Open House Road Trip

On Saturday we set out to the Northern end of Whidbey Island with Fort Ebey State Park our destination. We had to be out of our house from 1 until 4pm so a drive was a good option for us.

Set on the western side of Whidbey Island, Fort Ebey was constructed as a coastal defense fort during the Second World War.

The bluff trail overlooks Admiralty Inlet and offers peek-a-boo views of Point Wilson Lighthouse across the bay. Douglas-fir and hemlock provide shade along forested trails sprinkled with pink big-leaf rhododendrons in season.

We took a short loop that took us to Lake Pondilla and were rewarded with a viewing of this bird. Is it a Golden Eagle, a young eagle, or some kind of hawk?

Next time we visit we’ll take the Bluff trail to the Gun Battery.

From Fort Ebey we drove the 5 miles to Coupeville and Penn Cove which are set on the Eastern coast of Whidbey Island. We enjoyed some Penn Cove Mussels and these views.

Our Discover Pass expires the end of the month so we’ll have to take advantage of visiting some more Washington State Parks.

Summer officially begins this Thursday. Do you have any special summer plans?

Good Fences

This fence is in the town of Coupeville on Whidbey Island. Coupeville is on the shores of Penn Cove. We enjoy the Penn Cove Mussels in this little island town in Washington State. Truth be told it’s the sauce that makes a mussel dish good in my opinion. We’ve enjoyed eating at Front Street Grill in this little town and they serve mussels in a variety of very tasty sauces. One of my favorites is Coconut Green Curry Mussels!

Linking up with TexWisGirl for Good Fences #99!

Soon I hope to take a drive on this island again. We’re having a “sisters” weekend early March and my head is spinning with fun things we can do together. Two sisters in Washington state and the other two sisters in Southern California. We are meeting up in the northwest. I never tried mussels or oysters or much fish to speak of until we moved to the Seattle area. Fish was not something my mother was too familiar with in the kitchen. We also ate kosher growing up so shell fish was taboo.

Hope you have a good Thursday!

Signs from Whidbey Island

Washington State has a few islands to enjoy. One of our favorites is Whidbey Island. The Bible camp our kids have attended and served as directors at is on Whidbey Island. When we have out of state company we try to include a trip to Whidbey Island. Our favorite town on the island is Langley. The Star store and the Saratoga Inn is in the little town of Langley. We stayed at the Saratoga Inn when we were attending a wedding on Whidbey.

We ate at Gerry’s kitchen in Freeland and had a great breakfast and I’m sad to say that they are now closed. There are a nice little collection of antique shops in this town.

Another town we like to walk through and eat their great Penn Cove Mussels is Coupeville. This visitor information center is in Coupeville. The town’s Main shopping street, Front Street, borders Penn Cove.

I had to include a nice bowl of mussels. We had these at Front Street Grill, Coconut Green Curry Mussels…delicious.

And here’s a photo of Penn Cove from Front Street.

I’m linking up with Lesley’s Signs Signs weekly meme.

Coupeville and Langley

When traveling on Whidbey Island we like to stop in Coupeville for Penn Cove mussels, Freeland for antique shopping, and our favorite town on the Island, Langley, for shops and a nice stroll.

On our trip last week after exploring Deception Pass we headed south to the Island County seat of Coupeville. My plan was to have lunch at Front Street Grill and introduce Lenny and Debbee to Mussels. Coupeville sits on Penn Cove which is known for their mussels. I forgot to take a photo of those mussels. Both Lenny and Debbee didn’t think they liked mussels but after they tried them they became fans.

Front Street Grill offers a whole page of mussels in different sauces that are delicious. This photo is from our trip to Coupeville with my cousin and we had the Coconut Green Curry Mussels. This time around we chose the Rockefeller sauce because someone in the group detests coconut! How can you go wrong with a sauce described like this “Spinach, bacon, Pernod, shallots, garlic and cream. The great thing is that all the sauces for the mussels were Gluten Free.

Debbee and Lenny with Penn Cove in the background.

I thought this was a creative name for this stand located at the end of Front Street.

We headed south again to our final destination on the island, the little town of Langley. We stopped at this garden store hoping some flowers would be blooming on these great trellises. The greenery was nice but we had missed the blooms.

Langley

Langley sits above Saratoga Pass.

My brother in law, Steve, sits on bench.

We got a refreshment here and then headed to the Cinton Ferry Dock.

I think this was Lenny’s first ferry ride.

It was a still glassy day on the Sound. Another great tour behind us we headed off the ferry to meet Josh, Laura, and Dear for dinner on the mainland. After dinner we said our goodbyes to Debbee and Lenny since they’d be headed back to Southern California the following morning.

We had a busy weekend around here and Dear didn’t get as much done as he had hoped to on the bathroom. You know how it goes with projects in old houses you end up finding things that need to be re-done when you open up walls and take a good look at old pipes. I have a couple days off before I put my tour guide hat back on and I’ll be sharing later in the week about the largest tour group I’ve been responsible for to date.

What’s on the list for your first full week of summer?

To the Island!

We have several islands to enjoy in our area. One of our favorites is Whidbey Island. On Saturday we caught a ferry in Mukilteo that took us to Clinton at the south end of Whidbey Island. We drove up to the ferry line and were happy to make the ferry that was already loading. We were the last car on…

It was a blustery day. We braved the outdoor deck for long enough to take a photo. This is my cousin Jim, his wife Jeanie, and our daughter Katie.

Our first stop was up the island in Coupeville. Coupeville is located on Penn Cove. Penn Cove is known for mussels. This coming up weekend is Penn Cove Mussel Fest. Coupeville is the 2nd oldest town in the state of Washington. We ate at the Front St. Grill. They had a page full of mussel offerings to enjoy. We chose the Coconut Green Curry Mussels. Delicious!

We walked along the Front St. and enjoyed perusing the shops.

We hopped back in the car and returned to the southern end of the island to visit our favorite town of Langley. This is our traditional photo spot on 1st. St. in Langley. Saratoga Passage is behind us. We spotted a whale in this Passage last year. Saratoga Passage lies in Puget Sound between Whidbey Island and Camano Island.

After walking through our favorite shops we headed back to the ferry dock. When the ferry rolled in I saw these two seagulls perched on the lights above the pilot house. It made me chuckle that they chose the first class perches to roll into the dock.

We were quite pleased that the weather was nicer than what we expected for Jim and Jeanie’s visit and for our adventures. Last night we had a farewell meal together with our company plus my sister, her husband, our son Josh, our SIL Laura and Katie. Hope your week is going well…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Penn Cove