Overnight on Whidbey

On the second weekend in June (a few days after Jim and Jenny flew home), we headed across the border one Saturday afternoon for a quick visit to Kelly, Janae, Etta and Charlie on Whidbey Island. In addition to wanting to see them all, we had also been using them as our US mailing address for the previous couple of months, so quite a few parcels had accumulated for us!

We had a great time catching up with them... watching Etta drive around in her blue Mini (she has an awesome uncle!), going to the community swimming pool at a nearby beach, and eating scrumptious BBQ fish tacos.

Etta with her groovy ride!

Charlie and Finley catching up

Etta and Janae

Charlie and Etta

Big blue eyes!

Kelly cooking the fish for the tacos

It was a fun flying visit!

Bluegrass and Shakespeare... or not!

One Saturday morning at the end of August, we headed across the border with Angharad for a blissful overnight trip to Whidbey Island.  The plan for Saturday included going to a bluegrass festival at the Meerkirk Gardens, and then seeing a free outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Lunch at Calico Cupboard in Mt Vernon

Here are some photos we took at the peaceful Meerkirk Gardens as we meandered our way towards the distant strains of bluegrass music...

Once we reached the music, we realised that "festival" may have been a bit of an overstatement.  There were three bands playing throughout the day, one at a time.... and no queues for the site's three port-a-loos!  Anyway, it was a pleasant setting and we listened to most of the second band's set before deciding it was time to hit the road again if we wanted to have time to purchase the makings of a picnic dinner before the Shakespeare performance.

The band and the crowd

18 week photo

After getting ourselves picnic-ready, we headed to the outdoor performance venue, arriving only to find cardboard signs and sympathetic volunteers advising us that the evening's performance was already full. They'd had hundreds more people show up than they expected and were now turning carloads more away. Even our sob story of driving all the way from Canada was to no avail!

Anyway, we drove to a nearby beach - the same one we had eaten at with Kelly, Janae and Etta a month earlier - and enjoyed our picnic dinner there instead, watching cruise ships pass by and happy dogs frolic on the sand.

That night we stayed at a Dutch-themed motel in Oak Harbor, and on Sunday morning we had a hearty breakfast at a typical American diner down the road.

Our motel

Low-fat breakfast...?

After breakfast, we followed some of the locals to a meeting back on the mainland at Anacortes, and had lunch with them afterwards at their favourite Chinese restaurant.

That afternoon we drove home again, having had a slightly different kind of weekend to what we had anticipated, but a very nice one nonetheless!

Visiting Whidbey Island

At the end of July, we headed down to Whidbey Island (across the border and about 3 hours south) to visit Kelly, Janae and Etta.  We had a very relaxing and fun weekend with them, and it was great to see them getting settled in their new place!

We met their goats, Pig and Lydia...

Ben helped Kelly with some work...

We dug up their patio in search of a long-lost root cellar...

Sat around chatting and munching...

Had a BBQ at the beach while the sun set and cruise ships sailed past...

Played fabulous duets...

And had Sunday lunch in the cute town of Langley, after which we wandered through the shops and ate ice cream...

It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend - thanks guys!

Washington weekend, Post 1: Whidbey Island

At the end of July we had a long weekend for BC Day, and we spent it south of Seattle in Washington state, USA. As both of us are very busy at work at the moment, we have no big trips planned for this summer... so this is the year of weekends away. I'd been looking forward to this one for weeks!

On Friday night we crossed the border, stopped at Trader Joe's, and then had dinner at our new favourite restaurant in Bellingham: La Fiamma Wood Fire Pizza. This one had prosciutto, caramelized onions, mozzarella... and a salad on top!


Then we continued on to our destination for the night: our friends Kelly and Janae's new home at the south end of Whidbey Island! They're renovating a cute old house in the country, with the aim of subsequently relocating. We're going to love visiting them there! When coming from the north, the island is accessed via a bridge, but the next day we'd depart on a ferry from the south end (landing on the mainland 30 minutes north of Seattle).

We arrived sometime after 10pm, and sat up chatting and munching on Trader Joe's goodies for a while. In the morning, Janae cooked a delicious breakfast... and then the boys got to work on the window project! Meanwhile, Janae and I went into the nearby town of Langley to keep Etta out of the way of the window work. As we were driving out of their driveway, we saw three deer!

Langley was a picturesque little town full of interesting shops and cafes. I think a more in-depth exploration will be in order in the future!



Back at the house, here's the window project underway...





Janae and Etta...


Country charms...







Around 2pm, we set off for the ferry to the mainland. We'd intended to leave mid-morning, but we'd been having too much fun (thanks, K&J, for a great visit!). The ferry took 20 minutes and cost $9... Washington Ferries are a bit kinder to the wallet than BC Ferries!

Views from the ferry...




To be continued...