Island Life

When someone mentions living on an island  most people think  of tropical beaches, ocean breezes and drinks that come with paper umbrellas in them. Well here in the northwest they have the beaches and breezes although there is nothing tropical about them. And the drinks? They come with  melting marshmallows or an extra shot of espresso. This week we are staying on Anderson Island,Washington in Puget Sound.
We left Oregon Friday morning but not until we had breakfast at Lil' Sambos in Lincoln City(same inspiration as the chain we grew up with but different ownership-alas no tiger butter).

 Constant news reports of heavy snow in Portland convinced us to change our route so instead of the 5 we drove up the coast on the 101 This provided us clear roads and beautiful views without the need to buy tire chains.

Knowing that the island is only accessible by ferry we stocked up on groceries before heading to the station. Although the ticket is round trip, they charge by the person, not the car, making daily back and forth trips impractical. Thankfully this house is one of the best we have ever stayed in, making it the perfect place to settle in on a cold but dry weekend with a fire, homemade soup and NFL playoffs.

Christmas in January? Why not?

To Johns delight he discovered a golf course across the street (and behind some trees) from our house. Frozen greens had closed the course for the season but we were able to walk it to the clubhouse about a mile away. The clubhouse sits on Lake Josephine, one of two natural lakes on the island. After a light lunch we walked back to watch Sundays games.










Three days in a row without rain in Washington? In the winter? I don't know if that is normal or a record but we felt we were pressing our luck so Monday we headed back across the Sound to explore the area. Most notable were the lack of billboards along the highways. We were surrounded instead with views of snow capped mountains, bodies of water and trees, trees, trees.

We stopped for lunch in Gig Harbor, a charming little town that reminded us of fishing villages in the northeast. We ate at Netshed # 9,a breakfast/lunch place on the harbor.






 The rest of the afternoon was spent driving around the area to get a feel for the western part of the state.

On the Ferry

The brown Mazda is ours