Several months ago, two “Middle Eastern-looking” men got their photos posted in local newspapers because they had been photographing parts of a Washington State Ferry that tourists don’t typically photograph. My prediction, at the time, was that they would turn out to be model ship builders and would win a prize for their detailed ferry model. My prediction turned out to be pretty close: The two men, it was recently reported, were from an unnamed “European Union nation,” where there are no ferries like the ones that cross Puget Sound, and they were wanted to show the folk back home what a super ferry looks like.

I was thinking about those two unfortunate men yesterday, as Phillip and I were on the upper deck of the Fauntleroy-Southworth ferry, watching the cars unload at Vashon Island. Phillip and I were wondering aloud how cars going from Vashon to Southworth would be loaded onto the ferry, since the cars from Fauntelroy were facing toward the dock and the Vashon cars would be driving on facing the opposite direction. Phillip had one theory, and I had another. As we discussed our differing theories, it occurred to me that we might be showing too much interest in the workings of the ferry, and we would end up with our photo in the newspapers.

We were ferrying across Puget Sound for a geocaching event, of course. In the middle of the event, when there wasn’t anything planned, we went out and Found four caches in the area. Phillip woke up with a headache, and I was feeling a bit lackluster about the event, so we agreed that it wasn’t among our favorite geocaching days. There was a fifth geocache that we started to look for, but ultimately didn’t feel right about the search, so we left and went on to another one. I remarked to Phillip, later, that I was glad that he and I both value the experience over the numbers, so that we can walk away from a cache we don’t like and not feel like we’ve missed anything.

The ferry rides were worth the trip yesterday, though. We both love riding the ferry boats, and the views they offer. After the event, we decided, instead of returning to Southworth, we would drive north to Bremerton and ferry back to downtown from there. It’s one of our favorite ferry routes. When we got the terminal, the man in the booth warned us that we might not make it onto the ferry which was just starting to load. When’s the next ferry, we asked. It was an hour away, the man answered, and offered us a refund if we wanted it. We didn’t mind the wait, we answered, truthfully. We had driven to Bremerton without having looked at the schedule, and we were in no rush to get back home.

Our car was the third-to -last one loaded onto the ferry. We didn’t have to wait for the next one. As we drove onto the boat, I could see an unmistakable look of excitement on the ferry employees’ faces. There was a small space on the side of that was exactly the right length for our little Prius. Our front bumper was an inch or two from the rear bumper of the car parked ahead of us, and our rear bumper was right on the edge of the “Keep Clear” area. I love small cars.

Today was Writers’ Group. I woke up this morning with nothing written. I’d been thinking all week that I wanted to write about the King County Thomas Guide Challenge, and how it got us out of our geocaching slump, but I just never got motivated to start writing. This morning, I started writing. I figured I should bring something - even if it is unfinished.

I surprised myself. I finished my piece before it was time to leave for the the group, I said just what I wanted to say, and I liked how it turned out.

Writers’ Group turned out to be just Don and Barbara and me. My piece got a good reaction from the other two members. Barbara had an interesting criticism. (This group is not big on offering criticisms.) Although she was familiar with the concept of geocaching, it was not clear to Barbara what I meant by “finding a cache on the page.” She was right - I should have explained that it was finding a geocache in the part of the county mapped on the page. (Or, something like that.)

After Writers’ Group, Jo and Denise came over for a Pentecost meal, which I stayed for. It was good seeing the two of them again, even if Jo kept bringing up the suggestion that I start attending church again.