Sunday
Racing season ended yesterday with Arlene securing the win in the 60-64 Lightweight 5K World Championship. We decided to take off for a few days. We started by driving up to Port Townsend to catch the ferry to Whidbey Island. We left about 10am and arrived at the ferry terminal at about 11:15. On the way we were discussing our lack of reservations and unsure how many boats we would have to wait. What if we missed, even, the 3:30pm boat. Then would we just stay in Port Townsend?
We had made no plan. We didn’t know where we were going to stay or what we were going to do.
We talked to the friendly worker at the ferry toll-booth who said that we would be on the 12:30 boat which was the next one; he said we had time to go for a walk, maybe get some lunch, and still be back by 12:15. We went to Better Living Through Coffee (https://www.bltcoffee.com/) just a couple blocks away for coffee and lunch. It is one of our favorite coffee places. Arlene had a latte and a piece of quiche. I had a lentil hand-pie and a Chetzemocha–a mocha with spices and chipotles.
On the ferry we laughed at the itty-bitty boat. It was so cute! We sat outside on the upper deck in the sun, sheltered from the wind.
We decided to stop by Fort Ebey State Park. It was about 50 degrees and the wind was mild as we walked south and south-east along the shore. We saw this bird:
which I believe is a Sanderling and described by Merlin as a “small, sprightly shorebird.”
After leaving Ebey we drove up through Oak Harbor vaguely looking for a place to stay but couldn’t find anything that was appealing. We stopped a Haggen and found some Effies biscuits that Arlene likes and some potato chips that I like (low bar), and continued northward. We parked on the side of the road near Deception Pass and hiked up to Goose Rock which I had done many times as a child with my parents and sister.
I remember it begin a long and very steep hike and had convinced myself that it would take 2 minutes up a barely noticable hill. In the picture, the big bright orb is the sun.
We ended up staying at the Swinomish Casino and Lodge just east of Anachortes. They had a Concept2 rowining machine in their fitness center. We had sandwiches for dinner the ingredients for which we had brought from home.
Monday
Arlene picked out a few things to do after leaving the casino. First we went to Stompin Grounds Coffee Company in La Conner. It was really good–probably the best coffee on the trip. Then we drove along rounds in Skagit County looking for daffodils.
We found another field or two but it was still pretty early in the daffodil season.
We decided to drive up toward Bellingham and avoid I-5. We went up Chuckanut where I used to ride my bike. The terrain is funny because it changes from completely flat to mountainous in an instant. We were thinking that we’d make our way over to Lake Padden, but found some other nice looking trails around Larrabee State Park. We chose a trail up to Fragrance Lake. The whole path was about 4.5 miles and Strava said the elevation was a bit over a 1000 feet. It was a nice looking lake:
Doesn’t it look like the Mandlebrot Set?
We walked back down the path and drove to the Bagelry although it was feeling pretty late for lunch, about 1:30pm, we had lunch anyway. We were both feeling tired so we killed time until we could check into a hotel up around the old Bellis Fair Mall. I’m not sure if it is still a mall but I remember discussions about it during the mid-80s.
We had sandwiches for dinner the ingredients for which we had brought from home.
Tuesday
We left the hotel and went to the Lettered Streets Coffeehouse in Bellingham. It is on Dupont Street between F and G streets in an old building that looked a bit like the Catholic Missions you can see in California. It had the kind of coffee-vibe where I felt I could order a “short breve” rather than an “8oz latte made with half -n- half.” I also ordered a ginger molasses cookie as I had on Monday at Stompin’ Grounds.
We went to Lake Padden and walked on some trails that had been there for a long time, but were super muddy and unofficial long ago and were now well groomed. Some were pretty steep. It is weird to think that the two of us would run around the lake a couple times together more than 30 years ago.
After leaving Padden we drove south along the west side of Lake Whatcom, then east to Highway 9, still trying to avoid I-5. We stopped at Riverside Park in Sedro Woolley for lunch. It was starting to rain and the wind was cold so we made our sandwiches while shivering near the cooler at the back of the car, then retreated back in to eat. We finished lunch off with some other things. Arlene was still working on the Effie’s biscuits (Pecan) and we had found a bag of Carrot Cake Lindor balls in Bellingham which are certainly carrot-cakey. I may have had some salt -n- pepper Kettle chips as well.
Trips mean sandwiches and biscuits and chips.
We continued south on Highway 9. At some point our destination had become Woodinville. We thought we’d do some wine-tasting. We went the the tasting room for Ancestry who makes a couple of different Sangioveses. Their tasting room was temporarily closed. So we drove to the Warehouse District. All of the tasting room there were closed because it was Tuesday. We found a hotel on Expedia and went to check-in only to remember that the hotel shares a parking lot with the Avennia tasting room.
We went into Avennia before checking into the hotel. The last time we went to Avennia was a couple of years ago at their tasting room on Red Mountain. We split a tasting (as we often do (the procedure is Arlene smells it, I smell it, she takes a little taste, I take a little taste, she takes another little taste, I take another little taste, so small pours in a shared tasting are sufficient)) of the Reserve wines… more expensive wines, more expensive tasting. Arlene mentioned afterwards that the pours started pretty small, but as we asked about different vineyards such as Champoux in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA, and about whether Dick Boushey was still managing their Estate Vineyard, and mentioned which Avennia vintages we still had at home, the pours got bigger.
We checked into the hotel and watched two Short Treks, taking notes for both and writing them up before proceeding.
For dinner we went to a restaurant called Bin 47 which turned out to be a hotel restaurant. We ordered Brussel Sprouts and Maitake Mushrooms. Then Arlene had things that looked like looked raviolis stuffed with ricotta and butternut squash in some sort of brown-butter sauce while I had a pork chop that was really super piggy.
We returned to the hotel and watched an episode of Star Trek Discovery, taking notes along the way.
Wednesday
We went for coffee at a place; I forget the name. A sign said that they defaulted to oat milk. I was so scared that I just ordered drip. Arlene said her latte tasted like it was made with oat milk.
We drove into Seattle and waited in the ferry line for about 2 minutes before driving onto the ferry. Home again, home again, jiggity jig.