Playing tourist

 This has been another busy month as we prepared for the hosting and entertainment of town guests, as well as the planning and organization of ourselves for our upcoming European trip.

Last Wednesday we drove down to the airport to pick up an old Navy buddy of my husband, The Investigator.  He and his wife had flown out from Florida to stay with us for a few days before taking an Alaskan Cruise up the Inside Passage.  Knowing that they had not been in the Northwest since the 70's we were glad to have the opportunity to give them a tour of the area before they caught their ship. 

So, on Thursday morning  after breakfast we all piled into the car and headed towards North Whidbey Island and Deception Pass.  We stopped in Mount Vernon along the way and took a stroll along the Skagit River waterfront before walking into town, and then into one of the old brick buildings which housed a book store specializing in old and rare out-of-print books There were numerous rooms and alcoves filled with floor to ceiling bookcases. I could have spent hours browsing in there.

Eventually. we dragged ourselves away and continued on up to Deception Pass.  It was still a bit foggy on the beach.

 

We discovered someone had been practicing their engineering skills.:)

After a while, we left the shore to go walking up the cliff side through trees covered in Spanish moss.

 

Looking out over the cliff, visibility was still pretty low.

A peek through the trees and fog to the Deception Pass Bridge.

After a few hours on the island the fog finally cleared, and we were able to walk out onto the bridge to admire the beautiful views before heading for home.

On Friday we stayed more local, driving down to Mukilteo Lighthouse Park to walk the grounds and watch the ferries.  Everything is always so beautifully maintained.

 

After leaving the park we drove into Everett for one last walk around one of the neighborhoods overlooking the harbor before going to dinner.

 

These flower baskets were right outside the waterfront restaurant where we had dinner, some of the last summer blooms of the season.

 We had hoped to walk along the boats in the harbor, but it started to rain. So we just headed for home after dinner and watched a movie. Yesterday we drove our friends into Seattle and dropped them off at their cruise ship. Now we are in a marathon race to finish all our packing as we will be flying out to Switzerland tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed our little Northwest Tour. See you in a few weeks!

Adieu!