whidbey island. washington. part 2.

whidbey island is about an hour and a half from seattle and i was surprised to find out how big it actually is - i had no idea! gregg (megan's bf), megan and i set off in the late afternoon with charlie the chocolate lab (he belongs to meg's sister). she had mentioned that she got stuck last minute with dog sitting duties and i thought - yay! a cute dog! then she said, no... he's super whiny and slobbery in the car. and i thought, yeah, ok... sure. well, she made me sit upfront b/c charlie is so bad in the car. without being too gross... that dog can slobber. and pant. and whine with the best of the them. for the entire trip. i have no idea how he had any slobber or any voice left after the trip! but he is a v. sweet dog... just not in the car!

everyone kept talking about the ferry we'd be taking. ummm, we didn't take a ferry. we crossed a bridge. one of the most scenic coolest looking bridges i've ever seen! apparently you can either cross this bridge or take the ferry - but if you live towards the north end of the island it is way faster (and free!) to go slightly out of the way and take the bridge rather than wait for a ferry you to well, ferry you across the water. we got to the house and were greeted with the most amazing sunset! it was so beautiful! megan's parents, margie and greg, have a gorgeous piece of land and have built this stunningly beautiful home that takes advantage of all the beach views.
greg made us a delicious dinner - amazing salmon. seriously, i felt like i should be sitting in a restaurant it was so good. after several glasses of wine, everyone was tired and we all went to bed.










the next day: island sightseeing self guided tour! on the tour:

*mt. erie: to see the views. we drove to mt erie where you could look out and see the various islands and mt baker... and some refineries as well.

mt. baker was in the background, but it wouldn't show up in the picture.

*race packet pick up: b/c that's why we were all there! we made a stop at the high school to grab packets for everyone and get the various freebies at the booths. it is a super small race and a super small expo. i'd never been a part of such a small race.

*mussels: b/c we really needed seafood and protein before our race, duh! we headed to coupeville to get mussels at toby's. YUM!

ok, so we not only had 2 lbs of mussels, we also had garlic bread, clams, halibut, clam bisque...

*greenbank farm: for pies! oh yum... those pies. in all we had marion berry, black raspberry, and loganberry. they were all delicious! the farm is interesting in that it has wine tasting (no, we were running the next day!), loads of cheeses, and little artist's shops that we meandered in and out of.

*ft casey: b/c it is cool. this is an old military fort and is big, wide, and open. and windy! we saw tons of kites there. it was a really fun place to just run around and climb on stuff and feel like a kid!




and then, it was late in the afternoon and we headed back to megan's to meet up with the other folks running the race. that evening, we had another fantastically delicious dinner made by megan's dad. chicken, pasta, potatoes, veggies.... pie... and then it was off to bed in order to be ready for race day!