September 21, 2013 Whidbey Island

Rain was predicted for today so we decided to sight see on the island.

This windmill is in a park in Oak Harbor. We stopped at what looked like a festival,  it was some kind of children's festival. We found this Blarney Stone which is dedicated to Oak Harbors first Irish settlers. John being Irish decided he should kiss it.

Save the driftwood! Since the trees are so big in this area the driftwood is huge logs. People seem into building log shelters out of them. We next went to Coupeville.  There was a nice farmers market we went to. Coupeville was settled before Seattle and has tried to keep all the historic building looking historic. Here are a couple from the pier.

Nice view of Coupeville and more islands from the pier. We had lunch outside in the sun at Kim’s café. John is talking to his sister Bridgett, we have no phone reception or internet back at camp.

Main street of Coupeville. They had photos of the 1800’s and now, and it looks pretty much the same, but with dirt roads, no cars or wires. The beach on this side of the island has more waves. In the distance is Port Townsend where we will take the ferry to when we leave the islands. It saves about 200 miles of driving all the way around the sound. We heard about it from Robert and Diana who we met in the North Cascades.

At Fort Casey  just south of Coupeville they are having a Kite festival. They didn’t have much wind, but many energetic children were running fast enough to get their kits We toured  the ruins of Fort Casey. It was built in the 1890’s to protect the harbor. Looks like it was built during the concrete  era.

They have the last two disappearing 10 inch guns left. They are called disappearing because they can drop them down behind the walls. Pretty interesting place. There were lots of rooms and dark passage ways under the guns here.  A self timer shot of us at the fort.

Near Fort Casey is  the Admiralty Head lighthouse. We had a hard time getting a good photo because a wedding was taking place in front of it. The sky from the lighthouse area.

John driving the Flintstone car in Flintstone park in Oak Harbor. 

The AAA book says the low point of Washington is –3 feet on Ebey Island. No one seems to have heard of Ebey Island or the low point. They have Ebey landing , Fort Ebey, Ebey prairie, Jacob Ebey’s historical house (he was the first settler of Whidbey island) and visitors center, but no Ebey Island. The internet says the low point is the pacific ocean, so we will wait till we get to the coast for the low point. I am sure though that  if AAA printed it ,it must be true!