This week, my family went to Seaside without me. That sounds sad, and it slightly is, missing out on the beach time — but I’ve also enjoyed one of the most relaxing and fun weeks I’ve had in many years. One of the fun things I got to do was take Friday off work to take my friend Teresa on a roadtrip.

Now, I’m not a huge roadtrip person. Very long drives just feel very long to me. If I’m going to spend time with a friend, I’d prefer to play a game or go for a hike. But extenuating circumstances have arisen: Teresa has a broken leg, and has to keep all weight off her leg for many weeks. I suggested this roadtrip to get her out of the house.

Boy did I succeed! The day went like this: At about 8:00 am I left to drive to Teresa’s house in Ballard and parked my car there. I drove her car, which, having a gasoline engine, wouldn’t leave us high and dry at some point. Then we drove to Edmonds, where we waited in a ferry line for a good long time. As we paid, I asked the lady if we could have a window “seat,” since Teresa would need to stay in the car, and the gal very kindly arranged for us to get a great spot near the front on the right side of the ferry that had a great view. Off the ferry, Teresa plotted a route that would take us past several bakeries on our way to Port Townsend. Once we got to Port Townsend, we visited the beach at Fort Worden (sat and looked at it from the pavement, I should say), then went into town to acquire ice cream. Then we drove back to the ferry and waited for an hour and a half. Eventually we arrived back in Edmonds, where I drove through increasing traffic to Ballard, where we swapped our cars. I drove home through heavy traffic, paying the toll to avoid some of the mess, and finally arrived back in Bothell at about 6:30 pm.

A picture being worth a thousand words, here’s a few thousand more words:

Despite how long it felt, I had a delightful day. It was just great to get to spend a whole day with Teresa chatting and hanging out.