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| Day 1 - Santa Clara, CA Day 2 - Lee Vining, CA Day 3 - Baker, CA Day 4 - Las Vegas, NV Day 5 - Las Vegas, NV Day 6 - Grand Canyon, AZ Day 7 - Durango, CO Day 8 - Glenwood, CO Day 9 - Highlands, CO Day 10 - Highlands, CO Day 11 - Estes Park, CO Day 12 - Craig, CO Day 13 - Jackson, WY Day 14 - Cody, WY Day 15 - Mammoth, WY Day 16 - Choteau, MT Day 17 - Kelispell, MT Day 18 - Sandpoint, ID Day 19 - Omak, WA Day 20 - Anacortes, WA Day 21 - Anacortes, WA Day 22 - Poulsbo, WA Day 23 - Poulsbo, WA Day 24 - Poulsbo, WA Day 25 - Astoria, OR Day 26 - Lincoln City, OR Day 27 - Bandon, OR Day 28 - Eureka, CA Day 29 - Anchor Bay, CA Day 30 - Martinez, CA FINAL THOUGHTS |
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Today is a relax day and the weather has finally turned
cooler. It was actually overcast today, at least in the morning.
We already have a room at the Anaco Inn Motel for the night, so there’s
no packing and unpacking the trailer today. We slept in, took care
of some chores, and staggered out into the cruel world about 11:00.
Anacortes is a town of about 12,000 people on Fidalgo Island. The
place is popular and growing because it is the jumping off spot to
the San Juan Islands. Throw in the fact that this is just generally
a very scenic little island and you can see why the property values
are gong up.
I’ve always liked Anacortes. The town is not quaint because there has been too much development over the years, but it is a nice little town. The old part of town is at one end, near the water, and the modern part of town has grown up around Commercial St., towards the hills. As you go downtown, you keep running into these colorful murals (photos 1, 2, & 3). At first we didn’t know what they were for but we have since found out that they depict historical people or events in Anacortes history. They plan on 100 of these and have completed about 80. It seems to be the special project of a fellow named Bill Mitchell, who is responsible for getting them made and placed around town. They have tours of the city that stop at most of these murals.
Flounder Bay Boat Lumber (360-293-2369) has managed to stay in business for 20+ years, supplying wood for small boat builders. You can see an example of a Cosine Wherry out front that was “strip built” from cedar strips (photo 4). It’s beautiful. When I retire, I’m going to build one of these, really. The folks who work there are also nice people. I always drop in when I’m in town and usually end up buying a boat building book. Hey, it helps the economy.
Since it was becoming such a perfectly clear day, we decided to head out to Heart Lake and then up Mt. Erie. Heart Lake is one of several nice little lakes for fishing and small boating activities (photo 5 & 6). We ran into several people fishing there and one of them told me he has caught some nice rainbows and brown trout on Heart Lake. He was hoping for some good luck today. I wished him a full supper plate. Atop Mt Erie is the highest point on Fidalgo Island and, on a clear day, you can see most of the other San Juan and surrounding islands from there. The motorcycle had no problems at all getting to the top of Mt. Erie, but finding a place to turn around, especially with a trailer, required a bit of a maneuvering. After muscling the big Wing around and with liberal use of reverse gear, I got enough space to park and see the sights. There are actually two places to view the surrounding islands from Mt. Erie, directly on top and slightly down from the summit on the west side (photos 7, 8, 10, & 11). Either place allows you to feast your eyes on the beautiful San Juan Islands. If you are a boater, this place is paradise. I actually took several pictures of different boats fishing, cruising, or just enjoying a day on the water, but I have only included one or two to make the point.
As you continue around Fidalgo, you come to Campbell Lake. We thought about buying property here at one time. Actually, we’ve thought about buying property at almost everyplace on this island at one time or another. This lake is the largest on Fidalgo Island and is the one with the most development around the lake. You can see some of the homes in the background and there were also several private floatplanes on the lake (photos 12 & 13). On the far end of the island is a small lake called Pass Lake (photo 14 & 15), because it’s located right at Deception Pass. It’s a fly-fishing lake only. It’s also a catch and release lake, but you can keep one fish per day. This way, everybody gets a chance to catch some fish. I have seen several large rainbow trout come out of this lake. Besides being a good fishing lake, as you can see, it’s also a very scenic little lake as well.
Since we were at Pass Lake, the next logical stop was Deception Pass. This is a spectacular spot and everybody who crosses over the Deception Pass Bridge (photo 16), starts to rubberneck to see the views of the pass below. The state has provided pull out spots at both ends of the bridge to allow you to get out and take a picture from the bridge (photos 17, 18, 19, & 20). Unfortunately, there is usually so much traffic, especially during the summer, that they have had to provide stairs so you can go under the bridge rather than trying to cross the road and take the chance of getting yourself killed. Explorers in Captain Robert Gray’s party, who thought it might be a way to get to inland areas, named it Deception Pass. It’s a quick running body of water and when the tide is at full speed, boats have a difficult time getting through. We saw some small boats that had to take a long time getting through. We didn’t have time this trip, but the Deception Pass Park is a great place to visit or camp, with great views of the bridge and a small fresh water lake as well.
The way we first discovered Anacortes was through Washington Park (photos 21, 22 & 23). We used to camp a lot, and had a camper. It was listed in the AAA books so we camped there on one of our trips and have come back to Anacortes at least 20 times since. We thought Washington Park was great and couldn’t believe it was just a city park and not a state park. A favorite part of Washington Park is the “Scenic Loop” that allows you to see Burrows Island and Straits (photos 24 & 25). This time, I left Linda to sit on the beach and read her book, while I took the loop and took the pictures. One of the pictures is of the Skyline District of Anacortes. As you can see, almost every home in this subdivision has a view of Barrows Island. We really considered buying into this area (photo 26). About 20 years ago, we could buy a lot with a great view for $33,000. We didn’t buy and of course, the price has now gone up to over a $100,000.
Our last stop for the day was Cap Sante, a small head of land that affords the town folks a great view of the straits that divide Fidalgo from the mainland. On a clear day, you can see the City of Bellingham to the east. You can also see the Shell/Texaco Oil Refinery over on Padilla Bay. That’s of interest to me because Linda’s dad worked for Shell for close to 45 years. He was offered a job up here but he didn’t take it. We always joke about the fact that if he had taken that job, we wouldn’t have met, and wouldn’t have married. Now I know some of you cynics are thinking that may have been a good thing for Linda, but keep those thoughts to yourself. As you stand on top of the rocks of Cap Sante, you look east and you see several small islands and the mainland (photo 27) and when you look to the west, you see one of several marinas on Anacortes and the town behind it and the San Juan Islands behind the town (photo 28). Great views. I think you will agree that Anacortes is a place with great natural beauty. What that translates into, unfortunately, is a place that’s getting more expensive to buy into everyday. With that, I was out of battery, out of memory chips, and out of time. We went back to our room, relaxed and then had a little dinner at a local Greek eatery. Tomorrow we’re up early to catch the ferry to Pt. Townsend and on to Poulsbo. |
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