Learning Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands

Tuesday’s forecast was rain but that did not delay us from having fun.  We began the day by driving to Anacortes to check out where the ferry dock is because we thought we would head to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island on Wednesday.  Found it and continued on moving south traveling along Fidalgo Island, decided to head to Coupeville’s ferry and make reservations to take the ferry when we move from Burlington to Port Angeles next week.  Since you cannot drive straight west from Seattle because of Pugent Sound, you have to drive south to Tacoma, then head north again on the other side of the Sound, then west.  Our travel time would have been about 1 1/2 hours to get to Seattle, then another 45 minutes to Tacoma, then another 2 plus hours to our next destination.  And, we would have to travel through 2 major cities.  Why not take the ferry across the Sound? It's a 35 minute ride.

First glimpse of Deception Pass Bridge

Looking out to San Juan Island (west)

Look how strong the current is (bottom left) - rip tide

Sea Weed - can tell how strong the current is here

Pretty

Along the way we stopped at Deception Pass Bridge.  Blown away by the views we saw.  The waters there are channeled through Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island in a pass and are very strong, Captain George Vancouver thought this represented a major river to the mainland in the 1792 when he was in the area exploring it.  Wrong.  It is an inlet to a bay.  The current through this pass was truly astounding!  And beautiful views everywhere we looked.  We followed a path down beside the bridge and crossed under it then came back up on the other side to see more interpretive signs.  And obviously, down and under and back up the side to where we parked the car.  Could not cross the bridge topside because they had barriers up (don’t want people getting hit and probably being thrown off the bridge!).  As we were walking to the car we saw a helicopter hovering over a whale watch boat and there was a rescue going on with someone on board, we think.

Had crossed under bridge to other side

The 3 of us jumped back into the car and continued south, now on Whidbey Island, and passed the Naval Air Station that hosts the jets that flew over us while we were in Twisp.  Got to the ferry at Coupeville and talked with an attendant as to how to make reservations, when the best times to travel with the RV.  Stopped at city park called appropriately Driftwood Park and had a quick bite to eat.  Then back up through Whidbey Island and crossed over the Deception Pass Bridge again, back into Fidalgo Island and went on a mission to find Mt. Erie, somewhere in Anacortes.

Freighter traffic in channel,  Coupeville  ferry we will be taking on the 9th

Our stopover near ferry to Port Townsend from Coupeville

Looking back at homes

Lots of driftwood at Driftwood Park

Mt. Erie is an Anacortes’ city park and it sits high on top of Mt. Erie (naturally!) and has vista views of the Sound, the Islands, and the mainland.  While up there we had two bald eagles land in the trees right near us and then they swooped out over the island.  Dave and Donna saw one of them again as they were moving along the rocks looking out over the island.

Looking east - towards Cascade Mountains - still raining there

View looking south towards Seattle

View looking west towards the San Juan Islands

Even though the day started out kinda crummy, we had left in the pouring rain as we headed to Anacortes to search for the ferry, by the time we got back to Anacortes and to Mt. Erie - beautiful!