Topophilia: Whidbey Island Edition

This weekend Chelsea and I went on a little getaway to Whidbey Island. It's been a long time since we were able to have some time together so it was particularly nice. We took the ferry over Friday afternoon, stayed one night in Oak Harbor, and came home Saturday evening.

Regular readers will know that we have been to Whidbey Island many times, but this time was different. Chelsea and I haven't gone by ourselves since May 2013, so this time we were able to see some things that haven't made the cut in recent years because young children don't appreciate museums.

We also had lunch at Pickles Deli, which is half the reason we go to Whidbey Island anyway. Pickles is great because it's the kind of place you can bring a board game and play it while you have some lunch. I had recently been looking to buy Splendor and I found it at the game store in Port Townsend, so we played it at lunch.

As I said, Friday afternoon we headed over on the Coupleville ferry. I only have one complaint about the Port Townsend - Coupeville run: it's too short. I wish it was twice as long. You barely get any time to enjoy the ride. For the first time I saw a warship from the ferry. It was well off in the distance. Still cool, though.

The plan was simple, go over, have some sushi for dinner, then hang out at the hotel. My only requirement for the hotel was a hot tub. The Coachmen Inn was right next door to Harbor Sushi and the hot tub was good. It was very enjoyable. 

Of course, since it's me, I had to bring my bike. For some time I've been trying to get over to the Kettles Recreation Area which is adjacent to Fort Ebey State Park. A fairly extensive trail system has been developed there between the county park and state park. Chelsea likes to sleep in and relax in the morning, I like to get up early and head out for some trail. It works out. After my ride we met up for breakfast and pushed our checkout as much as possible.

I never knew why it was called "Kettles" until this visit. One of our stops was the Island County Historical Museum and they had a geological display that taught me a kettle is a geologic phenomenon that happens during a glacial recession where large chunks of ice are covered with glacial till (dirt). After the glacier continues to recede, the ice melts, the dirt falls, and you're left with lots of depressions. The Strava map of my ride shows the topography better.

For the rest of the day we went all over the island. In addition to the Island County Historical Museum in downtown Coupeville, we saw the PBY Naval Air Museum in Oak Harbor, had lunch at Pickles, and made a side trip to Mt. Erie on Fidalgo Island (more on that later).

I had only seen models and pictures, but I thought the PBY would be larger.

Nerding it up in the museum.

The lookout at Mt. Erie was less spectacular than advertised due to the clouds. It was kind of fun driving to the summit and watching ourselves enter the clouds. The drive up was a fall foliage must-do despite having little to see on top. We'll have to try again another time.

Saturday evening it was time to head home. We also checked off another long-procrastinated check point: Chimicum Cafe, in none other than Chimicum. A slab of pie each was the perfect cap of the day.

It will probably be some time before we're back. Hopefully sooner than later.