Whidbey with Friends

We went to Whidbey Island this week end with our long time friends the Seeks and the Posts.  The goal for the trip was food, wine and relaxation.  We figured six people, two bottles of wine per meal and three meals.  Six bottles of wine ought to do it and so each family brought six bottles of wine.  We may have over achieved.  Our meals consisted mussels, crabs, smoked salmon and pork.  Everyone brought a special recipe, secret ingredients, a lot of work in the kitchen and we expended  a lot of effort not to waste any of it.

And after all of that, if there was any room, and there always seemed to be more room, there were s’mores by the fire.

For relaxation we walked along the beach, sat on the dock, gazed at the ocean and hiked to Baby Island.

Photos of Beach Walks

The water line is narrow moving boundary between where you can find things on dry sand hunkering  down until the sea returns to cover them and squishy things  breathing a sigh of relief as the waters covers them again.  We put on our boots and walked the narrow margin poking at star fish and saying yuk to the moon snails. It would seem that people are more common than beach creatures, because while we stopped, pointed and talked about everything we saw, there was no indication that they were aware of our existence.  

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Things on dry sand

Things in the sea

With seeing things on land and in the sea, it is only appropriate that we saw things in the sky.  There was disagreement as to whether we were seeing Egrets or Herons but the  Audubon book allowed us all to safe face by stating  that the Egret was a type of Heron.  However, we could all identify the eagles and seagulls and regardless by name, they were all beautiful.

Bird Photos

 

One evening we went down to the water and saw the sky reflected in its smooth surface.  In a place where waves, like tea and oranges, can come all of the way from China to churn the water; the ocean lived up to its name and was truly Pacific.

There was sky above us and sky below until an off shore breeze started stir the water and began to break the reflection in ever widening circles.

Sunset across the water

And as a final treat, we went to Ebbey’s Landing for a hike along the bluffs to check out the wild flowers, the view, and plan our trip into Coupeville for ice cream.  Alas, the smallest cone you could purchase had three scoops, but we chose carefully and with wisdom. 

Photos of Hike

It was a wonderful time with  friends, good food, funny stories and no problems.

Joe’s Birthday

 

Memorial Day was the third week end in a row that we have gone to Whidbey, but this time we were joined by most of the family to celebrate Joe’s birthday. We headed up in the rain and long ferry lines on Friday, skipped a fast food dinner at Ivar’s and met for dinner at the Freeland Cafe.   The dinner was far better than you would have expected by looking at the outside of the cafe.  Looks can be deceiving. We woke up in the morning to fog and 10 foot visibility and so we headed down to the beach to see it in the fog.

It had a nice serenity about it and made for a pleasant stroll along the beach.

Islands in the mist

By noon the rest of the family arrived from the mainland telling stories of short ferry lines, but bringing food.  If the Donner party had the Keefes or Domingos, the story would have been, “the snow fell trapping our wagons in the mountains until spring.  We were down to our last berry pie by the time help arrived.”  It being a low tide, we walked to Baby Island

Photos of walk

telling stories, looking for shells, and watching the crabs and other marine life in the tide pools

photos of beach life

 

And then we went up and ate another great meal, sang happy birthday to Joe, played boggle until the wee hours of the morning and headed back home as the sun was starting to break over the ferry.  It was hard to leave.

 

Joes party

Back to Whidbey

I’m a little behind on my posting.  We went up on May 23 to see the Coupeville Water Festival, but Molly has been filling my life with so much fun, that I haven’t time to post until now.  But it’s not a problem, so nobody has to talk to her about it.

  Coupeville has at least two festivals.  The water festival in May and a Mussel festival in March. If you like eating mussels, I highly recommend the march festival.  But it is may and so we went to the water festival.  We headed up on Friday night and the weather started to clear.  I headed down to the beach to watch the sunset and play with my camera.

More sunset photos

 

On Saturday the weather was clear and we headed into Coupeville.  Coupeville has a lot of charm and a great bakery. If charm doesn’t do it for you, go for the calories.  The houses are painted in Victorian splendor.  The main street is only two blocks long, but there is plenty to do for a morning or afternoon.

Additional photos of Coupeville

There were old cars, food booths, canoe races and lots of craft shops at the festival. But one of the high lights were the Indian dancers.  They were in full regalia. They were not in costume.  Costumes are when you dress up and pretend to be something you are not such as Halloween or your Sunday church clothes.  Regalia are the insignia and privileges you have earned the right to wear.

Given that the dancer’s grand parents were sent to jail for performing traditional ceremonies, they have certainly earned the right to do the dances now.  But they were not bitter and told great stories about their culture.  And if I remember correctly, they were the same tribe that traveled down by canoe and committed the Ebbey massacre about a mile away from Coupeville in the 1850s. I guess dancing with your enemies closes the circle.

Indian Dancers

Whidbey Week end

Due to other commitments, we could only stay up at Whidbey for Saturday, but there was enough to see and do to fill a week end.  The temperature was 70, the sun was pleasant, and there was a minus 2.5 foot tide.  There was lots of beach to explore and it was filled with eagles.

 

There were over ten on the beach.  It was hard to get a good count, since they wouldn’t hold still even though this was a census year as mandated by the US Constitution.  But in their defense, they were young juveniles and they had a lot of chest bumping and dissing of each other  to complete.  The beach was also full of Herons, though they seemed to be a little shy and stayed further off shore. They may have been females and been uncomfortable with the testosterone charge atmosphere on the beach.

I don’t usually take pictures of sea gulls because they annoy the eagles and are clearly not paying any attention to the endangered species list.  As a result, we don’t like them.  They also eat far to many mussels and crabs, but one walked up and dropped a clam at my foot.  Not sure if I was suppose to open it or not.  Have sea gulls learned to use humans as tools? (Open this clam, buy some French fries and scatter them on the ground.)

On Baby Island we saw some goose eggs and so much more.  All in all, it was a great day spent at the beach.

 

Photos of Whidbey

Museums and churches

 

Museums and churches.  Both are good for the spirit though museums tend to be more sensual that strict church fathers would like.  And of course, some are just a short distance from crazy, but crazy in such a beautiful way.

But both can have some   exciting architecture.  We went to mass at St. Patrick’s and did communion with the artists at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim.  There are so many world class museums in New York, that we will have to come back for another week to finish the highlights. Throw in something like the old Shubert Theater and there is as much curvilinear or rococo decorations as a person could want. I don’t usually take pictures in Museums because, well taking poorly lit pictures of beautiful pictures seems at best, redundant.  The  Guggenheim will not you take pictures above the ground floor which is sad because it has some really interesting architecture. The Met lets you take pictures anywhere.  And you would have to be insensitive to take pictures during mass at St. Patrick's, but apparently some people are.  I kept seeing flashes go off.

Photos of St Patrick's and the Guggenheim

Manhattan

 

I’ve been  to Rome, Paris, and  London, but New York is the only city where I felt like the country cousin in town to visit the relatives.  I must confess.  I gawked. The town knows how to party.

Of course there are great shopping areas along Fifth Avenue.  Where else can you walk out of a City Park and get a few forget-me-knots for friends?

We started at Canal street and walked through Soho which stands for SOuth of HOuston, the street, not the city.  It was a former manufacturing are that was to be torn down to build an express way, but the expressway never happened and artists moved into the lofts after Greenwich Village was taken over by all of those folk singers who made enough money to buy the Mercedes parked  outside of the brown stones.  I don’t know where all of the students at NYU live now, but it isn’t in Greenwich Village.  SoHo started a trend in Acronym districts because now there is NoHo (North of Houston), Nolita (North of Little Italy) and of course TriBeCa (Triangle Below  Canal Street).  Once you get an acronym, rich and successful artists like movie starts start moving in. Once through Soho we came to Washington Square which is where all of the folk music started, and judging by the bronze grille work, flower boxes, and immaculate town houses, became very profitable. I guess it is appropriate that fifth avenue starts there.

We continued through the village to Union Square.  New York really does have a lot of great parks where you can get a good cheap hot dog and play a game of chess.  We caught the subway and headed up to Rockefeller Center where we took the elevator to the “Top of the Roc”.  The elevator climbs 67 floors in 43 seconds and has the best view of New York.

And then that night we topped it off with a musical/rage.  We saw American Idiot with music by Green Day. And along the way we crammed in a half of dozen other interesting things to do and eat.  It really is an amazing city.

One day in Manhattan

Take a hike

Central Park is the second largest city park in the country.  Golden Gate park in San Francisco is the largest, but it doesn’t have Broadway, Tiffany's, or the  miracle mile. Do not believe any rumors that you hear.  The park has been safe to walk in since the 80’s, even at night.  We took a carriage ride through it in the evening and it was full of people walking,jogging and holding hands.  It is well patrolled and nobody hassles you while you’re moving.  If you lay down to take a nap, the police will ask you to move along.  Apparently there is safety in motion.  I enjoyed the meandering  trails, all of the hidden nooks and crannies and the peek-a-boo views of the sky scrapers.  And the twisted arms of the trees.  That really is spooky at night.

If you exit on the west side at 72nd street, you come to the Dakota apartments where Yoko Ono lives, though you shouldn’t expected to be invited to lunch.  She requires a lot of advanced notice. This is definitely not the area from West Side Story.  

Just inside the park is a memorial to John Lennon

 

Photos of Central Park