Change of plans. (Never forget, the first step in any plan is to plan to change the plan.) The first order of business today is to find someone to fix whatever is wrong with the Miata. Instead of going to a parts store or any old service station, we decided to take it to a Mazda dealer as there was one just a short distance away in South Tacoma. At first, they said they were booked and couldn’t help us until next Wednesday, but the service manager said he would check out the code and see if it was something catastrophic or something simple. Good news – it was not the oxygen sensor as we were previously told, but simply the gas cap was not secured tightly. The service manager tightened the gas cap, reset the on-board diagnostics code and sent us on our way. Many, many thanks to the service manager at South Tacoma Mazda

Starving, we went looking for breakfast and found a delightful mom & pop restaurant called the Homestead Restaurant and Bakery on S. Tacoma Way. The place is charming and the breakfast was fabulous. After feeding ourselves, we fed the Miata and got back on the road. Given the setback and the cloudy, rainy weather, we opted to skip Mt. Rainier and head for Crescent Lake on the Olympic Peninsula. (We have been to Mt. Rainier on past trips and we have been fortunate enough to see the mountain in its full glory.)

Tacoma Narrows Bridge – collapsed in 1942

We arrived at Lake Crescent, a place I have passed through but never stayed at. Our first stop was the lodge to see if there were any vacancies. Sadly, there were none. So we spent a little time wandering around the area taking photos and promising ourselves to come back again. It is truly magnificent. Like so many of our beautiful national parks, it’s a wonderful place to R&R. (But don’t come at peak season without reservations.)

US 101 in Olympic National Park

Crescent Lake

Crescent Lake Lodge

Inside – keep the home fires burning

The rain continued intermittently so we had to drive with the top up the entire day. Having missed out on a stay at Lake Crescent, we went on in search of a place to rest our weary selves. We searched high and low for a motel with a vacancy, but found none so we continued down US 101 and found ourselves near the Kalaloch Campgrounds that we had camped at 17 years ago. Since the weatherman promised a nice sunny day for tomorrow, we decided we would put up with the rain (it was a very light drizzle) and set up camp. We told the Goldilocks campers in us to “suck it up buttercup”. The views and the sunsets are not to be missed!  Our luck improved just as we arrived. The rain stopped and the sun started to come out. This is a campground with wooded and ocean front sites. We wanted to stay 2 nights, but no campsites were available for 2 nights in a row. Fortunately there were two sites close together, one open tonight and the other tomorrow night, so we booked them. Around noon, we had to move our camp from one site to the other, but that wound up being simple and took less than 1 hour to accomplish.

We had dinner, set up our site, enjoyed a walk on the beach under cloudy skies and took many photos. Afterward, we read our story and tucked in for the night.

Ocean beach at Kalaloch Campgound

Beach at low tide

View from the ocean

Guess which way the wind blows.