Family Matters

By Ken David

Ever since I bought the 356 from Russ a few years ago, my son Kevin and I have talked about taking it on a road trip. I had always thought of taking it along the Pacific Coast Highway into northern California. Two recent driving trips down south soured me on the idea, so instead we decided to circle Washington state where I grew up. We chose the second week in September for our trip. Crowds would be thinned out and the weather would still be good. We decided to limit our driving to around 200 miles per day so we could enjoy the various roads and destinations and not overtax the car and our luck.

The first day we visited my brother Jim in Issaquah and indulged in some wonderful artery clogging burgers prepared on his backyard grill. Per his advice, we approached Leavenworth, our first night’s stop via Blewitt pass instead of Highway 2 north of Seattle. The great scenery began as we turned off onto the pass. No trucks, a semi-windy road, blue sky and virgin forest…very nice. We arrived at Leavenworth at 5PM, only 3 hours from my brother’s place. We stayed at the Hotel Enzian. It deserved it’s ‘best in town” rating. As we checked in, we were told we could play a free round of golf on their putting course. As visions of windmills danced in our heads, we approached the course to find it spanned 10-20 acres and was laid out with PGA quality putting greens. The surrounding hillside was graced by mountain goats…we tied. We had an authentic German dinner and in the morning the Enzian puts on a real breakfast feast complete with a fellow in lederhosen blowing a five foot alphorn.

The next destination was Winthrop. We headed up HW 97 following the Columbia most of the way past Lake Chelan. We arrived midday, after only a little difficultly finding the town. The western theme lacked the quality of Leavenworth, but we had a nice dinner nonetheless. The forest fires had darkened the blue sky to a hazy grey by the end of the day. The next morning we were awakened by a “whooshing” sound outside. Given the surrounding fire situation, it made us a little nervous. The source was a hot air balloon taking off on the adjacent field…pretty cool. Winthrop sits at the base of the North Cascades Highway 20. As we approached Washington Pass, the smoky skies gave way to brilliant blue skies, 10,000 foot peaks and turquoise blue lakes.

Kevin drove the 356 on the nicest stretch of sports-car road on the trip to Anacortes, where we took a ferry to Lopez Island in the San Juans…the ferry attendant gave the 356 its own “safe” berth. We stayed at Lopez Farms Cottages and Tent Camping, bravely looking past the “voted one of the 10 best places to woo in the US by MSNBC." Our cottage was great! The only wooing we observed was among the billion head of rabbit we shared the 40 acre farm with. John, the proprietor who was “retired but still working,” shared entertaining stories of running out of gas in the desert. He kept commenting, “nice big son..nice little car.” Lopez is a great place to stay, really laid back…we played golf at their semi-private links course. It sits next to their airport with signs along the fairways.."do not hit balls while planes are taking off." We played during their annual awards event and managed not to hit anyone.

For the final leg we ferried back to Anacortes, drove the length of Whidbey Island, then caught another ferry to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. Another great drive. That evening we stayed at the Lake Quinault lodge…beautiful wooden lodge built in the 40’s, set deep into the Olympic Park. Our room had a great view of the lake and wireless internet to update our fantasy baseball teams. From Lake Quinault we stayed on highway 101, took a detour onto highway 12 and finally hit I-5 near Chehalis, then onto Portland. We drove 1100 miles in six days…about right for a vintage car trip. John said it all…"Nice big son…nice little car"…a highly recommended trip.