Whidbey Island

Recently I spent a few days visiting our friends John and Sharon in Washington State. On the flight up I flew over Crater Lake. Although I've never seen it before, from above it's abundantly clear how it got its name.

John and Sharon live on Whidbey Island, which is in the Puget Sound. To get there I take a shuttle from the Seattle airport for about an hour to the north, and the shuttle drives onto a ferry. The ferry ride across the Puget Sound is about fifteen minutes, and then the shuttle drives onto the island for about ten minutes to a pickup spot near their house, which is above. As you can see, garden flowers are in full bloom.

Sharon took me on a hike to South Whidbey State Park. We hiked about three miles. The woods was thick with foliage. I had a hard time capturing the beauty of the woods in a picture so you'll have to trust me when I say it was gorgeous.

Every morning I'd go on a walk in their neighborhood. The blackberry bushes are in bloom, and the berries should be out in full force soon.

In the cloudy Pacific Northwest the colors pop, making even ordinary plants look amazing.

Even though I enjoyed the scenery on my long morning walks, I didn't have to venture far for splendid views. This is the view from John and Sharon's back deck looking at the tidal flats in Useless Bay. When the tide comes in the bay fills completely with water. When the tide is at its lowest, the tidal flats can extend much farther than even in this photo.

One day we went for a drive around the southern portion of the island. The island's pretty big—about 60 miles from end to end. Just staying on the southern side we traveled about 25 miles north. This is a place called  Ebey's Landing.

We went to a town called Coupville and had mussels for lunch. This pier is adjacent to a place called Penn Cove, which is known for its mussels. The mussels were tasty. I also got to see a mussel farm, which is basically a series of rafts in the cove with ropes extending down from the rafts into the water.

Sharon keeps a couple of horses across the street from their house. They're both very sweet.

It might be hard to see in this photo, but what look like clouds in the background are also the Olympic Mountains. The mountains have snow and are visible left of center in the photo.

The sky there is large and always changing, with interesting clouds.

As always it was great to catch up with these dear friends.

On the way home we flew over the Sierras, which still have quite a bit of snow.

But of course the best sight to see was home. I flew into Long Beach and somewhere down there is our house!