Whidbey Island Reflections and a glimpse inside the Wanderlust Retro
Also...gypsy or hobbit? an important conclusion
We said a goodbye to Olympic National Park after a total of two weeks enjoying and exploring, and set our GPS for Whidbey Island off the coast of Washington. We had friends to visit there, and a place we could “mooch dock” for a few days with friends Lance and Naomi.
Waiting for the ferry to Whidbey Island, Mike, Koa and I shared a banana split on the deck of a fifties-themed ice cream shop in Port Townsend, Washington. The ocean lapped at the sandy shore of a tiny community beach below, and as we waited for our order, Koa and I went down to play for a bit. To my delight, I found a cache of sea glass for the first time on the trip.
Of all the coastal towns we’d been through so far, Port Townsend was my favorite. Wonderful old brick buildings were nicely kept up and hosted an arty, energetic vibe with fun little stores and pretty lingering areas available to sit and enjoy. Friendly people and a bustling working harbor were all contained within a small and well-organized downtown area near the ferry dock, which was well-trafficked, as Whidbey Island is a popular destination.
Ferries continue to feel like an adventure to me. I love the exciting drive into the bowels of a huge and echoing ship, the wind in my face on the foredeck. I enjoy people watching fellow travelers, exploring the layout of the ferry, and most of all, the views: especially those of the famously scenic San Juan Islands as we chugged along at sunset toward Whidbey. The San Juans rose around us, a patchwork of textured green velvet rising from the translucent jade sea. They were calm oases of possibility and enchantment at midsummer.
We spent three days parked with Mike’s friend Lance and his wife Naomi. Lance is a retired contractor and talented photographer with a keen eye. Their retirement home was chosen carefully for its spacious layout to host grown children and grandchildren, but mainly for its view. The distant gleam of giant, snow-capped Mount Baker was front and center, clearly visible on mainland Washington, from a front yard dotted with mature fruit trees. A verdant garden enclosed in deer-proof netting was an enchanted space where Naomi spent her days nurturing flowers and vegetables. Bees buzzed and butterflies brightened raised beds yielding bumper crops of every kind of produce.
“Our growing season is short here,” Naomi told me, dark brown eyes gleaming in the shade of a battered sun hat. “So the earth makes up for it by growing everything triple-fast.”
“And triple sized,” I said, impressed by sugar peas the size of a giant’s thumb.
Koa went nuts off-leash in the huge yard, romping, leaping, and cavorting, making us laugh until he eventually found some truly foul animal droppings to roll in and had to be washed. Naomi and I had a bit of fun wrestling him clean in her utility sink and then blow-drying him off; the couple don’t keep pets except a couple of outdoor cats because they like to travel.
One of the highlights for me was harvesting sour cherries. The whole process was a delight; I’d never even seen a sour cherry before, let alone picked them. The smell of this vibrantly red, glossy, tangy ripe fruit surrounded me with perfume as I climbed a ladder into whispering branches and filled a wicker basket with fruit. I then used their kitchen to bake a dessert crumble one evening pronounced “sublime.”
The visit was a great time of resupplying, taking long luxurious hot showers in a real bathroom, doing a mountain of laundry, cleaning the rig, catching up on writing and business tasks, and enjoying rest and good food with friends.
We left Whidbey Island with full hearts and clean sheets on the bed, heading for North Cascades National Park.
As we got on the road, we reflected on what we were learning about ourselves on this trip. We contrasted the lovely home base Lance and Naomi enjoyed with the joys and challenges of camping.
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