You sometimes see folks on here visiting Seattle who want to take a day to see the Olympic Peninsula. It’s really too far for a reasonable day trip from the city, but if you’re already in Port Angeles I recommend heading west instead of east for a day. Two of our favorite places are Rialto Beach and the aforementioned Hoh Rainforest. Neither should be too crowded this time of year. You could hit both in one day from PA, including a solid hike up the rainforest trail and some leisurely beach walking. They’re two very unique PNW places and a neat way to get beach and forest in a single day. You’ll need solid rain gear, but measurable snow is very unlikely. (If it’s stormy, Rialto is especially amazing - full-size tree trunks get tossed about in the surf!) Take advantage of your base camp location!

If you’re on the FB, there’s a community where folks post when they’re trying to transfer or trade reservations. It covers all campgrounds and not just National Parks. Gets pretty busy once the weather improves. Might be worth checking out. Pretty sure Reddit won’t let me link to it, but it’s called PNW Camping Reservations Re-listings.

Also, please proceed with caution on your relationship, especially when tying up finances. I’m sure you two are 100% committed, but I have a close friend who got seriously burned by a non-citizen after they got married and became a citizen. Turns out she was definitely NOT the person anybody thought she was. It’s weird and rare, but he’s still dealing with stuff years later.

I mean, proceed with caution. The kid who processed ours was pretty green. You could get a crusty old lifer at the office who says otherwise. But at least take comfort that the system technically allows it.

All opinions and cautions aside (which I mostly agree with), yes, she can be named on the title but not on the registration. We (married) recently bought a used truck. When we signed over the title only my wife put her name down. I ended up registering it. It’s now registered in just my name, while the title is just in hers. Maybe an oversight by the kid at the licensing office, but here we are. And since we’re legally married, it doesn’t matter too much since all of our property is shared according to WA State.

We also had a good experience with BECU with an auto loan. I think it probably helped that we already banked with them, so in addition to the dealership connection they had it was super-easy to set up automatic payments. That said, it’s been a few years (that loan is long paid off) and as our general banking institution we’re not 100% happy with them. Too much to go into detail here, but basically we feel they project that they’re as competent as big banks in tech and customer service knowledge, but that’s not the case. We like they’re a CU, so still with them now, but casually looking at alternatives. Anyway, if they can offer a competitive interest rate, I would still say go for it.

Yeah I also disagree. It was a few years ago, and our final loan was about that, but when we got pre-approved to see how much we could borrow, they were prepared to let us borrow more than twice that amount.

I have AT&T and service is basically non-existent unless in Forks. I camp solo out that way frequently and personally find it refreshing to disconnect. It’s part of the experience. My phone is only used as a camera and if I need to check in I just go to Forks. I also fish solo on the rivers and have a Garmin satellite device for emergencies. It’s tiny and lets me send/receive simple text messages if needed (at five cents apiece on top of a monthly subscription plan) and has an SOS button if I ever need serious immediate help. If you’re worried about safety, I’d recommend something like that. Otherwise, try disconnecting! Even if service was an option, please don’t make audio calls while hiking trails. You’d be intruding on the solitude others went out there to find.

I highly recommend an Alaska trip. If you like majestic scenery like the PNW, it’s kinda like that but on a much MUCH larger scale. Like, mind-blowing big. Explore the southeast. Get on your feet and hike. To me, it’s the absolute best place on the planet to explore. I also like people, and music, and culture, so live in Seattle to get that social fix, but travel to Alaska at least once a year to really absorb true wilderness.

A few times I’ve forgotten to write in any plate numbers, and have never been cited. But we don’t often visit busy parks in the high season. If you want to game the system, you could leave it blank and hope the ranger would let you write in at the time (if caught in-person). That said, if you can afford it, it’s $35 to buy a second pass, and the parks can use the $$. We currently have three vehicles so have two passes.

Related: I was once pulled over in an old beater for reportedly going 92 MPH. I respectfully asked the officer to look at my car and tell me if he really thought it could go that fast (it would vibrate like crazy by 70, so, no). I didn’t get the speeding ticket but of course he cited me for a non-working tail light instead. Just saying they definitely make mistakes. Contest it.

I once chatted with a guy who was an attorney on the list for Microsoft employees - apparently low-level representation is an included benefit there? Anyway, he said he dealt with this kind of thing all the time and was almost always successful in getting them dismissed. So even if your employer doesn’t offer this, it’s probably worth finding a lawyer. It might cost a bit but hopefully less than the ticket. Good luck!