Whidbey Island

This year we had a staycation for spring break and for one of  those days we decided to take a day trip up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, in Mount Vernon.

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival has become a non-optional part of spring for me. Our first time going was only back in 2016, so this year was our fourth in a row. I can't even put a finger on why it has come to mean so much to me. This year, due to the family schedule, it didn't look like we were going to make it and I was truly disappointed. The week before spring break there was a change at work that freed me up so we made a last minute decision to head up to the festival.

We were there for the first week of it. Due to the cold winter, the tulips were late to bloom, so for us it was mostly the Skagit Valley Tulip Bud and Daffodil Festival. There were some early bloomers, but for the most part, the gardens were still coming into their springtime look. I'm still glad we went.

One thing about the tulip festival is the traffic. So. Much. Traffic. When you approach from I-5 you have to plan on sitting on an off-ramp for at least 30 minutes. Longer if it's Saturday. The first time we went that's how we did it. I think that will also be the last. It is so much better to approach Mount Vernon from the west since nobody does that. There's much less traffic, it's all right turns, and you get to see Whidbey Island. It's all awesome.

This was the first and last time I rode the Port Townsend to Coupeville ferry without a reservation. I thought, it's a Wednesday morning, I don't have my trailer, there should be no problem getting on. That almost turned out to be a huge mistake. We arrived for the 9:30 ferry and couldn't get on, then we were the LAST car allowed on the 11:00. If we had missed that one, there wouldn't have been time to do the activities. Always reserve. Always.

Whidbey Island has become far and away our favorite place to go when we're feeling like getting away a little, but we still need to be close to home.

On one of our trips with my parents we were looking for a place to get some lunch and found some yelp reviews for a little place called Pickles Deli in Clinton. We decided to take a chance. That chance has become almost a semi-annual pilgrimage to have lunch there. It may sound silly, but they have the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich I have ever tasted. It is truly artisanal. Now, I generally don't get that because of the other incredibly delicious offerings they have such as a turkey club with bacon and a barbeque chicken sandwich. The visit is also not complete without stuffing my face with a spicy "Kick your butt" dill pickle. Chelsea prefers the garlic dill pickles which are also extremely delicious. I'm usually amused by crowd we usually see there. Despite the fact that there are toys and games for the kids, just our family's presence in there dramatically reduces the average age. When we went there with my brother's family all the kids decided the several puzzles should all be in one box. What are you going to do?

Here's our current list of Whidbey Island trips over the last few years. 

2011 May, Mother's Day Trip
2013 May, Coupeville cabin rental for Mother's day
2013 June, Deception Pass camping with my scouts
2015 November, Langley Cabin rental with my parents, discovered Pickles Deli
2017 April, Cabin rental in La Conner with Chelsea's friends, also visited Whidbey Island.
2017 September, First RV camping trip at Fort Ebey, also met my brother and his family there
2018 April, Fort Ebey camping with the trailer, went home via tulip festival
2018 October, Fort Ebey camping, Coupeville pumpkin patch
2019 April, Day trip to Skagit Valley via Whidbey Island

We love it. You should try to visit sometime. If you do, I'll make a trip coincide. It will be a great excuse to get out there again.

The RV-Life

Man, what a ride the last year and a half has been. If you read this blog regularly, besides facing long droughts of posts, you've come to know that there has been lots of change over this period.

In my own mind, 2018 was characterized by lots of playing. Lots. For the first time in almost a decade I was not a homeowner and was therefore not constantly dealing with that monkey on my back of the next (or usually current) project. Our rental house has been perfect for us at this time. If I had owned it, there would be a long list of things I'd want to address (very few of which actually matter), but I don't own it, so instead it's play time.

My favorite toy of the year was the travel trailer we bought in September of 2017. Our Sonoma.

I'd thought for years about buying one and after camping in a tent with our whole family once I finally resolved it was time. The day we bought it, I made it known:

 "There have been two times in my life that I made what I considered to be a bad financial decision, but that I got a lot of enjoyment out of.
Here's to number three. Hopefully"

As I'm now preparing to sell it, I can attest that it was a bad financial decision, but for my money, me an my family will have irreplaceable memories from this. Many of our trips were to Whidbey Island. You can read my recent post about Whidbey Island in particular here on the blog and you can see my feelings on that.

Too many people buy trailers only to find that they didn't use them that often, if even at all. That's because it's a lot of work. To say otherwise is patently false. Don't take that to mean I don't think it's worth it, because without a doubt, it is.

Our trips always started out the day before departure. I'd have to retreive the trailer from storage and spend a bunch of time the night before getting ready to go. Many times this would penetrate into the night, ensuring that I would start the trip short on sleep. Then it was always a scramble on departure day. Since we always wanted to minimize vacation time use and maximize trip time, we'd always leave after work.

Most days we'd leave before dinner because the kids would be so keyed up with excitement it was impossible to get them to sit and eat even just a sandwich. Many times we got to our destination very late at night. As we were preparing to go on the Cape Disappointment trip, Isaiah closed his thumb in the trailer door, injuring it badly. After a while he calmed down, so we still decided to go, but we didn't get to the campsite until almost 11:00 pm. (The kids then woke up at 5:30 am, but that's another story.)

Trips down to the coast, like Cape Disappointment or Twin Harbors were always tough because they were long drives. Trips to Whidbey were my favorite because we got a relaxing ferry ride out of it, and even though the travel time was kind of long, it was less than 90 miles of driving to get there. We'd always get there at a more reasonable 7-8 pm.

We also took advantage of some close camping. There are choice campgrounds right here in Kitsap County that are frequented by travelers from all over the country. It's human nature to overlook the sights found in one's own backyard. Our local favorites were Scenic Beach State Park and Kitsap Memorial State Park. Both very close and exceedingly beautiful.

The sleeping arrangements were always tough. Our youngest simply cannot sleep when other people are in the same room. Of course, in a small trailer like this, you're all in the same room, so she was always a challenge to get to sleep. The trailer had two bunks, a queen bed, and a dinette. Enough beds for five people. We tried a different sleeping arrangement on every trip. We never found one that worked for us completely. Also, you know how finicky kids are. One trip they wanted the bunks, the next they refused the bunks.

Often when I would go with just the boys, all three of us would sleep on the big bed together. We would either lay down and watch a movie or read together, depending on our moods. It will be a great memory for me.

When I'd go with them we would usually all sleep at the same time. There were exceptions to this when I would stay up after they went to sleep, but generally our sleep schedules aligned. For the boys, this was not quite enough sleep and their eyes would be betray it. For me it was more than plenty and that allowed me an improved mental state and an additional store of patience against their inevitable conflicts.

So, as for my facebook post, I did get A LOT of enjoyment out of it. And it's a good thing, too, because it WAS a bad financial decision. I regret nothing.

Alas, the time has come to let it go. We need to shift the focus of our lives for a while so there is not room for this. There are not likely to be any further trips with this trailer, so here is a comprehensive list:

1. 21-23 Sep 2017 Fort Ebey (Maiden Voyage; Everybody)
2. 6-8 Oct 2017 Dungeness Recreation Area (Anniversary Trip; Me, Chelsea, Jake)
3. 1-3 Dec 2017 Kitsap Memorial (House Showing Weekend; Me and boys)
4. 23-25 Mar 2018 Fort Worden (Me and boys)
5. 27-30 Apr 2018 Fort Ebey, Tulip Festival on the way home (Everybody)
6. 25-28 May 2018 Twin Harbors (Lipsense Vendor Show, Everybody)
7. 30 Jun - 3 Jul 2018 Newhalem, North Cascades (Everybody, with Chelsea's sister's family)
8. 7-9 Sep 2018 Scenic Beach (Lipsense Vendor Show, Me and kids)
9. 27-30 Sep 2018 Cape Disappointment (Everybody)
10. 18-21 Oct 2018 Fort Ebey (Everybody)
11. 16-18 Nov 2018 Scenic Beach (Me and boys)
12. 15-17 Mar 2019 Kitsap Memorial (Me and boys)

Too often people find they don't use the trailer they bought with the best intentions. I can proudly say we used the crap out of this thing. It was a great period of my life and I hope the kids look back fondly on it, too.