Explore WA: Whidbey Island

June 09, 2015

Explore WA: Whidbey Island

We have been down Whidbey Island several times (May 2012 and Oct 2012) just driving through enjoying scenery over the 3+ years since moving to Seattle. We have stayed close to there when we camped in Anacortes or rented a house with the parents in La Conner. But this weekend was our first time overnight on Whidbey. Our friends, Kelsey and Jason who have 2 little girls very close in age to ours, asked us to stay with them for the weekend on Whidbey Island close to Oak Harbor. Kelsey has a photography business so she had traded picture services for a weekend on a beach house. We were very grateful they invited us. It was a very nice time with them as the kids had fun and we enjoyed getting to know the Moll family better.

The house sat on the body of water called the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Basically from the beach you could see Victoria, BC (to our west) and Lopez and San Juan Islands (to our north) and the north part of the Olympic Mt Range (to our south). A couple years ago Wes and I had taken a boat trip through here on a whale watching tour (Recap).

We got in late Friday night after Wes had his first elders meeting since our church appointed 5 new elders to serve alongside him and Andrew. Yay! (Wes is really happy about this…. more input, wisdom, discernment, leadership, shepherding for our growing church community) Sadie fell asleep in the car but Leighton was too excited and had a hard time falling asleep even though we arrived at 11pm because of her excitement of sharing a room with Norah.

After little sleep friday…. kids woke us up at 5am… we drove north over Deception Pass toward Anacortes (Kelsey and Jason's hometown) for a small hike around Burrows Bay and some beach time for the kids. The dads had more fun building sand castles than the kids I think…

Leighton chasing people with seaweed

sweet sadie and viv holding hands "hiking"

The kids had some bad run ins with barnacles and their feet got scrapped up. Leighton below showing off injury. All 4 kids ended up bloody by the time we reached the cars.

The girls barely napped as they had so much fun playing with each other and their bunnies/blankets.

Kelsey sent me this sweet picture

Saturday night we fixed dinner at the house and enjoyed eating outside then roasting marshmallows for smores before we put the girls to bed. The adults got a little quiet time as we sat by the fire outside till sunset which is 10pm! So late now!

The tide would go out in the morning so we could walk across rocks/drift wood to the beach and then in the evening the water was pretty much to the deck as the tide came in.

Sadie is potty training so the "frog potty" travels with us everywhere including the beach. She got wet by the water or pee or both and ended up in only her panties on the beach at one point. She loved it, such a character. Thankful it was pretty much a private beach.

When we were up in Anacortes last summer for our missional community's camping trip (Recap) we ate Dad's Diner. Ever since then we remembered how much we enjoyed that Carolina vinegar based BBQ sandwich. So naturally being so close to it we got it for lunch on Saturday.

Enjoying laying around the house…. reading and playing cards.

What you spotting there Sadie? This bald eagle hung out at the neighbors house all day! See how we got it next to the America flag for a quick pic…. makes you want to bust out "God Bless the USA"