Sunday morning on Lopez Island was cool and misty as we waited for the ferry to Anacortes. Karen took in some fresh air on the ‘pickle fork’ deck on the ride over. A few dolphins cavorted in the boat’s wake along the way.
It was time for Uncle Steve and Aunt Karen to pay a visit to their nephew, Adam, his wife Amy and their two sons, Finnegan and Forrest. It has been more than four years since the last time we’ve seen them.
Adam and Amy have really settled into the Pacific Northwest lifestyle. They’re wearing T-shirts, while we’re bundled up in coats and jackets. They mix their full time careers with hiking, running (Amy just participated in a half marathon last week, and Adam’s training for a 50K ultra marathon in a couple weeks), soccer (Finnegan) and gymastics (Forrest), among other activities.
After getting brought up to date on the ‘Wings of Fire’ graphic novel series, we headed out for a nice dinner in downtown Snohomish and a quick walk along the riverfront. By the time we finished, it was time for us to get to our hotel for the evening. Although it was a short visit, we had a wonderful time and we hope to see these guys again soon.
This morning (Monday) was a picture perfect autumn day - crisp, cool and clear with no wind. We caught the ferry from Mukilteo to Whidbey Island with no problem, and we were on our way.
First stop was the artsy little village of Langley on the southeast end of the island. There’s a whale museum in town that keeps track of daily whale sightings in the Saratoga Passage between Camano Island and Whidbey Island. Like in many fishing tales, we should have been there yesterday - that’s when a couple of humpback whales were spotted. Today, no luck…
From there, we got on the main drag, Highway 525, and went north to the community of Greenbank, where there were supposed to be some seaside bluff views of Holmes Harbor. We didn’t see them, but we found Hidden Beach on a little side road.
It was time for another lighthouse, so we went over to the west side of the island to Fort Casey State Park. In contrast to the gigantic artillery gun emplacements left over from the early 20th century, there were gentle little deer grazing in the nearby grassy fields.
While there, we saw a woman going through the fields filling a large bag with wild mushrooms. Karen asked her how she knew these were safe to eat. She told Karen that she was a researcher and this was the perfect time to harvest, dry, and eat these ‘meadow’ mushrooms. To me, they just looked like the toadstools you see in your front yard - no thanks!
Next, we made a short stop at Ebey Landing Overlook. This looks down on a fertile farmland valley on the central west coast of the island. There is also a cemetery on this road that has a so-called ‘blockhouse’ on it. This one, the Davis Blockhouse, was built in 1855 as defense against the indigenous tribe on the island. It seems there was an attack against the settlers in retribution for some U.S. ‘relocation’ skullduggery the year before that had resulted in the loss of several tribal members.
Further up the west coast is Fort Ebey State Park. When we got there, the sun had gone away and it was cold and overcast. We’ve noticed that the trees on all these islands tend to capture whatever moisture is in the air and keep it localized in the forested areas. The roads and trails always seem to be wet and cold. This is perfect weather for - surfing! With the cloud covered Olympic Range across Admiralty Inlet as a background, these guys were pumping the shore break like they do down in Huntington Beach.
At the north end of Whidbey Island is Deception Pass, named by the explorer, George Vancouver, because he was so disappointed in the navigability of this narrow channel between Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands. George was charitable enough, however, to name Whidbey Island after his junior officer, Joseph Whidbey (who was the one who sailed into Deception Pass and had the unenviable task of telling his boss it wasn’t a good route).
There’s an impressive bridge across the pass, and you can see it from the day use area of the State Park. A hiking trail goes from the park to the bridge on a 2 mile round trip route. I set my Strava to ‘hike’ mode and took off on the trail to get some photos. About a quarter mile later, I had a George Vancouver moment when I realized the trail was closed. No one had told me about this. There was no indication of this until I came upon it. I felt…deceived!
Back on the road, we found a pull out just before crossing the bridge. It was all I could do to hold my hands steady on the camera as I looked over the edge into the churning eddies of current down below. There’s lots of construction going on right now in the vicinity of the bridge, and a whole team of painters was working on the structure as traffic flowed by.
On the way back to Everett, we stopped at the waterfront town of La Conner. It’s set in flat farmland near Skagit Bay and looks like it’s probably a hopping little place on the weekends. Today was pretty quiet.
Last stop tonight was the Scuttlebutt Brewery right across the parking lot from our hotel. Karen had a pineapple upside down cake cocktail made with locally-distilled brown sugar bourbon. It tasted just like you were biting into a freshly baked cake. Back in the room we’re figuring out how to get all our stuff back into the suitcases, after having half our stuff strewn about the rental car for the past three weeks.
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