Emancipated!

Well, kids, it's all open water from here. I officially did my last work as an attorney on July 31, and as of August 1 I am retired. I knew I would feel relieved,  but I had no idea of the weight I would immediately feel lifted. 

 And the Emancipation Period has started off with great fun. My college friend Moe (whom you may remember from her helping me move from California to Washington) came up for a visit, and we ferried over to Port Townsend to visit some other college friends. We celebrated my "graduation" (as one friend kept calling it), took long walks, ate mexican food, and binge-watched Ted Lasso which one had never seen. Such fun, and I kept realizing that I didn't have the worry about work lingering in the background. When one is used to carrying a load, however tidy, it does feel good to put it down.

Moe and I returned home and yesterday headed off to Deception Pass State Park at the north end of Whidbey Island. It is truly one of the most beautiful places you could ever see. 

 

There are miles of hiking trails on both sides of the water, and one led us to a spot beneath the bridge. You can see Moe on the lower left, which shows the scale of this impressive structure.

 

 

We had lunch on the other side of the bridge, at a local institution called The Shrimp Shack. 

We highly recommend the popcorn shrimp.

From there, we roamed around the town of La Connor for a bit, which quilters know as the home of the Pacific Northwest Fiber Arts Museum. We did not have a lot of time, so skipped that in favor of a stroll through town and a bit of poking around in shops.

But our ultimate destination was back to Deception Pass for a boat tour, hosted by Deception Pass Tours. (I am well aware that taking a commercial tour in a state park is a very "retiree" thing to do -- but it was fantastic.) It was a perfect day for a boat outing, as it was unusually hot but clear and calm. 

Oh, the blue water and blue sky.

We saw a lot of wildlife, even from our distance. Harbor seals swimming along...

 Basking on the shore (look closely, they blend in with the rocks) ...

 

Even napping on a marker buoy. 

 

 We saw porpoises leaping, salmon jumping, and bald eagles perched in the pines just watching us go by.

Our tour guide pointed out an egg yolk jellyfish. I'd never heard of them, let alone seen one. 

It was perfect summer adventure. And on a random Wednesday!

I think I am going to have a hard time remembering what day it is. That might be a very pleasant problem to have. 

I hope your summer is going swimmingly, friends.

Out and About

 Well, finally! Work has subsided a bit and I've had the time and energy to get out into the world to have fun! A good friend has been staying on the island for a bit, so we've taken the opportunity to spend some time together. Last week, we met up in Coupeville to have an early dinner at another favorite waterside spot, the Front Street Grill. That picture up there is the view from our table, looking across Puget Sound toward Camano Island.

 Coupeville is known for its Penn Cove mussels -- in fact that water is Penn Cove, really. Anyway, that is what I had -- very fresh mussels cooked in a sauce of Whidbey's blackberry port, shallots, and garlic. Totally delicious.

Dori enjoyed some gorgeous crab cakes and a salad. And yes, we celebrated our time together with a glass of champagne. 

This weekend, while Dori was still here, we decided to go roaming. So we headed straight north off of the island to poke around the town of Anacortes. Driving off of Whidbey Island took us over the Deception Pass bridge, which is an absolutely stunning bridge over Deception Pass. We did not stop for photos as both sides of the bridge were mobbed with cars and tourists walking over the bridge, but I can assure you that it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. And it's not just me ... Deception Pass was recently ranked as one of the top five most beautiful state parks in the US.

It's a narrow bridge so I was paying strict attention to the road and traffic. But Dori got this picture out of her window. Did I say that it was gorgeous, clear-blue-sky day?

Anacortes is a seaport town, probably known most widely as where one gets the ferry to the San Juan Islands. The old downtown area had cute shops and restaurants in old brick buildings -- lots of interesting art galleries and shops featuring decor and antiques and fun items. I enjoyed poking around a bit in Fabrics Plus, a small but well-stocked fabric store that seemed to have anything anyone might want. It is always good to know the most accessible sewing/quilting resources.

We stopped for lunch at The Secret Cove, a little spot tucked around a corner among boat yards. The view was fabulous.

The food was... fine, really. Nothing fantastic, but the view made up for it. Did you notice the snow covered mountains?

We decided that the day would not be complete without a stop at Greenbank Farm for a slice of Whidbey pie. I will confess that I prefer other desserts to pie, but I can attest to this being the best pie I have ever had. Ever. We choose local marionberry pie, a la mode, of course.

 It was a lovely day. A great friend, gorgeous scenery, and good food. We covered a lot of conversational territory and laughed a lot. Dori and I met in law school and have known each other for over forty years, and yet we never run out of things to talk about. Isn't that the best kind of friendship? So it was a very therapeutic day, indeed.

After dropping Dori back at her mom's house, I took back roads home, and as always was struck by the surprise of such beautiful views. 

 One more thing... this week I got talking with a guy in a local shop. The conversation turned, as if often does here, I've noticed, to what brought each of us to Whidbey Island. "I've just always had a thing about islands," he said. "and I just knew I wanted to live on an island." "Yes!!" I think I actually yelped with pleasure when he said that. It is exactly how I have felt, and he is the first person who has had ever expressed that same thing. Me, I trace it to the novels of Elisabeth Ogilvie that took place off of the coast of Maine, but who knows. 

I am just always so happy to here. And isn't that exactly how one should feel about one's home?