Destined for the Pacific Northwest?

I could spend several posts explaining what it's like to work on a campaign. The lifestyle is far different from normal jobs (whatever that means in today's society). Each campaign is it's own entity, but most patterns are similar. Rather than go into specifics, I will just generalize by saying hours are long and, more often than not, 7 days a week. Vacation time is an unspoken word. Deadlines, events and voter contact never sleep - and thus... neither do we.

(Insert obligatory plug: If you live in VA, please don't forget to vote for Bill Bolling (Lt. Governor) this November. It will have made this lifestyle more worth if for me. *end plug*)

Anywho, somehow I got the green light to spend a short amount of time with family over Father's Day weekend.

My grandfather passed away in January, but in order to comply with his wishes for no funeral opted to gather in June to honor his life in a location that couldn't have been more ideal. It was the very best combination of mountain, sea and Naval air strip that seemed to be crafted just for celebrating the life of my Naval aviator, Sierra Club (before they went super liberal) hike leader, ship-loving and nature expert of a grandfather. Simply put - PERFECT.

The location? Whidbey Island, more specifically, Deception Pass State Park. And, because my grandmother and three of my mom's siblings now live on the island as well, it made for a great get-away. Truthfully, I can hardly wait to move there.

More thoughts in the future, but for now, some pictures from the trip.

1. The Welcome to Whidbey sign you see in Clinton, right after getting off the ferry.

2. View from the Mukilteo-Clinton Ferry looking at the vessel carrying passengers in the opposite direction.


3. Deception Pass Bridge (from below). This was on our hike to the location we went for Grandpa. Deception Pass is named such because the narrow water connection passing through actually flows in both directions, depending on the tide. Sailors were frequently mistaken about their location because of it.


4. Family pausing for a break along the hike.

5. The home in Oak Harbor that my mom's family lived in (she was age 3, I think) when Grandpa learned how to fly at the Naval base there. Very overgrown now. You can't even get 1/2 way up the steps from the street to the front door because of the vegatation.

6. View of the house from side/rear. These windows are where the dining room was at that time.

7. Another rear view with the view of the Puget Sound and Vancouver Islands in the background. Aunt Susan is explaining where the fire pit that my great grandmother built was in the back yard.

8. Statue in the town of Langley. Very quaint artsy little town.

9. View of the dock in the town of Coupeville (similar to Langley, but a little more friendly and less "uppity") I learned a great deal about Orcas inside this little building waiting for the restroom. I never knew there were resident and migrating species or variations in how carnivorous they are.

10. View of the Coupeville shoreline from the dock.

11. Family on the ferry to Port Townsend.

12. View from the Ferry to Port Townsend (warning: a lot of references to Port Townsend ahead. It wasn't my favorite locality, but it was when I actually used my camera more)

13. Weirdest birds ever. These little guys would sit patiently waiting for the ferry to come along in the water and then dive down. After the ferry passed, they'd pop back up.

14. View from the upper deck of the ferry to the car deck below.

15. Ferry docking ahead in Port Townsend.


16. Seagull perched at the top of the ferry parking poles. I never saw him move. I suspect the State of Washington pays him to sit there and make the arrival more surreal.

17. Barnacles on the bottom of the poles the gull is perched upon.

18. Architecture in Port Townsend.



19. More of the same.


20. And, again (car was timed well - the town did seem to be from a bygone era)

21. Roadside garden in downtown Port Townsend. Flowers grow SO well out there.