Whidbey Island, Washington
Langley
August 31 - September 2, 2012
We finished off our Olympic Peninsula trip with a weekend with Claire and Marsha, who live near Langley (map) on Whidbey Island. It was the perfect finale: spending time with dear friends, enjoying their beautiful home, delicious food, strolling on the beach.
We went to the Saturday farmer's market, and we had drinks with Claire's twin sister, Kate and her husband, Rob, who have just moved there.
The very difficult part of our visit, and an unfortunate way to end our trip, was that Bailey injured herself somehow. We're still not sure what happened, but she'd been a little stiff after rough play with a black lab at Lake Crescent. After a romp on the beach with Claire and Marsha's dog, Zoe, she was barely able to walk and had to be lifted up steps. By morning, she couldn't even stand and was in terrible pain. After several phone consults, we took her to VCA Veterinary Specialty Center. It was a great place but very busy. After four hours of waiting and fearing the worst, we left with a bottle of codeine, a CD of xrays, and a somewhat uncertain diagnosis of a a torn ligament and slightly arthritic hips. (She is much better now.)
After our ordeal, we stopped by our daughter Tobi's house in Seattle for a visit. We had planned to take her out to lunch, but it was 4:00 before we got there and we had our poor doped-up dog on a mountain of blankets in the backseat. So we had a frontyard visit instead. Still, it was wonderful to see her and recoup a bit before we hit the road back home.
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Olympic Peninsula Trip |
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Langley
August 21-22, 2011
We started off our big trip of the summer with an overnight visit with good friends, Claire and Marsha. We had our god daughter, Aly, along, and for the Whidbey Island portion of the trip, Aly's friend, Penny, joined us.
We always love seeing Claire and Marsha, and this time we got to see Claire's twin sister, Kate, who was visiting from Atlanta.
It was a quick visit, but a great way to start our trip. Claire and Marsha gave us a good send off in the morning with a pancake breakfast.
It was raining by the time we left, and we only had a short drive to the north end of the island. We had lunch in Oak Harbor and hoped for sun and warmth.
Deception Pass Campground
August 22-26, 2011
It was pouring when we got there, and the first night we were bombarded by eath-shaking, eardrum-splitting fighter jets doing manuevers till nearly midnight.
But the sun came out by mid-morning the next day, and the place was beautiful.
We went tide-pooling at Baker Bay park and took our blow-up canoe and kayak out on Cranberry Lake, right next to the campground. The beach was just a short hike away, where the shore was lined with people fishing for "humpies," which we later learned was slang for breeding salmon.
Aly was a bit obsessed with fishing herself, but she kept to the lake. Finally, on the last day, she caught five tiny little fish, which she somehow managed to clean, cook, and eat.
Penny was with us until the third day, then we drove her into Mt. Vernon to catch a train back to Eugene, so she could get ready to move to New York. On our way back, we stopped at La Conner, a very cute little harbor town that we had visited years ago.
