What? The rains have paused. Let’s get out there.

It was the wettest winter in history here in western Washington, but that didn’t stop us from curling up in front of the fireplace and TV and staying there for months.

But finally… three glorious, rain-free days were predicted. We jumped onto the washington.goingtocamp website and snagged a waterfront site at our “back  yard” state park (Belfair — only 45 minutes from home). Toto emerged from the side yard, and enjoyed an extended spa treatment to remove his winter coat of green scum. And off to the park we went.

It really was a nice campsite. Quieter, of course, in mid-April, mid-week.

It wasn’t especially warm — mostly in the 50s — but careful chair positioning and strategic use of the portable fire pit kept us comfortable. Tyler and Wally were happy to engage in extensive napping inside the Toto. I fooled around a lot with a new camera (thanks, fambly, for the wonderful gift!).

Mornings brought fog to the Hood Canal. Or fog brought the mornings. How can we know? Also, please note frost on picnic table. Also note cleaning fluid spray bottles. It is Spring, the time of Toto cleanup.

Whilst at our campsite, we welcomed hot water into Toto’s digestive system for the first time in five months. This did not occur without some misadventure. It turns out that winterizing an RV is not enough to ensure tranquility and unbroken things; one must also un-winterize. More on that later.

A lovely little salmon stream empties into the canal just down from our campsite.

Yeah, the salmon flop their way up here every November and croak. People have Festivals to celebrate, or, more likely, to sell arts and crafts that have gone unsold — quick, before the steady rains set in.

This creek area gets much shadier after the trees leaf out. It’s good to see it in all its lovely states.

If you’re dry-camping, you can get a campsite right along the creek, which runs for much of the summer, if summer is normal for around here, which is to say there is still some rain, on and off. Maybe we’ll try it some time — though we’ll have to be frugal with electrons, because our solar panels won’t be able to gather many soltrons or whatever they are.

Any time other than high tide, you can walk out onto a rocky-sandy point and take pictures of your RV. Yes, that is a thing people do. This is what they capture. All of that grass in the foreground is underwater at high tide. But, who cares.

Not him.

There may be some interest here. If it involves food.

We rented a movie and watched it one night in the TotoLounge. The Big Short, I think. It didn’t really fit with the wilderness theme of our stay.

But a lovely stay it was. We will surely be back to Belfair some time — it’s so close to home. But the months ahead will take us on two long-ish trips through different parts of Oregon, up to British Columbia, down to Mount Rainier National Park, back up to the Olympic Peninsula, and to a raft of Egg Gatherings. We will surely enjoy them all.

If I don’t break the water heater again.