Pacific Northwest Trip 2018 Day 3 Tuesday July 17: Olympia, Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Cosmopolis

UPDATED: February 12, 2021 

This is the 3rd of a series of posts dealing with my 2018 trip to Olympia, Seattle, and vicinity. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports (typos, bits I don’t feel like making public). Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of two years later or to add further clarification.  These are indicated by “NOW”.

First a few oversights from yesterday. Near the Sequim Restrooms I sat down briefly at the small park Seal Street Park. Not small by the standards of Mill Ends Park in Portland but small by most other standards. Riding the bus from Lacey to Olympia I found a notice that SR512 Park & Ride has temporarily closed. Given that I had planned to switch buses there on Thursday I appreciated the heads up. At the Capitol there's a drinking fountain by Tivoli Fountain which you turn on using a foot pedal.

NEW: I left Ground Inn and walking to the Capitol, then took the winding path to Capitol Lake. I had a bit of PTSD doing that walk. I crossed bridges to the east side and back, then wandered around the waterfront, looking at art pieces, including one looking like a fable pig. I wandered downtown some more, including Sylvester park. I returned to the hostel for breakfast. Unfortunately the only toast they had had raisins in it.

 

[NOW: Ground Inn has closed.]

I walked to the Greyhound Depot, where the Gray's Harbor Transit bus I wanted (all buses today that service; this was the 40) was there but not yet loading. I walked across the street to Sylvester Lake, then walked to Capitol Lake and back. The fare was $2 for zone 2 and $1 for zone 1 so I asked if I could pay $5 to get the $3 zone 1 daypass; I could and did. The weather became overcast as we went west.

I took the bus to Aberdeen Transit Center in of course Aberdeen, nearly two hours. I accidentally left my maps of places along the way at the hostel, but that's okay. They weren't that interesting and I decided I'd prefer to spend more time in Greater Aberdeen area. I crossed the street to Ride Aid and back. By then the 20 bus was there. The right side was almost full on my preferred right side, so I sat on the left, but then enough parents with kids showed up that I could get away with switching to the last seat on the right.

This particular run to Hoquiam wasn't supposed to detour to the hospital but did anyway. Then there was a long pause due to a drawbridge being up. So a 15 minute bus ride took around half an hour.  I wandered around Hoquiam a bit after getting off at Hoquiam Transit Center, looking for a particular store that i thought was in Hoquiam but proved to be in Aberdeen. One grocery store the Asian owner didn't seem to understand me. Lots of DVDs there but I didn't get any.

Here the trip started to take a seriously wrong turn: I turned my camera back on and got a lens error so there was a period where I couldn't get pictures, and my other camera was back in Olympia. Finally out of frustration I whacked it and it started to work again. Then it stopped working until changed that battery. Now it worked for the rest of today aside from very brief lens error, but is still in less than perfect shape: even when off the lens is extended the way it should be when it’s on. So I will have to carry my backup camera and batteries with me at all times. Only, the largest section of my backpack is prone to splitting every so often each day, so will have to carry the extra camera and its batteries separately so the camera doesn't drop during a backpack split.

[NOW: I’ve since replaced the backpack. The camera worked for the rest of the trip.]

I crossed the bridge along Simpson to the east side of Hoquiam (I wanted to do this three years ago but they were doing bridge work then) and walked along, getting a few freebies at a Visitor Info Center just after crossing back over from Hoquiam to Aberdeen. I found the store i was looking for earlier (Sucher & Sons, mostly a Star Wars store) right by Aberdeen Transit Center. The place is practically a museum for Star Wars stuff, with a small amount of other memorabilia. The guy clearly loves his work. He was so enthusiastic that I bought a Star Wars drink cup because I would have felt bad not buying anything.

I went to Jack in the Box for lunch, but no one was at the counter, so after a few minutes I left and crossed a bridge to the east side of Aberdeen. I checked to see if KFC has the Tuesday deal in the US. They didn't, but I got two large pieces of chicken, two biscuits, a drink, a cookie, and a decent sided container of mashed potatoes and gravy for $5.99. I considered going to the Walmart across the street but was getting mindful about the time. There is another bridge back to the west side but the pedestrian area was closed, so I returned to the earlier bridge and crossed over, then crossed another bridge to the south end of Aberdeen. I walked south to Shopping at Riverside. In that mall I got a couple DVDs at Videogame Nuts, then took a 10S bus back to Aberdeen Transit Center.

 

[NOW: Videogame Nuits has closed.]

There the 30 bus I wanted was late leaving but finally I was able to Cosmopolis. Cosmopolis is about as inversely interesting as its name. In fact the only thing that really caught my eye was the Chevron. I did a dash and managed to intercept the 30 on its way back to Aberdeen, where I again got off at the Transit Center.

I had about a hour to kill so I got a couple cans of ice tea at the Rite Aid (with my Wellness Card they cost me total a little over $1). I noticed a snake statue in one outdoor part of the store. I visited a grocery store whose name was something like Jo's Deli and then Dream Secondhand Store. I saw a diner made to look like a 1950s Shell Station. I returned to Aberdeen Transit Center. The return bus trip was 90 minutes and there was a washroom for patrons only, so I found a help window and showed a woman inside my daypass, so she pressed a button to unlock the bathroom.

[NOW: The deli was probably Joe's Deli. The diner is Scoops Ice Cream and Coffee.]

I took the 40 bus back to downtown Olympia. I revisited Rainy Day Records (bought a couple movies; one on Blu-ray was called Cosmopolis so I couldn't resist the irony of buying that today), Orca Books (didn't see the cat), Left Bank Books.

 

[NOW: Orca Books has moved.]

I went to the same McDonald's as yesterday. At various places they try to explain how to use the Visa card when I use tap. I always explain that it's working and when they say they didn’t know you could do that, I tell them that we've had it in Canada a while. I then walked to Heritage Park Fountain and relaxed there briefly and then to Danger Room Comics.

[NOW: This McDonald’s is on Plum Rd.]

I returned to the hostel and dropped off my backpack. I walked to the Capitol where I saw a couple rabbits. I took the same path to Capitol Lake as earlier today; a jogging team was using the path as well. I passed Heritage Park Fountain and made my way to the Market Square by the waterfront. I walked east  to the East Bay before returning to the hostel.