Summer 2017 in Anacortes, WA

We arrived at our Anacortes campground on May 14 to spend the summer.  So what did we do parked in one spot for 3 months?  Let me tell you about some of our favorite activities!

In the photo above you see Abe all settled in.  You might wonder what’s under the covers in front of the bus.  Our bikes, of course!  We used our picnic table as a rack and had them readily accessible to hop on the Tommy Thompson trail for a ride to March Point or into town.  

The trail, a converted railroad bed, connects Weaverling Spit to March Point via a trestle.  Designed for hiking and biking, the trail was always interesting…from eagles taking flight right in front of us…to blooming blackberry bushes.  By the time we left they were ripe and everyone was picking them.  

The gulls loved to use the trail to break open the mussels they plucked from the beach.  They dropped the shells onto the asphalt and swooped down to dine on the contents.  All those broken shells created interesting hazards for our bike tires.  Apparently someone cleans the trail with some sort of broom apparatus, but we never saw him/her.  We were grateful for the efforts, though.  Between us we had only one flat all summer…and it wasn’t me!

The views from the trail and the trestle out over the water were pretty cool on a clear, sunny morning.  If we looked to the north we could see Anacortes Marina and Cap Sante. 

Looking directly down the trail, the RV Park popped into view.

So every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we saddled up and met bike-riding friends on the east end of the trestle for a morning cruise into town.  About 2/3’s of the way through the route, we stopped at Gere-A-Deli, a delightful breakfast and lunch restaurant in the middle of Anacortes!  The only non-biker in the photo is the tall white-haired guy in back…not Jerry...the other guy!  Joe, an amazing bird photographer walked Washington Park every morning before he joined us for coffee.  As you can imagine, lots of tales and tall tales flowed around the table. 

One of the joys of being back in Anacortes was attending Anacortes Lutheran Church and getting involved on the property committee again.  Most of our biking friends were also on this committee so the once a month work days were really just a continuation of Friday’s fun and fancy!  Our June work day resulted in lunch downtown.  

I’m including this photo because the two on the right, Maury and Helene Fink, were also bike riders but were out of town when I took the photo above.  The guy on the left is our Pastor’s husband…the other Pastor Benson!  I think Lewis Benson is showing Maury and Helene a beer app he has on his phone!

We went to see daughter Joy in Portland a couple of weeks after we arrived back in the Northwest.  Our older daughter, Jill, had been there a few weeks before we arrived, so I must share a nice photo of our two beautiful children.  

As always we had a great time and particularly enjoyed touring the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Portland.  Joy’s roommate, Ricky is the handyman there so we got a very “behind the scenes” tour.  What a beautiful old church!

A couple of weeks later, once we were back home, we watched an episode of “NCIS LA” and saw the interior of the church!  Ricky said leasing out this amazing interior space was one of the ways the church maintained its budget.

We went for an ambitious morning hike in Portland’s Washington Park and saw lovely blooming rhododendron along the trail.  Definitely a photo opp!

We found trails around Anacortes on which to stretch our legs too.  Mount Erie is a not quite 3-mile straight up hike that we only did once on foot.  Whew!  The views from the top were gorgeous, though!  The view in the photo looks south and if my camera angle were a little better, we could see Mount Rainier!

We walked Washington Park in Anacortes a few times and always paused to appreciate the view of Guemes Channel with a view toward the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  This was a great spot to watch the boat traffic…even the big tankers coming in to the March Point refineries on the east side of Anacortes.

Helene and Maury took us on a death march around Whistle Lake…5 or so miles over tree roots and rocks.  With such an innocuous name, I don’t know how the trail could be so tiring!  We were surprised to see quite a few 20-somethings swimming in the lake, jumping from the rocks, and generally cavorting as we staggered and panted by!

We think Anacortes is a rather unique little town.  With a population of about 20,000, it had a very small town feel.  No big box stores, no serious crime, and lots of community involvement.  The Senior Center offered ukulele classes and small groups 3 days a week and I jumped in with both feet!!  Vicki Stasch, another Visalia transplant, inspired me and we were often strumming side by side.  In the photo above we were practicing for a “gig” at National Night Out, in one of the city parks.  Since we performed for free we were in some demand.  “You get what you pay for” certainly applied to us.  But everyone had fun!

Anacortes had two annual summer activities we enjoyed:  Shipwreck Day and the Art Festival.  Shipwreck Day meant “town garage sale” in Northwest-speak.  What a hoot!  

The entire main drag (Commercial Avenue) was full of booths of trash/treasures!  I intentionally rode my bike to the event so I wouldn’t be able to drag a bunch of stuff back to Abe and succeeded!  

I didn’t buy a thing…although I looked twice at this cute little buggy!  Fortunately, it wouldn’t fit in my backpack. 

The Art Festival was a 3-day event that is the counterpoint to Shipwreck Day.  A juried art competition, 3 music venues with performers from all over the Northwest, and booths lining Commercial Avenue full of amazing artists, talented in every medium.  I was there all three days!  Living in the motor home really slowed down my purchasing prospects but I did get a lovely pair of earrings and heard great music!  Of course, I participated in another ukulele ensemble gig on Sunday morning.  Yes, I always stand in the back and the songs I couldn’t play, I certainly can sing…loudly if not well.

We had two sets of company in Anacortes this summer…both couples from our previous life in Visalia!  Pastor Barry and Allison Vail joined us for a whirlwind tour of the island and the first day of the Art Festival.  They were craft beer connoisseurs and this area had lots of yummy beer to offer!  They were new to the area and we loved touring them around.  They had a quick look at the first day of the Art Festival and departed to meet a niece and sister at the Seattle Airport.  The four of them planned a tour of the Northwest from the Olympics to Mount Rainier.  We gave them the briefest preview.

Phil and Rita Olson were here for a visit, too.  We had stopped for a visit with them in Klamath Falls and met Mike and Joyce…Mike is Rita’s cousin.  Mike and Joyce live in Anacortes, in fact just down the road from us at the RV park.  What a small world!  Mike had a nursery in Anacortes for years, but really is a renaissance man…wood turning, gardening, pizza cooking.  Quite a guy!  We are looking forward to seeing Mike and Joyce in Anacortes again next summer.  Phil and Rita got the nickel tour of Anacortes, Whidbey Island, and the surrounding area.  They even joined us for Sunday service at Anacortes Lutheran.  What fun with old friends!

The Fourth of July found us back in Home, WA, on the Key Peninsula.  Good friends from Visalia, Gerald and Nancy Schneider have a second home in this tiny town and cook pancakes for everyone who showed up for the 4^th parade.  We had been here twice before with “Cosmo Place” (our Nordic Tug) but had not driven here before.  We found a sweet little Air B and B about a mile from the Schneider’s house and spent 3 days having fun with Gerald, Nancy, their kids and significant others, in-laws, and good friends. 

One Saturday afternoon we delivered my old Viking sewing machine to a repairman in SE Seattle.  Rather than head back home we decided to make a weekend of it and do some hiking and check out Mount Rainier.  We have lived in NW Washington since 2010 and had not been to see this famous volcano.  

Even though we there toward the end of July, we saw snow and amazing wildflowers.

Our five mile route was full of hikers from all over the world, judging by the many languages we heard.  We saw lots of black bear fur on the trail where some itchy old bear had rubbed off his winter coat against a tree along the trail.

We did not have great views of the mountain peak but did spot it occasionally through the clouds.  Pretty impressive!  According to the park flyer, Mount Rainier, an active stratovolcano, is the highest mountain in Washington and the Cascade Range at 14,411 ft. This peak is located southeast of Seattle and Tacoma.  Mount Rainier is ranked third of the 128 ultra-prominent mountain peaks of the United States.  On days of exceptional clarity, it can also be seen from as far away as Corvallis, Oregon (at Marys Peak) and Victoria, British Columbia.  Mount Rainier is the mos heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each more than 1,000 ft in diameter.

Other random Anacortes activities we enjoyed…

A garage sale with Chuck and Bev Landgraf at their daughter Karen's.  We finally got rid of some boating stuff we had stored for the past 2.5 years!

Wednesdays and Fridays at Seafarers Park, near Cap Sante marina, we often went to hear bands play for the crowds.  On a beautiful warm, summer evening, with Mount Baker looming in the background, life couldn’t be much sweeter!  On Saturday nights we went to hear a local band playing downtown at another outside venue.  

It was great to be in town to attend Anacortes Lutheran Church on most Sundays.  Although we didn’t participate a great deal in Bible School, we did help clean up after supper one day and got to see these two.  The theme of VBS was St. Paul’s underground church (or something like that!) and (retired) Pastor Jerry Bongard took on the role of St. Paul.  Steve Richards was one of the Roman guards keeping an eye on him.  A few of the little boys were quite appalled that Paul was imprisoned (in the church basement) and one enterprising young guy “stole” a knife from the church kitchen to help liberate Paul from jail!

We are already looking forward to returning to Anacortes next summer.  There are lots more fun things to do and see in NW Washington State.