Last week, for the first time, I walked a recently-opened mile-long section of the Guemes Channel Trail in Anacortes, which will eventually connect to the Tommy Thompson Trail. I also visited the nearby Ship Harbor Interpretive Preserve, which is accessible from the end of a little cul de sac that can be reached from Oakes Road (to Glasgow Way …
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En route to Bloomsday a couple of weeks ago, I stopped at Ginko Petrified Forest State Park during my six hour drive from Whidbey Island to Spokane. I had read a few reviews about the park beforehand, which were mixed. It sounded like a neat place to see different species of petrified wood…if you didn’t mind viewing …
Last summer, my 28-year-old, moving-back-to-Spokane niece Vanessa and I agreed that this year, in 2015, we’d run Bloomsday together. For many runners, this is a sort of bucket list event, primarily because it has so many participants. In fact, it’s the biggest 12K (7.5 mile) race in the country and the fourth largest timed race …
Bowman Bay is one of several great locations within Deception Pass State Park where a person, couple, family or group could easily spend an entire day. Others include Cornet Bay, West Beach, North Beach and Pass Lake. According to the Deception Pass Park Foundation site, “Before receiving its modern name, Bowman Bay was known as “Reservation …
Earlier this year, the Anacortes Cyborg Ferrets FTC Robotics Team #7198 competed at the Pasteur Interleague Championships where they earned a berth at the State by becoming the Winning Alliance Captain, then did same to advance to the FTC West Super Regional Competition in Oakland. Seventy-two teams from 13 western states competed in hopes of a chance go …
Oyster Dome, a rock outcropping in Whatcom County, is an excellent place from which to view the San Juan Islands as well as an area of geological interest. Fortunately, for those like me who don’t like crowds, getting there and back requires a 6 mile hike, about 2,000 feet of climb and 2 hours 20 minutes to …
Triskaidekaphobics might expect that this 13th year of the Sno-Isle Library-sponsored Whidbey Reads might bring bad luck for readers. They’d be wrong. Past titles have included historical fiction (West of Here, Little Century); science fiction (Bellewether); non-fiction (Crow Planet, Undaunted Courage, my favorite of the half dozen I’ve read) and fiction (most of the rest). Checking out …
Continue reading “The Boys in the Boat Author Drops Anchor on Whidbey Island”
Every year, not far from here, farmers plant, tend and harvest hundreds of thousands of iris, daffodil and tulip bulbs. All the information a person needs can be found at the Tulip Festival site, including a map of the various fields indicating where the flowers can be found. Having read Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire (which …
A few summers ago, my family visited Ruby Beach, in the Kalaloch area of the Olympic National Park, located about sixty miles north of our final destination, Pacific Beach. At the time, it felt like a concession; I’d hoped to continue south to my then favorite: Cannon Beach (shown here), which would have required an additional three hours …
I’ve studied the Deception Pass State Park map many times in order to prepare for trail runs and hikes, envying Kukutali Preserve (Kiket Island) visitors because indicated below the name is this disappointing phrase, “access by reservation only.” Fortunately, as of last spring, the note no longer applies. According to information available at the Kukutali Preserve link on …
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