Tag Archives: Washington State Ferry

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.

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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.

Whidbey Island 034Debbee and Lenny with Penn Cove in the background.

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Whidbey Island 044I thought this was a creative name for this stand located at the end of Front Street.

Whidbey Island 045We 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.

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Whidbey Island 047Langley sits above Saratoga Pass.

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Whidbey Island 048My brother in law, Steve, sits on bench.

Whidbey Island 051We got a refreshment here and then headed to the Cinton Ferry Dock.

Whidbey Island 054I think this was Lenny’s first ferry ride.

Whidbey Island 058It 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?

Sunday in Seattle…

On Sunday morning we headed to Seattle to have brunch at Palisade on Elliott Bay.

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It was very windy and the water was choppy with white caps. We had the sun blinding us and then getting blocked with clouds that the wind whipped through the skies.

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The sun kept breaking through so after brunch and our photos in the wind we decided to head to Pike Place Market and see if we could find a parking spot and enjoy the market and all it has to offer.

Palisade 037pike place g & eOur son just sent me this photo so I’m adding it into my post after the fact.

 

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When our parking time was up Dear and I headed home leaving the “kids” to do a little shopping before they joined us at home again. The skies and views tempted me to take photos from the car on the ride home.

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We had a wonderful weekend. Dan and Jamie left to go over the pass while it was still early and light on Monday. A very good choice as the weather is worsening with more snow predicted to fall in our passes.

The rest of the week is relatively free for us. The only thing on the books is our small group meeting here on Thursday evening. I’m looking forward to getting things thought through for Christmas. Maybe I’ll even start on our Christmas letter…maybe. Have you started thinking, planning, or buying for Christmas?

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…

Whidbey Island Getaway…

We had a long awaited event to attend on Whidbey Island on Saturday and we took advantage and spent the night on the Island.

We traveled back and forth to the Island with our car on a Washington State Ferry.

 A very efficient way to travel to an island.

I’ll be sharing photos later on the magical wedding we attended and all the other beautiful things we enjoyed while away.

Port Townsend, Washington ~

 

On Saturday Dear and I left very early from our house to catch a 5:35 a.m. ferry from Edmonds, Washington across the Sound to Kingston.

 

After disembarking the ferry we had an hour drive to our destination. We arrived in Port Townsend a little before 7 a.m. with time to kill before breakfast.  Besides Dear and I, the only things out and about were these other kinds of deer.

 

We found the Blue Moose Cafe and then headed out to the downtown area of Port Townsend to get the lay of the land. Dear was a little concerned about the off the beaten path location and looks of the cafe but I had read good reviews about the place and wasn’t deterred by other cafes that opened a little earlier. When we finally got back to the cafe and had our seats and food in front of us we both knew we had made the right choice.

 

After breakfast which was still very early we toured the town and enjoyed many beautiful gardens, Victorian Homes, and other great old houses and churches. This Bell Tower is the only known Tower of its kind in the United States.

 

Our next stop was the Farmer’s market which didn’t open until 9:00. I so enjoyed watching this little foursome of girls at the Pane d’Amore booth. Who could resist giving them a free bun. The pear flaky pastry treat I bought for myself was amazing. Dear had an almond croissant. We stopped at this fun coffee stand and got a rich cup of coffee to go with our sweets.

I’ll share the homes, gardens, and churches we saw on another day. On our way back to the ferry landing we stopped at some garage sales and happened upon this Civil War Enactment in Port Gamble. I had to zoom way in from the road to get any photos as parking and the entry fee were too much to spend for a couple photos…

 

Our good times continued into Sunday. We started Sunday off at church this morning with a study on Wisdom vs. Folly.  After church, Josh and Laura came over for Dear’s Swedish Pancakes before Josh, Laura and I headed out to the Sounder’s Soccer game at 1:00. Our team won which is always a treat. When we got back home we all decided to end the day with Dear at our local Mexican Restaurant for dinner. A good day all the way around. Oh, did I mention the sun was shining all day long!? Another great reason to celebrate!

Thanks for stopping by here…

I’m linking to Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary at Little Red House!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Transported to Another Dimension…

by a short ride on a Ferry Boat.

 

From the ferry on our short trip from Mukilteo to Clinton on Whidbey Island.

 

I waved hello to my Mennonite Girlfriends in British Columbia on the other side of these mountains.

 

 

We were in for a rain filled weekend. We knew ahead of time so we had the proper gear on board.

 

It’s hard to stop for a photo op when exiting a ferry boat. You have to keep going with the flow. That is my excuse for this blurry photo.

Whidbey Island is the largest island in Washington’s Puget Sound, forming the Sound’s northern boundary. At 168.67 square miles, it’s the fifth-largest island in the continental United States.

The island was named for Joseph Whidbey, a member of the  Royal Navy who accompanied Peter Puget as one of the first explorers of the area in 1792. The first permanent European settler was Colonel Isaac N. Ebey, in 1850. In 1857 Ebey was killed and beheaded by Haida Indians.

I’ll be sharing more photos from our Northwest Island Adventure in the next couple of days. I don’t have a lot of photos because we were in the middle of a Pineapple express with lots of precipitation.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Window Views ~ Washington State Ferry

My Window Views this week were all taken on a Washington State Ferry from Anacortes, through the San Juan Islands to Sidney on Vancouver Island, Canada.

 

Our ride was mostly misty, moisty, foggy…

 

 

 

Another Ferry through the mist…

 

As we approached Vancouver Island things got brighter.

 

For more Window Views or to join in the fun click here. Thank you Mary for hosting this event…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.