As We Travel: Whidbey Island

August 6, 2021

We spent one overnight in Port Townsend at the Point Hudson Marina on the Olympic Peninsula so we could catch the ferry to Whidbey Island in the morning. Our campsite was right along the waterfront. These are a few of the sights.

Herrmann's Gull

Herrmann's Gull coming in for a landing. Looks like a welcoming committee is waiting.

Here we are in the ferry line with our RV and car in tow.

Here we are pulling in to the front spot next to the other RV. It's a little scary when the crew keeps waving you in closer and closer to the front of the boat and all you can see is the water. 😳 Needless to say, we didn't go over the edge and arrived in Whidbey Island in one piece.

We spent two nights on Whidbey Island at North Whidbey RV Park. It was a nice campground in a good location across the street from Deception Pass State Park. On our first afternoon, we took a short drive to the Deception Pass Bridge for a view of the Pass.

The bridge is very high up over the water and there is a pedestrian path along the road. I'm not a fan of heights, but I started across until several cars and trucks went by and the bridge shook. That was it for me. So I waited while Lee went across.

The view of Deception Pass from the end of the bridge where I stood.

Later that afternoon, we took the kayaks to Deception Pass State Park at Bowman Bay.

We paddled from the shore out to that rock protrusion in the distance. Beyond that, the swells became bigger and the kayaks were going up and down, so we decided it was time to turn around.

Here's a bad photo of a cormorant sitting on the rock. The kayak was moving up and down and I was trying to take the picture with my phone without bumping into the rock.

Here's a little better one.

We found a quieter cove across the bay. The rock cliffs were covered with colorful lichen.

The next day, we did a little exploring of the island. We drove to West Beach in Oak Harbor and walked along the waterfront.

This is a very cropped (even with a 600mm lens) of a Pigeon Guillemot. I had been seeing these birds at a distance several times, and finally was able to ID them. It's another new one for me.

On our way through Oak Harbor, we spotted this sign. It reminded us of our cycling club back home, the Bedminster Flyers, so we just had to stop for lunch. The fact that it was a brewery was a bonus!

Delicious fish and chips! No need for dinner tonight!

After riding the waves in the bay on the previous day, we decided to stick to the lake this time. We returned to the state park for an evening paddle on Cranberry Lake. It was a very pleasant, perfect ending to our brief stay on Whidbey Island.