Memories Deceive Me

I used to scrapbook, as the cabinet full of supplies and tools still in my house would attest. Maybe one day I'll go back to it and catch up on the projects I've been meaning to complete. But at least I can stay reasonably up-to-date on this blog. Even if no one outside of our family ever reads it, I'll keep posting entries because I enjoy writing about our travels. It's important to me to have a record of what we saw and what we did because I'm sure that I won't remember the details as clearly later on. 

May 1996

Case in point: Our first stop today was Deception Pass. R asked if we had come here during our trip to Washington in 1996 because it seemed familiar. 

I said, "Nope."

Bzzzzzt! Wrong answer. 🤦

We checked out of the hotel in Burlington this morning and headed west on WA-20. Instead of going to Anacortes at the traffic circle, we turned south towards Whidbey Island. We parked at the turnout just before the Deception Pass Bridge on the Fidalgo Island side to take this pic.

We started to walk across the bridge, but the traffic whizzing by was too unnerving for me. So we hopped back in the car, drove across to Whidbey Island, and then turned around to head northbound in order to get to the small parking area on Pass Island in between the two spans.

We hiked down the short trail to see the underside of the bridge. 

975-foot section from Pass Island to Whidbey Island

So, what's deceptive about it? Exploring the area in 1792, the Vancouver Expedition, led by George Vancouver, originally believed the land to be a peninsula. However, when a group of sailors led by his lieutenant mapped the narrow strait, they realized that it was actually an island. Vancouver named the pass "Deception" because of this mistaken assumption and the island after Lt. Whidbey because of his circumnavigation of it.

Because we were on a tight schedule, we didn't explore any other parts of the state park besides the scenic views from the bridge and moved on to Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve. There are several different areas within Ebey's Landing NHRES, cooperatively managed by a Trust Board on behalf of the NPS, Washington State Parks, the town of Coupeville, and Island County. Their joint aim is to protect a rural community and its significant history. 

We stopped at Fort Ebey State Park, and after finding the contact station closed (no stamp! 👎), we bought a one-day Discover Pass ($10) and poked around the fort for a bit. It was built for coastal defense during World War II.

The view of Admiralty Inlet and the Olympic Peninsula from Fort Ebey

The next stop at the Trust Board Visitor Center was more successful, stamping-wise! After expressing our excitement about their being open and lamenting our strike-out rate thus far to the staffer, she said that many units throughout the NPS are having to shorten hours due to their reliance on volunteers who haven't returned in the same pre-pandemic numbers.

The blockhouse and family home

From the visitor center, we walked the short trail to the Jacob and Sarah Ebey House. Their son Colonel Isaac Neff Ebey was among the first permanent Euro-American settlers to the island. Enticed by the Donation Land Law of 1850 which offered free land in the Oregon Territory to any citizen who would homestead the land for four years, he filed a claim in 1851. The rest of his family joined him soon after. Built in 1856, the home of his parents, Jacob and Sarah, and the blockhouse erected to defend the claim (a 19th century panic room, haha!) still stand today overlooking the prairie that bears the family name.

Ebey's Prairie, Admiralty Inlet, and Olympic Peninsula

Then we headed into Coupeville to check out the Island County Historical Museum and to get the passport stamp. In chatting with the volunteer at the front desk, we were surprised to find out that before retiring to Whidbey Island, he used to live in the same town in the neighborhood just around the corner from ours. Small world!

We thought that this little museum was nicely done. The "Native People, Native Places" exhibit was really interesting, especially seeing the display of dug out canoes and the black-and-white footage of early Water Festival Canoe Races. I particularly liked how this graphic of the geology of the island visualized the "scrape marks" from the movement of glacial ice sheets.

Whidbey Island and Camano Island

Afterwards, we walked across the street for another passport stamp at the Coupeville Chamber of Commerce and also got recommendations for lunch spots nearby. We decided to try Sunshine Drip and sat outside to enjoy our light lunch (very good, but no pics) and the beautiful weather. Another local stopped to chat with us because he noticed I was wearing a UCLA shirt - he had taught there as a dentistry professor and moved up here when he retired. Hmmm, how many years until retirement for us?

Our last stop in Ebey's Landing NHRES was Fort Casey Historical State Park, but the office with the passport stamps was closed. Since it was just past noon, we decided to head over to the Coupeville landing to see if we could go stand-by on the 1:15PM ferry to Port Townsend instead of the 2:45PM ferry that we had reserved. The attendant at the booth recommended just keeping our reservation and coming back later.

Battery Worth

So we went back to explore Fort Casey with the extra time we had. Built in the late 1800s to defend the entrance to the Puget Sound, Fort Casey, Fort Worden, and Fort Flagler were collectively known as the "Triangle of Fire".

Battery Valleau

10-inch disappearing gun

Admiralty Head Lighthouse

We drove back over to the terminal around 1:45PM and parked our car in line. This was the first time we had ever driven onto a ferry! It only took about 35 minutes to cross over to Port Townsend on the Salish.

Once on the Olympic Peninsula, we drove south on WA-20 and then turned west onto US-101. By the time we reached Port Angeles, it was after 4:00PM, and the visitor center for Olympic National Park was already closed for the day. Guess we'll have to come back tomorrow!

We decided to make a stop at Madison Falls since it was just a little detour on the way to our hotel. Located in the Elwha River Valley, it was an easy "hike" along the 0.1-mile accessible trail to the base of the falls.

Elwha Valley

From here, it was about 15 miles to Lake Crescent Lodge, our home base for the next two nights. We checked in and unloaded our stuff into the room. Since we couldn't get dinner reservations for seating in the dining room, we ordered take-out and ate on the porch instead. A fine way to end a jam-packed day!

Lake Crescent Lodge

Beautiful view!

130 miles