Visit to the Upper Corner of the USA

Strange beings inhabit Washington

Left Anna and her family on Thursday (thank you Ms. Anna!) taking the ferry over to Kingston and on up the coast. Stopped briefly in the little town of Port Gamble. Cute little dutchy by the sea.

The main street in Port Gamble

Birds Unlimited Garden

Further along the coast I stopped  at a tiny little coffee shop where I savored a nice cup of lavender laced coffee with expresso. Yum!

The lavender coffee shop is next to a Birds Unlimited shop. I did a bit of shopping there for a trinket or two... must support my birding buddies.

Little Down Woodpecker

I took a quick tour of the Birding Unlimited garden where fluttered little Chestnut-backed Chickadees and numerous Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers.








One of my stops along the way was at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. You have to hike more than a mile to get to see anything so I only hung around the little Visitor Kiosk for a bit. 

Nature display at the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge

Eventually I made it to the tiny town of Port Angeles, where I heard there was a Thick-billed Murre that was seen in the Ediz Hook spit. Though I set up my spotting scope, looking long & hard into the harbor, there were loads of birds, but no Thick-billed Murre was to be found.

A Harlequin Ducks male chatters with his buddies.

These Harlequins did a little sunbathing near the shore

Lost of Sanderlings in their pale winter feathers were all over the shoreline

There were a few Dunlin scattered among the Sanderlings

I spent the night in Port Arthur, and the next morning, bright and early I headed even further northwest. I stopped to bird a bit along the way, seeing at least ten or so Bald Eagles that littered the coastline.

The skies were overcast, but there was a lot of sky! I stopped at a bit of coast called the Whale trail, but saw no whales.  I did see some lovely White-winged Scoters, which are a cool pelagic duck.

Oooo... I wish this male & female had been a bit closer to shore

Finally I made my way up to Neah Bay, to visit the Makah Museum. The Makah have occupied Neah Bay for thousands of years, where they always existed as a fishing and whaling tribe. They lived in cedar long houses along the coast right into the last century. In the 1970s erosion exposed most of a Makah village that was once covered over during a mudslide. Volunteers and the Makah peoples themselves, dug out the village and now their findings are all on display in the Makah Museum.

Fifteen Foot Guardians on the Museum grounds

The Museum was impressive; items, such as canoes, wooden cedar boxes and woven materials such as blankets and baskets were in excellent shape. Unfortunately the msuem doesn't allow photography so I had to settle for a few exterior shots. 

 

The Makah Museum

I spent a good deal of my time at the museum having a chat with a really nice guy who it turns out was precisely the same age as myself. He was born in Leah Bay and told me all about its history and how the museum came to be. Sadly, the economic times hit Leah Bay hard, and the unemployment rate there is at a whopping, and nearly unbelieveable 70%. The kids who graduate high school have no choice but to leave their home town. Really sad, because the town itself is rather pretty and certainly chock full of history and culture. Hope things improve there so the future of the Makah tribe remains in its homeland.

After I toured the museum I headed south to the little town of Forks. Forks is nowadays best known, not for its being close to Olympic National Park. It's current fame is because it is the setting for the Twilight trilogy. Now, I'm not a big Twilight fan. I saw all the movies, but frankly, I like my fantasy to take place at Hogwarts. However, I do have buds who love the whole Twilight fantasy world , by whom I mean you Joann, and you Mommy Nancy!).

Well, I settled into the adorable little Forks Motel at the day's end, and flipped on the TV. GAK! Well, talk about your magical coincidence, ABC Family happened to show the first Twilight movie! You could have knocked me over with a werewolf's whiskers, I tell you, I was shocked! I didn't even miss the opening of the movie, so I settled down and watched the whole thing; Ms. moody teen Bella and her sparkly boy toy Cedrick Digory... I mean, Edward Cullen.  Wasn't thrilled with the movie this time either, but I sure enjoyed looking for bits of the Forks area where it was filmed. Cool.

See? I kid you not, I got to watch Twilight while in Forks Washington I tell yah!

I was so excited I wrote Joann, who requested I bring back the broomstick of the wicked witch of the West - uh... no, wait, I'm confusing my fantasies. She asked me to take pictures of the Twilight spots as seen in the movie, such as the First Beach and such. Ordinarily it wouldn't have interested me to do so, but honestly, now I'm quite excited by the prospect. Tomorrow is going to be a Twilight Scavenger Hunt. Wicked!

Making Merry on the Ferries

Washington has loads of islands with lots of interesting little hamlets, so Anna and I spent the past two days exploring a few. The best part was getting across the waters, the solution? Ferries!

The ferry arriving at Edmonds for a ride over to Kingston

The mad dash onto the ferry

 I never ride a ferry without reminiscing about the Staten Island Ferry where I grew up in NYC. Love the feeling of somehow cheating the elements by a quick run over salt water. 

A bit of a rainbow to make up for all that Washington rain

Approaching a magic Washington isle

Anna's pic of birdhouses along a nice rustic fence

We got a kick out of this big ole elephant along the roadside on the peninsula

On Whidley Island we stopped at the Greenbank farm. Most of it was closed but a lovely little shop was open where we could buy a few tidbits to snack on.

Ummm... pies....

Anna and the ducks have a little photo op

At Greenbank Farms I got a kick out of the duck ponds and its metal heron sculpture

On Widley Island we crossed over the humongous bridge at Deception Pass.

The Deception Pass Bridge that gets you back onto one of Puget Sounds many peninsulas

Anna at the Deception Pass overlook

View from the overlook

We ferried to Widley Yesterday, and today we ferried from Edmonds to Kingston. We visited the little town of Poulsbo. Loads of lovely little shops antique stores, bakeries and gourmet candy & coffee shops.

Poulsbo Washington

The Aquarium, which makes a nice background for the iron kids.

Pioneer Cabin in the State Park

One of the coolest places we visited was one we didn't know existed until we spotted it as we wizzed past on the highway - the Squamish Museum and Cultural Center. It is an enormous building. 

Suquamish Museum and Cultural Center

The museum, which occupies a modest portion of the faculty, is one of the best thought out museums dedicated to the first peoples I've ever visited.

Beautiful and detailed quilt in the entryway

The museum did not dwell solely in the past of the Puget Sound Salish Tribes. Some displays wee of items as old as ancient cedar bark baskets but there was a lot of modern day art there as well.

I was blown away by the drop spindle that slowy revolved on its dias. It was, as you can see, quite humongous!

The magical Butterfly decorated drop spindle

Anna assists with canoe transport

Everything old and new and artful was displayed in the museum

Tonight I am undecided on if I'll stay on with Anna and her family, or if I'll venture out and attempt to visit Olympic National Park. V. sweet of Anna, her brother and sister-in-law to give me such hospitality. Oh well! I'll decide what I'm doing in the morning.

Oh! Must mention, no visit with Anna is complete without visiting Frankie, Anna's naughty little cockatiel. Frankie is chock full of character and naughtiness. That's him reading the riot act to his toy/lover/dinosaur. You give that dinosaur what for Frankie!

Shasta, It Hasta Be Shasta

'Shasta, it hasta be Shasta'

Bright and early When I got around to it, I left the house yesterday morning, heading north for Washington State. My goal, is to visit with buds I haven't seen in a while, and secondarily, to tour Olympic National Park, and  possibly Crater Lake in Oregon - I'll see how it goes.

Monday's drive was uneventful, save for the view of snow covered Mt. Shasta, the long dormant volcano, which gleamed brightly in the sunlight. I stopped for a bit in the tiny town of Shasta for a deli sandwich and some coffee - the townspeople were friendly and cheering. So far so good! Spent the night in Eugene. Haven't visited that town since... the 1980s? I might be wrong about that, but its been a while. No stories to tell on that account anyway. Today I got up early and headed for Everett Washington. Along the way I stopped to view another volcano, which blew its top memorably in my own lifetime - Mt. St Helens.

Mount St. Helens with her bad self

I stopped in on the visitor center and prayed the volcano would stay quite at least until I could put in my getaway. Made it to Everett where I hooked up with my long time bud, Anna. It's good to see her. She was in my neck of the woods last November, but she was kept happily busy by her California family so I didn't get to see her. This time I get to hog my bud, all to myself. We started the visit with the official stuffing of the faces at a local Asian Buffet that her family enjoys. The restaurant had a large selection of shellfish and I went wild, trying my first ever Whelk. As expected, they are rather like escargot - slightly rubbery, taking on the taste of whatever sauce they were prepared in. What a hoot it was to try something so v. exotic.

Whelk not exotic enough? Well, there is that frog leg just below it, ready for sampling.

It was great catching up with Anna on her life's adventures. We made our plans for the next day or two. Originally we thought we'd visit Seattle, but looks like we're going to take her sister-in-law's advice and visit one of the islands of Puget sound. Oooo can hardly wait.