Morning dawned sunny but VERY chilly at our campsite at Minnie Peterson Campground in Olympic National Park. We stayed inside the tent until after 10 waiting for it to warm up. While we waited, we made reservations at an Airbnb in Shelton for the next day. We wanted a place to stay for the night before heading to Seattle on Monday. We found a place with great reviews for a really good price.

When we came out, it was still chilly so we drove to the nearby Hard Rain Cafe to grab some coffee rather than make our own. Sadly, it was closed when we arrived so we headed back to camp resigned to making our own. Fortunately, it had warmed up a bit and we saved $6 on the Americanos we would have ordered so all is well that ends well I guess.

By the time we drank our coffee, it was actually time for lunch so we fried some burgers on the propane stove. We realized that our campsite was not ideal for charging our solar panels and the very sunny site next door to us had opened up so we decided to move spots. Just as we started to take down the tent, a camper riding his bike across the US from Canada, came in looking for a spot. He took our old one while we moved to the sunnier one. Those were the only two available ones so the timing was perfect.

We were about to start organizing our new site when I got an email from our Airbnb host. I had sent a request a little earlier to move our reservation up a day as I was anxious for a shower and a break from the cold mornings. Our request was accepted so we packed up the jeep quickly and started the nearly 3-hour drive to Shelton. We stopped for a quick look at Ruby Beach on our way out of the park then made a beeline to our destination.

We were greeted by our hostess’s two sons who welcomed us and showed us around. After showers and clean clothes, we ordered pizza for dinner and then just relaxed. We were joined by the very friendly family cat and dog. The cat stayed with us for most of the night which we enjoyed. We met our hostess, Jenifer who was very friendly and welcoming. Francis was happy to finish watching Rogue One which he had started at our last hotel in Wyoming but not had time to finish.

It was so nice to wake up in a warm bed and be able to go into an actual kitchen to make a cup of coffee. We enjoyed bagels and fruit from the nice selection of breakfast items Jennifer has available for guests. It was great to have wifi and a comfortable table to work from. Jenifer’s oldest son Dylan was home and he was very good company. Late in the afternoon, we took a ride into town for ice cream. I was excited to see that Dairy Queen had my favorite pumpkin pie blizzard on the seasonal menu. We brought back blizzards for the kids which made us very popular house guests. We spent a very pleasant evening visiting with Jenifer and a friend of hers conversing about all kinds of things. The nice thing about Airbnbs over hotels is getting to know the hosts in different ways. If you ever find yourself in Sheldon, Washington and need a place to stay, check out Jenifer’s place on Airbnb.