The Long and Winding Road from California to Washington, Part 8: We Made It! - Washington

October 21-31, 2021

    

    We arrived in Seattle after 17 days on the road. Now for a new chapter of spending time with friends and family. Our friends Michael and Ellen had again graciously offered their condo in the Belltown section for our Seattle stay. That made it so easy to visit Katie and Javier, Doug's daughter and son-in-law, who live in the Central District. 

View from our friends' Belltown condo: looking across Puget Sound to West Seattle.

Add our friends Tim and Diane offered us their extra car, as the condo parking would not accommodate the van. They even let us park the van in front of their home while we were enjoying Seattle. Once again we realized that we are blessed.

    During the day, we hung out with Katie and Javier in their 3-story townhouse. The bedrooms are on the 2nd floor, an office on the 1st, living quarters on the 3rd, and balconies on the 2nd and 3rd.

Lots of windows and a balcony bring the outdoors in on Katie & Javier's 3rd floor living area.

Katie & Javier relaxing—she was 7 months pregnant.

Marilyn & Katie chat while prepping hors d'oeuvres.

Fall colors and brisk air made for wonderful, refreshing walks.

    We were forced inside one day while the rain and wind pounded on the windows. Thank goodness for the warmth from the gas fireplace.

Note the rain streaming down the windows.

Proud dad with daughter and son-in-law.

Checking out the nursery and equipment for the baby, due in mid-December.

Marilyn bent her knees to get across the height difference...

    After wonderful days with Katie and Javier and a promise to return once their wee one arrived, we left them and Michael and Ellen's condo. We retrieved the van from Tim and Diane's , then took the 20-minute Mukilteo Ferry to the south end of Whidbey Island. There we visited Cindy (Katie and Andrew's Mom) and her partner, Steve, in Langley.

On the Mukilteo Ferry.

First stop on our tour of the area with Cindy was the beach where she and Steve had exchanged vows. It was under water due to the high tide and a ferocious wind.

Behind Cindy and Marilyn is the beach, under water, where Cindy and Steve made their vows.

How do you say wind blown?

    The next day, we returned to Tim and Diane's, in the lovely wooded community of Woodway. Doug and Tim have been friends for decades. Doug helped Tim outfit his van for camping. That night, we enjoyed a splendid dinner in nearby Edmonds with Tim and Diane, Michael and Ellen. As we were in a private room and all staff were masked, we felt safe.

Fall colors on tree-lined Woodway street.

    Next stop was Deception Pass State Park, a 90-minutes drive north to Burlington, east to Fidalgo Island, and across Deception Pass Bridge to the north end of Whidbey Island.

Deception Pass from bridge.

We pulled into our site, then went for a walk. It was a beautiful sunny day.

Deception Pass State Park.

The campground is on Cranberry Lake and a short walk to the ocean.

Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Looking toward Fidalgo Island and Anacortes.

Deception Pass Bridge in the background.

Marilyn on Cranberry Lake opposite campground.

Sunset over Cranberry Lake and Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Will there be a green flash?

Huge logs were washed up on the beach.

Lingering over the sunset.

    We checked out Anacortes in the morning. We were hoping for coffee first, but found nothing open. So we parked and walked out to Cap Sante to look at the water and the boats in the harbor. A short ferry ride across Guernes Channel is Guernes Island, where Katie and Javier once stayed for a beach respite. 

Fun drainage in Anacortes.

Wandering back through town we came to Pelican Bay Books and Coffeehouse. We fought a few books and enjoyed coffee outside in the sun. The rain was taking a respite.

    But it didn't last long. It rained most of the remainder of the day.

Snug in the van with the rain pattering overhead.

  Saturday we had an early rendezvous with Andrew and Devon, Doug's son and daughter-in-law, in the Fairhaven section of Bellingham. We took the boardwalk over Bellingham Bay to Woods Coffee. 

The boardwalk was a bit icy, so we proceeded with caution down the sloping beginning section. At least it has multiple benches on one side we could crash into if it came to that.

Boardwalk over Bellingham Bay.

Proud dad with son, Andrew, and daughter-in-law, Devon. 

Arabesque sculpture in inlet.

Andrew and Devon.

Woods Coffee, our destination.

Cool metalwork inside Woods.

Looking toward Fairhaven Ferry Terminal from which we sailed for Alaska in 2017.

Devon, Andrew, Marilyn. Yes, Doug's kids are all tall, as are Marilyn's. Marilyn is...not tall.

    Back at the house, Doug and Andrew decided to walk to nearby Whatcom Falls Park. The discovery of the park about a half mile from the house cinched the deal when we bought it.

A stream flows from Lake Whatcom through the park...

...ending in a waterfall.

Whatcom Falls last summer. We have seen water roaring over the falls, but Washington has been in a drought.

    We also went for a walk in Marine Park in Fairhaven.

Andrew and Devon, Marine Park.

Canadian mountains seen from Marine Park.

    Our visit with Andrew and Devon was short as we wanted to give them part of the weekend to themselves before they plunged back into another busy work week. Andrew is in IT, and Devon is an elementary school Speech Language Pathologist. We returned to Tim and Diane's for the night, then in the morning began our trek home. 

    Our GPS said that a direct drive home was 15.5 hour/979 miles. But remember, we Meander the Blue Highways and wanted to enjoy the Washington Coast. So with 2 weeks until we had to be home, we headed west for the Edmonds Ferry and the Olympic Peninsula. After enjoying that area, we'd continue down the Oregon Coast.