More adventures in this beautiful part of the world
We live about 45 minutes south of Mukilteo, at bottom right of this map above. Our goal was to drive up to Marysville (on I-5 on right of map about 1/3 of the way up), then go through the Tulalip Indian Reservation, along the coast, onto Camano Island, back to the mainland, up the small road you see connecting with 20, onto Fidalgo Island (top middle of map), over Deception Pass on to Whidbey Island, drive the length of the island and then take the ferry from the bottom of the island over to Mukilteo. The map below shows our route.
On the map, the road through the Tulalip Indian Reservation appears to go along the coast. We were expecting wonderful views. In most places we couldn't see the water for all the trees - beautiful, tall evergreen trees.
Camano Island was our first stop. The narrow Davis Slough separates the island from the mainland. On some maps the mainland is shown, then another piece of land is labeled as a different island, then comes Camano Island. When you look at the island on the satellite view of a map program, the area looks more like a peninsula than two islands and the mainland.
Camano Island - 6 miles across at its widest (most of it about 2 miles wide)
16 miles long
Population 15,000 in July 2007
We drove around the island a bit and had lunch at the Camano Island Marketplace. FYI - I haven't been able to find out what, if anything, the dinosaur sculpture has to do with the island.
On our way up to Deception Pass and Whidbey Island, we noticed white "blobs" littering many fields. We finally stopped the car to look more closely. Snow geese overwinter in this area. Most of the birds fly to Wrangel Island, off northern Siberia, to nest.
This area with the snow geese is not far from the tulip fields that we visited last spring.
We drove on to Fidalgo Island. We blogged about a previous trip to this island here. These pictures were taken at Deception Pass on Fidalgo Island, looking at Whidbey Island in the distance.
The water was a beautiful deep greenish blue color.
Click on any photo for a larger image
The sun tried to come out off and on throughout the day
Whidbey Island is about 35 miles long and 1.5 to 12 miles wide
In 2000 census there were 58,000 residents
Oak Harbor is at the northern end of Whidbey Island. It is home to the Naval Air Station. The Naval Air Station was Joe's first introduction to the Pacific Northwest. When he was in the Navy and stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, he flew into and out of the Naval Air Station.
This windmill was built in 1979 to honor the Dutch heritage of the Oak Harbor area.
It is a storage shed for the parks department and Little League. source
Coupeville is a charming waterfront, farming community
Lavender Wind store is full of products that smell good and are good for you! Their lavender fields are just outside of town. We'll probably visit them when they are in full bloom.
This straggly plant grows at the bottom of a utility pole on the sidewalk. As you can see, it's already blooming. It's only the middle of February. We also saw blooming shrubs.
Fun sculptures in Coupeville
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We had dinner in Langley. The Langley Village Eatery was the only place that was open. Carlos, the owner/cook remembered us from our visit several weeks previously. We had a long conversation with Carlos - talked about keeping a restaurant afloat in a tourist town in the winter and many other topics.
At Clinton, we took the 20 minute ferry ride to Mukilteo and wound our way home.
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This was a fun adventure, done without our GPS. Since we didn't know exactly where we were going, we couldn't enter anything into the GPS. We had our trusty paper maps for general directions and just followed the signs and roads that looked interesting. Figured you can't get too lost if you're on an island!
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