What should have been...

***I took this photo literally a few footsteps from our campground on San Juan Island when we were camping there August 2018***

Today, we should have been catching a 10:20 ferry boat out of Anacortes for the 1.5 hour sailing to San Juan Island where we were to go camping for the next two nights and three days.  But, instead we are not.  After making a reservation exactly 90 days in advance (in order to reserve the best campsite closest to the water) for June 30 to July 2nd, I found out at the beginning of June that all reservations had been cancelled for the month of June due to Covid-19.  Naturally, I was totally annoyed since we missed the cut off date by ONE day!  We also totally could have left on July 1st to go camping, but I intentionally scheduled our trip to leave on June 30th so that we could get home on the 2nd to give us a "down day" before our long day up at Lake Samm for the 4th of July.  Anyways, after learning that our trip had been cancelled, I immediately hopped online to see if there were any campsites available July 1st through 3rd.  Luckily, there were two still left, but neither one of them were in as good of a spot as the one we stayed in two years ago.  So, although we were disappointed that we would not get to stay in our beloved campsite #16, I quickly made new reservations trying to just be grateful for the opportunity that our family would still have to return back to this beautiful island for another camping adventure this summer.

Fast forward to yesterday when I received a call from the campground ranger informing me that San Juan Island did NOT receive permission to move into Phase 3 like they had planned on July 1st due to a recent spike in the Coronavirus on the island.  As a result, they only received permission to open up the campground on July 1st with 50% of the campsites occupied.  As luck would have it, our campsite did not make the cut and our reservation was being cancelled.  I couldn't believe it!  This was turning into the same scenario as our attempted Hawaii trips!  After calling and cancelling our ferry reservations, Ron and I decided that he should still try to take the older three children camping since he had already taken the days off work and since the kids were already looking forward to it.  Since it was too late to make reservations anywhere else, Ron decided to do something that he has never done before--take off with the kids, the camper, and everything packed up and drive 2 to 3 hours to the Olympic National Forest with no reservations.  He had read about two campgrounds in this national forest a while ago and has always wanted to check them out.  Both of these campgrounds allow half of the campsites to be reserved in advance and the other half to be set aside for first-come, first-serve campers.  Since all of the campsites that could be reserved in advanced were taken, he got up early this morning and pulled out of our driveway with the kids and camper in tow by 9 o'clock.  And since he will not have cell service while they are out in the national forest, I am crossing my fingers that no news means good news.  Hopefully, they have found an available campsite by now and have settled in for the next three days making the time, money, and effort to drive all the way out there worth it!  Time will only tell...