La Conner and Mt Vernon WA

Since our last post, we spent 3 weeks at a LaConner Thousand Trails and 4 days at nearby Mt Vernon Thousand Trails in WA.  Below are a few highlights from our time in the area.

La Conner, WA Thousand Trails Preserve

As soon as we setup our site and ate lunch, we went for a quick walk. Sandy wanted to look for the residential Bald Eagles and Dan wanted to look at a couple of different sites since our first site was small and narrow  (we did indeed move 2 days later to a much nicer spot).

 

Dan sighted two Eagles sitting up high in the trees near the bay…all right!

 

 This Bald Eagle had his wings out. I’m not sure if he was hot or drying off his feathers…hmm either way it made for a good shot.

Do you see Mama?

Maaaaa! We're hungry!

On our way back, there were quite a few song birds singing their favorite tunes. My favorite photo was of the baby birds waiting for Mama Bird to return. I was hoping to get a couple of photos of her feeding them. When she did return, she would not feed them with me standing under the tree so I left.

Several days later we saw our first juvenile Bald Eagle! He was sitting in the tree on Lone Tree Beach. A popular spot for Eagles hunting for fish. Except for his feathers and beak, he looks full grown.

Caught plucking out his white feathers.

And like most typical teenagers, he is in a hurry to grow up and be an adult.  We watched him pluck quite a few of his white feathers out.

Practicing his Regal pose

And to prove he was an adult, he did several regal poses just to impress his viewers.

Lone Tree Beach

The Maiden of Deception Pass (La Conner, WA)

One of our many favorite stops in this area is Rosario Beach State Park. It is a small inlet close to Deception Pass Bridge with deep waters allowing boaters to come and go. Most of the time it is a quiet area, but once in a while a naval jet fighter will fly over to remind us that we are not far from civilization. 

view from the pier

This is a Samish story pole called The Maiden of Deception Pass. There's an interesting story about her printed on plaques surrounding her.  People slowly circle the pole while they read her story. I also found a page on the carving with pictures of the story pole here.

They say you can still see the Maiden's hair floating in the Deception Pass waters....

We spent some time watching the Swallows zip around us. I did not even try to take their pictures since I'm sure I would either miss or get nothing but a blur of a black streak across the photo. Then Dan noticed one sitting on a cross beam just below the pier. When we looked a little closer, there were quite a few sitting on the the cross beams resting.

peeking at you, peeking at me

fluffed up and cooling off

At the Car Wash

This gorgeous Dahlia was growing outside the car wash's office. I wonder how many people stop to take photos of it?

 

Over The Rainbow Bridge (La Conner, WA)

 

Sandy says: We visited La Conner on a sunny day - surprise! It is such an enchanting town and I have been under its spell since we visited here three years ago.

We walked the main street and as usual, I took way too many pictures. La Conner's quaint downtown area on the Swinomish Channel is filled with wonderful gift shops, galleries, and museums. Oh! Speaking of museums...there's a quilt museum here and I plan to visit them next week. The Quilt & Textile Museum is up the hill in an an old Victorian home. I have been there before and really had a great time looking at quilts and wandering through the beautiful old mansion.

Views from the docks

and this view at the opposite end of the channel with the Rainbow Bridge

La Conner has so many shops to look through including a quilt shop called Fabric Déva (no website). I actually did not buy a thing from the shop this time....only because I could not make up my mind, got frustrated, and decided I'll just have to go back again.

The Ginger Grater on 1st Street

There are a lot of nice restaurants and pubs along the waterfront with sitting areas on the dockside. I love the looks of this one. It has a waterfall coming off the dock and into the channel. People are sitting nearby eating while enjoying the sunshine and listening to the water fall into the channel.

Even La Conner's bridge is enchanting. This bridge has been a burnt orange since 1957. After getting the first coat of primer, the town's people decided they liked the color and asked DOT not to add the typical green coat of paint. It has been burnt orange ever since and is known as the Rainbow Bridge.

Rainbow Bridge



Welcome Cats, Quilts, and Museums (La Conner, WA)

I visited La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum yesterday. The Tudor-style Victorian mansion was fabulous to see by itself, but the old quilts on display along with the Japanese quilt exhibit made the visit perfect!

This mansion was built in 1891 and was known as the Gaches Castle.

The mansion almost did not make it after being gutted and turned into apartments for 30 years. One of the tenants caused a major fire that took out the roof and third floor.

There was talk of tearing down the old place, but one man saw a historic site that needed to be saved and started a restoration group.

They did a wonderful job restoring this mansion.

I just love the colors in this quilt! 

They even restored the old fireplaces with Italian tile just as Mrs. Gaches would have liked it.

There are two exhibits at the museum from Japan right now. One is "Ainu Embroidery" and the other is "At Play - Asobi: Quilts from Japan". The Ainu Embroidery also included reverse appliqué. I spent a lot of time studying the artwork. I think I'm going to give reverse appliqué a try sometime soon. The embroidery consisted of "Cord" stitching or what I call couching. The coat in the photo below is all reverse appliqué and cord embroidery.

The quilts were extraordinary and made from silk, loose woven cotton, and hemp. One quilt had me and another woman with our noses only inches from its work. The quilt was filled with small scenes of the old life in Japan. Beautiful gardens, detailed robes, hair, and their faces were just amazing. I could have spent more time looking and studying all the quilts, but the museum was very busy that day.

No photos allowed, so here's some samples from a post card. 

Back to the real world again.....across the street from the museum was a small butterfly garden for the public. A very serene spot to relax and smell the flowers.

(Mount Vernon, WA)

We went to Mount Vernon Farmer's Market a couple of weekends ago.

displays of fruits....

and flowers.

Dogs making friends

A little Shakespeare for entertainment.

After buying some delicious 9-grain bread, fruit, and veggies, we walked a couple of blocks to the downtown area. Right on the first corner was a quilt shop called Calico Creations! No website, but they are on Facebook.

Out and About

Here are some photos from our drive on Chuckanut Drive.

Framed views from a pullover area

Tree hugging a rock

Views of Larrabee State Park:

Larrabee State Park

 

And a few from the RV park at the Oak Harbor NAS:

Great views of the ocean

See the RV up on the hill?

Driftwood sculptures are scattered throughout the park

There were a couple of JOY driftwood signs

It has been such a joy and I hope we return soon.

Traveling South (Mount Vernon, WA)

Today, August 5th, we departed Mt Vernon, and are spending one night at Chehalis Thousand Trails.     Next we will head down the Oregon coastline for a few weeks using our Thousand Trails parks membership.  About halfway down the coast we will cut inland and then down the I5 corridor through CA, heading back towards our winter gig as hosts at a wildlife preserve in Patagonia AZ Nov-Feb.