Port Orchard WA - Manchester State Park

Our next stop is Manchester State Park, which is 60 miles to the north of Tumwater and is almost directly west (across the Puget Sound) of Seattle. Manchester State Park is another cool, green, shady State Park.

The entrance to the Port Orchard waterway is a short walk from the campground. One of the beaches was in a well protected cove and is covered in seaweed so not as clean and pretty as other Washington beaches. However, it is a good spot if you want to launch a kayak or just watch the Seattle-Bremerton ferry go by.

However just a short walk up a little trail...

We came to this nice point of land that looked out onto the Sound and east towards Seattle

It was from this home base that we head to Bremerton (about 15 miles away) to catch the ferry into Seattle. Finding parking (when we don't know our way around) was a little challenging. We do manage to make it on to the ferry in time, and it's a beautiful day for a ride into Seattle.

Our day in Seattle starts with the roaring noise of the city! Wow, how loud can a freeway be? We walk to Pike's Market and wander through and gawk at the shops on our way to meet up with our friend, Craig, for lunch. It's been a lot of years, and it is wonderful to see him again. Unfortunately, we missed seeing Cynthia and the kids, as they were not returning from vacation until the next day. Well, hopefully, next time...

After Craig walked with us over to a GREAT little deli (gold stars for Craig's lunch choice! :-]) we grabbed some sandwiches, and head up to the 7th floor of Craig's office building for lunch with a spectacular view of Seattle.

We had a great lunch, enjoyed a little reminiscing and getting at least a little caught up to our present day lives. Craig had to get back to work and we DIDN'T, soooo we after saying our good byes, we head off to explore more of Seattle before catching the ferry back to Bremerton. It made for a long, but enjoyable day.

Mount Rainer "floating" in the background