BEST EVER weekend getaway! Funny story, this one.
We left Friday around 4pm for our weekend of camping.
We hit Fred Meyer in Burlington around 7pm after having a quick dinner with our friends in Mount Vernon. We headed to the park from there around 8pm and arrived at the park in the dark at 8:45pm.
The campground host was off duty and no lights on. Our cabin did not have a car in front of it and was dark.
John went to the front door to see if there might be a key and found a note that was addressed to the previous guests...let's call them the Changs...the note said “collecting firewood is illegal and call me for the new door lock code” signed "The Park Ranger". Whatever.
We swung around and saw a ranger house with a lamp on. Yep, knocked on the door. Ranger came to the door..John explained that we needed to get into our cabin and needed firewood. John wrote the code on the back of the note we got at the cabin (the note addressed to the Changs). Got some firewood. Headed back to the cabin. Parked in our empty spot.
Excited, we all grabbed some stuff and went to put in the code in the door. I noticed a tablecloth outside on the picnic table...weird.
Well, when we opened the door and turned on the lights-THERE WAS STUFF IN THERE! Like someone was living there! But no people, no car. ??
Uh...now what.
We headed back to the ranger’s house (!) Uh, excuse me, but there’s someone’s stuff in our cabin. So we walked down the road to the gatehouse and the ranger checked our reservation...DUH...our reservation is for SATURDAY NIGHT only!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uhhhhh....I made the reservation in June and forgot it was for only one night! I remember thinking one night, but I didn’t write anything on the calendar...it was on my “hiking summer calendar” for this weekend and I assumed Fri/Sat nights. We had to drive ALL the way back home.
But here’s the HILARIOUS part. Where were the Changs? What if we had walked right in on them? Well, I suppose there would have been lights on, but the lights were off and their car gone.
When John went to the ranger’s house the first time, we now realize that the ranger thought he was Mr. Chang. John said, “we need to get into our cabin” and the ranger said, “yeah, I had to change the code” (John thought “ok, fine”) ...John said, “what do we do about firewood” and the ranger
said “well, it’s illegal to collect firewood, so I can sell you a bundle”. (John thought “sure, I know it’s illegal to collect, I just need to buy some firewood”) None of this seemed strange to us, but the ranger thought he was talking to Chang because the ranger had left the Changs a note!
Then when we went back the second time, John told the ranger our name so he could check the reservation!!! He must have put it all together after we left, like we did.
The SAD thing is that we forgot to put the note back! Those poor Changs were going to get back to their cabin for the night and not realize they have a new code, the door will not open for them! They won’t know WHAT is going on!!!!! And who knows where they went or when they’ll be back! It was 9:30ish by the time we left the park! They have no idea that we were there!
We went BACK to the cabin on Saturday afternoon and had a MARVELOUS time riding bikes, playing on the playground and shooting hoops before it got dark. The weather was simply PHENOMENAL and we decided to stay Sunday night as well.
We left Monday and ventured east through Concrete to Rockport State Park (sadly, the campground and many trailheads were closed) and Steelhead County Park. It is salmon spawning season, so we found several dead salmon along the sandy beach on the Skagit river. We stopped at Hurn Field and saw an elk herd in the shade...well, I DID. The rest of the family sat in the van! From there we headed back to I5 and north to Chuckanut Drive. Can't wait to go back to Rasar because we LOVED the cabin!
