We went to an old-fashioned 4th of July parade. What made it old-fashioned I'm not sure, except maybe that candy was tossed from the floats. I remember grabbing for candy at childhood parades before it was decided that was too dangerous. Over 1,000 American flags were handed out to the spectators and not just the little cheap ones; these were about three feet long. Parading by were oodles of politicians, fire trucks, and local businesses. Missing (for me) were the horses and I think there was only one marching band. It was definitely more of a small town parade than the Houston variety. I loved it though.
One evening, we picnicked in the park and took in a free concert. Loved that too.
Farmers markets are popular in the area. We bought freshly-made kettle corn, fresh corn-on-the-cob, cheese, and a historical fiction book about the island in the 1920s written by an island native. The author signed my book. We saw several cannabis booths. It is legal here. Chris had to point out to me that the soothing lotion products at one booth contained marijuana.
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| Mount Vernon Farmers Market |
Wineries abound so of course we did a wine tasting. Some of wines are made from locally grown on the island grapes, apples, and pears. It was so cute seeing the Whidbey Island Sketchers group sitting on the pretty grounds doing what they do -- sketch.
The Astros were in Seattle while we were so, naturally, we went to a game. The weather was beautiful that day and the Astros won... perfect!
The Boeing company, where our son Ryan works, celebrated their 100th anniversary during our stay. The Boeing flag was raised on the iconic Seattle Space Needle and we got to attend a huge company event with vintage and new aircraft on display as well as a previous Air Force One plane.
We even got to relive the old days of watching Ryan play sports. He and his wife now play in a city softball league and we were able to attend one of their games.
We walked along beautiful hiking trails with huge ferns and towering trees.
We took a ferry to the Olympic peninsula in the northwestern corner of Washington state and visited a small portion of the majestic Olympic National Park. We saw enough to want to come back and experience more of the park's rain forest, mountain ridge, lakes, rivers, creeks, waterfalls.
Near Port Angeles we drove by a place called Dungeness and then enjoyed some delicious Dungeness crab salad sandwiches, crab cakes, and crab bisque for lunch. I definitely had my fill of crab that day.
There is an inlet of water on Whidbey Island called Penn Cove which is famous for its Penn Cove mussels and yes, I ate some.
As you can see, I'm a fan of sampling the local food and drink. The Lavender Loganberry Lemon Drop cocktail made from loganberry liqueur from the Whidbey Island Distillery was fabulous.
We tried to make the most of our three weeks on the island, but we especially enjoyed getting to spend time with family.
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