stuff ready for the upcoming work week.  I am glad I washed clothes the day before.  We will have to go back to that area soon and explore Point Defiance.

Next Adventure:  Geocaching in Fort Steilacoom Park

Hosting Mother's Day

Mother's Day was approaching really fast so I got on the phone and called my grandmother to hash out some plans.  I offered up my place to host as long as everyone brought food like we usually do.  Ben and I sat down and created a menu that was diverse and easy for everyone to rally behind.  We just hoped the weather was alright and cooperated.

During the week we communicated to everyone what was happening, what time everyone was coming over and who is bringing what.  I assigned everyone some food to bring and tried to make it even as possible.  Everything was set and as far as I knew everyone was going to come.

That Saturday we cleaned the house and put everything away while Ben worked on some of his homework as well.  I wanted most of it done the day before so we only had minor things to do on Sunday before everyone got there.  The goal was to worry about the food rather than the house.  We decided to have bbq chicken, veggies, fruit, beans, potato salad, deviled eggs, chips and a dessert.  I asked Trish to make a dessert and she chose to make her angel food cake strawberry Jell-O.  Mom brought veggies and potato salad, Grammie and Grandpa brought the chicken, Grandma brought deviled eggs and a fruit salad, we provided the bbq sauce and the beans.  I had everyone bring their own drinks.

Since Doug and Erika couldn't come I had this great idea to get them to send me a written note over text so I could put it in the cards for Mother's Day.  It took a lot of convincing and reminding but they both eventually got them to me.

Everyone showed up around 2.  We should have started the chicken sooner than we did but oh well.  Ben was in charge of the grill while I got everything else ready and entertained people.  I showed my grandparents, aunts and uncle my microburst video on my phone.  They couldn't believe it and the noises that came out of them while they watched were priceless.

Of course when we put the chicken on the grill it started pouring down rain and we didn't have any cover.  Ben had to use an umbrella while he grilled.  No rain before and no rain after.  It must have known when it was time to cook the food.  In the meantime, I put all the food out on the buffet tables, got the plates, cups and silverware out.

About an hour later (I know we should have started it sooner) the food was finally ready.  We all sat at the table, which was pretty snuggy, enjoyed our food and visited.  Of course Grammie was the last one done eating because she likes to visit...and we also reminded her by cracking a few jokes.  We talked about various things from jobs, to places we were going to go this summer, yard work, the weather, sports and even some inappropriate stuff for the dinner table.

We got everything cleaned up and had gift and card exchanges for all the mothers and a small birthday party for Tracy because her birthday was two days away.  There were a lot of flowers including my cool jars I painted a few months ago and added flowers and dirt.  I gave mom a jar of her chocolate chewies because I thought she'd appreciate them more than flowers.  Grammie bought some red clown noses from Walgreens.  I guess it is a fund raiser to end child poverty.  We all took turns wearing them and taking pictures with them.  Sometimes it was hard not laughing when we tried taking the pictures.

We all got together for a group photo because it's something I've been doing for a few years after I got a selfie stick.  Selfie sticks are kinda dumb but I like the angles it is able to get because a normal selfie limits you're space to add a bunch of people in your shot.

Everyone thanked me for hosting and told me the food turned out great.  I thanked them back for coming over and hanging out.  We all hoped the next get together there would be more people to enjoy the day with.  Until the next time!

Next Adventure:  Hanging Out on Ruston Way

Non-Perm in Retro

I needed to get out of the mailroom.  I needed a break.  I saw an opportunity online for a non-perm position up on the 2nd floor for a business area called Retrospective Rating.  I had no idea what it was or what they did but I wanted to know...so I applied for it.  I really wasn't sure how many people applied or what they were looking for in an applicant but it didn't hurt to try right?  I didn't have anything to lose.

I worked on my resume to make sure it was up to date and filled out the application as best as I could.  I sure hoped my work experiences pushed me forward to at least an interview.  About a week later I heard back and wanted me to come in for an interview.  I battled with myself a little bit about it.  If I get the job should I take it and leave everyone in the mailroom behind?  I feel like I needed to just to get away from all the drama.  On the other hand, we've all, the OA3's, have been working great together.  The communication was awesome, everyone was up to speed with CARS, I finally caught up by being trained and efficient in all of the jobs (except driving) and we were getting the mail done almost everyday.  A part of me kinda felt bad because I've been with these people over a year now and it went from being new and hopeless to I am sorta better than most of you at this point.  I was starting to get to know some of the people better and it was flowing.

The interview on Friday came and I had to dress up nice.  I came in and most of the people in the mailroom noticed because I didn't normally dress like that.  Mike, said I looked like a completely different person, Trina really loves my hair down and Britney laughed at my comments about not wanting to be in nice clothes.  If I didn't do well in the interview and wasn't chosen, I decided that it was good practice for when I have another one.  It was nice going into an interview and not being stressed out about trying to keep a job and trying to stay at L&I because I wasn't permanent.  I was so glad I became permanent in October of last year.  That made jobs also easier to obtain.

I walked up to the second floor and was escorted into the room where we did the interviews.  I met Tim, the manager, Connie one of the enrollment coordinators, Rachelle the lead and Stephanie one of our customers.  I greeted them all and sat down in the hot seat.  They all asked me a series of questions.  I answered them the best I could.  A lot of them pertained to teamwork and my experienced with a team.  I asked them if they wanted a work team or a sport team example and they said if you have both go for it!  I stuck to experiences about L&I since they were fresh in my mind.  I was asked to elaborate on my other jobs too.  I added some of those stories as well.  This wasn't a typical interview.  I really didn't feel on the spot or awkward like most of my past interviews.  They were very welcoming...which was weird for me.  I did go into the interview without worrying about being picked because it is what it is.  They will pick the person who was best fit for what they were looking for.  I thanked them for interviewing me and went onto the next part...the assessment with Julie.

Julie was also very welcoming.  I think when it was time to get onto Liniis, a program we use at work, I actually said this reminded me of the old Oregon Trail game and I may or may not have said, you have died of dysentery!  There were a few parts to it and I managed to get through them all with ease.  We filled out a excel spreadsheet with some information and saved it.  I thanked her and headed back downstairs to finish my work.  Now we play the waiting game.

I heard back the following Thursday when Tim came down to the mailroom while I was doing Express.  He asked if I had a few minutes to go upstairs and talk.  I said sure.  We walked up to the training room and I sat down with a group of folks and Tim explained why I was there.  He explained I had a great interview, my references said awesome things about me and my work.  He then said that the program chose me and I had some time to think about it before I made my decision.  I told them I didn't need some time and said yes.  They were pretty happy I said yes and told me to keep the news to myself for a while.  So I did.

My first day was so different from my first day in the mailroom.  It was a huge culture shock compared to what I was used to downstairs.  The entire day I always felt like I needed to be doing something at certain times.  It was so engrained into me downstairs that every hour had some sort of daily deadline.  Here in Retro, it was more relaxed and we had more time to get our work done.  We had more meetings and we had windows!  Windows!

I am very thankful I got this opportunity to learn another business area and to get more skills on some of the programs we use and to find out what Retro actually does.  I am slowly learning and hope to be up to speed by the time my year is over.  Who knows where I will end up next. 

Next Adventure:  Hosting Mother's Day

A Microburst Away from a Tornado

That morning I woke up at 6 and started getting ready for work.  The night before we were told that it was going to be our first humid muggy day around 80.  Later on that day we were suppose to have a thunderstorm roll in about the time everyone was heading home from work.  I hoped that it waited until we got home so we could watch it.  I wore capris and flip flops.  Since it was my second to last day in the mailroom, Britney and I decided we wanted ice cream sundaes.  So we all brought the goods in.  I brought sprinkles. 

Since it was a Thursday, we also had one of our bi-monthy staff meetings scheduled for the day.  Those began at 9.  That was our first work interruption and we all always welcomed it.  We talked about a few things and the first topic was about me leaving to go upstairs to Retro.  Trina said that it was great having me work down there since I was one of her first hires as the manager down there.  She said I transitioned quickly and that she would miss me.  I added to that.  I told everyone I would miss being in the mailroom, it was fun getting to know everyone and that I was looking forward to the opportunity in Retro.  They all knew it was a non-perm which meant the possibility of returning to the mailroom granted I didn't find another opportunity elsewhere before my time was up next May.  I also mentioned that I would not be a stranger.  I was hoping they would still invite me to stuff over the course of the year but that would be up to them.  We wrapped it up with Trina telling them that they weren't going to hire a non-perm for my position until it was absolutely necessary.  The next few weeks to months were going to be hard for them especially on the mail heavy days.

Most of the mail was done by the time I got back from lunch so I went from lunch to my one-on-one with Trina so I wasn't worried if it went beyond a half hour which I expected it to.  All of my one-on-ones have gone over a half hour.  However, this one was kind of a "close out" one-on-one.  We went outside because it was a nice day and sat at one of the picnic tables on the west side of the building.  It started with my stats, which were the best in the mailroom at that point.  I really got offended when I heard that people were saying I was slow back in January.  They failed to realize I had not done Front Counter before so of course I was going to be slow with something I had not done before.  I wanted to be better than any of them and so I proved it.  Trina was actually proud to say that I was the fastest in the mailroom and my other stats were either 100% or within the 30 minute time limit.  She actually gave me a high five.  We talked about the Allison scenario and about my permanent spot after my non-perm stint.  She really believes that I will not be back in the mailroom after Retro.  Finally we talked about suggestions and improvements she could make in the mailroom when hiring and training a new person since I was the newest hire.

Just before we were done you could see the storm clouds moving in.  We still had a few hours before they actually reached us.  We both walked back into the mailroom and had an ice cream sundae before my mail run.  We noticed we were also sunburned and we weren't out there that long.

For the rest of the afternoon, we finished Express, the warrant run and just hang out.  I started packing up my desk so it wasn't over whelming the next day.  I can't believe I had that much stuff in my cubicle. 

At 4, we left.  I started reflecting on all that I've gone through in the mailroom and that I only had to do this (hopefully) one more time.  It was changing really fast and at that point I didn't really know what to think of it yet.  We got in the Escape because it was my turn to drive that week and noticed that it cooled significantly since my one-on-one that afternoon.  More clouds rolled in and you could tell rain was on its way.  We stopped at the light near Rich Road and noticed the clouds in the distance...I've never seen teal clouds before.  I had Suzanne roll down the window so I could take a picture of them.  I said that they were about a half hour away.

We got home around 4:30 and got into more comfortable clothes.  I tend to get home and get into sweats or shorts as soon as I could.  Ben was home working on homework and Suzanne was getting ready to head into Roy to take care of a few things.  As soon as she left, Ben and I headed outside to watch the thunderstorm because we thought it was going to be a normal thunderstorm...you know the thunder and lightening.  Nope!  It was much more than that.  I took a ten minute video of something no one in Thurston County has seen before, ever.

The video starts off pretty calm and you could see some lightening strikes and some thunder off in the distance...pretty typical.  Then the wind started to pick up and the clouds were a more sickly green teal color looking to the west.  I mentioned that if we were in the Midwest right now we would be seeking shelter in our tornado cellar.  To the south of us, which was over the roof of our house into the back yard, the clouds were a grayish white and they were coming in very low and fast.  I have never seen clouds do that before.  I was getting a little scared because I didn't know what they were going to do.  I have seen a lot of tornado and hurricane documentaries and this was looking like what happens when a tornado hits.  However, there wasn't enough rotation to make it a tornado but you could hear the swirl in the wind as this thing in the sky was approaching.  The wind came hard, fast and quick.  Then the rain came down as hard as a waterfall.  The trees whipped through the air very hard almost to the point where they could snap.  I worried about the Douglas Fir tree in our side yard because if it gave up it would end up in our kitchen.  The giant Birch tree in our front yard was being pushed as far as it could go without falling into the street.  I secretly rooted for the wind to destroy that tree because I hated it.  The lightening got closer and at one point scared us into the house.  We found out our power had gone off which was probably the same time the neighbors smaller red trees in their front yard fell over into our driveway.  We didn't notice until the storm had passed.  The wind kept blowing for another five minutes or so very hard.  The rain kept coming down.  Between the wind and the rain the street looked like Hurricane Katrina ripping through.  At about the 10 minute mark I shut it off because it looked like a normal rain storm.

Microburst Home Video

I yelled out, "I think we just had a tornado!"

We went back inside and tried to remember what all was on before the power went off.  I go back outside and call mom and noticed our neighbors small trees had fallen over. 

They all heard what happened in Lacey and she asked if we were okay.  I told her my story then she told me that dad was stuck on Yelm Highway because the trees and power poles came down.  I was like what!?  I texted dad to take pictures of where he was. I got this:

I was horrified!  What in the world happened on Yelm Highway?  Dad told me his story a few days later.  He said he turned off of Wiggins onto Yelm Highway and he said it got really windy and rainy and all he could see outside of his car was a white swirl of wind, rain and debris.  He could not see anything in front of him until the car in front of him stopped to avoid the power poles that came crashing down.  He said any sooner or later and he would have been hit by one.  He was pretty freaked out.  They all were instructed to stay in their vehicles until it was safe to do so.  He sat there a long time.  King 5 was on the scene and showed a clip of dad's car just sitting there with 10 other cars waiting. 

He also told us he had to pee really bad.  I called mom for updates and he got home around 9 p.m. He had to drive through Tumwater.  I heard Rich road got hit hard as well as the Indian Summer Golf Course and a small part of Yelm Highway.  They were closed until further notice.

Then I started watching the news and people's Facebook posts.  The whole situation was bizarre.  No one here as ever seen anything like this before.  I mean, we've had wind storms and no power for a few days to a week, trees fall and whatnot but what ever happened along this stretch of a few miles seemed like a tornado.  I waited to hear what the verdict was.  In the meantime, I saw some really weird pictures like this family who lived off of Rich Road.  Their wooden fence was torn out of the ground whole and thrown into a tree still intact.  I was in awe when I saw that.  I also heard that the top speed of the wind that we got was around 85 m.p.h. and what made it really destructive was the constant wind at that speed into highly treed areas.  We've had so much rain the past few months that the ground was saturated with water making the water table really high.  Therefore making the trees an easy push over. 

After dinner, Suzanne brought us KFC because our power was out, we thought we would get in the Escape and drive out towards the destruction zone.  We were curious on how many trees fell down, how many cars and houses got crushed.  Plus, I wanted my phone charged more than 40% before I went to bed since it also my alarm clock.  We saw lots of trees down and not just the little ones.  Massive Douglas Fir trees were snapped in half, some looked like they exploded and others fell down with their roots showing.  It looked like a tree massacre.  There were a few areas of deep standing water, branches, signs and pieces of random debris everywhere.  The City of Lacey will have a lot to clean up in the next few days.  Our power came back on around 2:30 a.m.  It was out for about 9 hours.

I made it a mission to find out what the heck it was that hit us so hard and fast.  I did find out that it was a microburst instead of a tornado.  I had never heard of a microburst before so of course I looked it up to find out more about it.  It is basically opposite of a tornado.  A tornado is an updraft or a closed low pressure circulation, leaving a path of destruction behind.  A microburst a sudden, powerful, localized air current, especially a downdraft that leaves about 2.5-3 miles of wind sheer destruction behind.

This was one epic storm.  Microbursts more often happen in the southwest and southeast and sometimes in the west.  As far as I know, this area has never seen one before. 

There were several thousand people without power and as the storm made its way north it lost its intensity.  A lot of people said that all they got was thunder, lightening, wind and rain.  No one saw anything like we did down here.  I secretly was hoping it was a tornado just because I wanted to be a storm chaser when I was 12 and thought tornadoes were fascinating.  I knew living here in the Pacific Northwest I would probably never see one but I've been close with the one in Battleground two years ago, the one in Frederickson about four years ago and the waterspout near the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge back in 2014.  One of these days I will probably be in the wrong place at the wrong time to see one...I just hope I have a safe place to hide!

Next Adventure:  Non-Perm in Retro