7-9, Whidbey Island

Whidbey Island was our first home together.  It's where we first lived in the same state (NY doesn't count because we weren't a couple back then), where we lived  after we got married, where we first rented a house together, where we first bought a house together and where our first child was born.   It holds for us a lot of memories going back even further than our time in Silverdale.  

Our next Puget Sound adventure was to do another whirlwind tour:  drive from Edmonds to Mount Vernon, through Anacortes, over Deception Pass, through the base at Oak Harbor, down the island via the first house we rented in Coupeville, the bank I used to work at in Freeland, a winery Sven's friend owns in Langley, the house we owned in Clinton, then the ferry to Mukilteo and drive back to Edmonds.  I think we're putting as many miles on the trucks (and our butts) in Puget Sound as we did to GET here!  

I don't see Nina.  Do you see Nina?  She needed a little vitamin D to recover from whatever ails her in order to join us on this day.  LOL.....

More sibling love.... rivalry?.....love?

Can't you just hear the Sound of Freedom?

Coupeville is the town where we first lived when we moved to Whidbey.  I remember the bad phone connection I had when talking to mom and telling her about our new town.  "POOPVILLE?!!?" she said......"No, not POOPville-- COUPEville!"  Well, that name stuck.  Welcome to Poopville.

It was too late in the day for lunch, so I settled for a picture of the sign for one of our favorite restaurants in town.

Driving down the beach to Admiral's Cove where our rental house was.

Moving to Whidbey in '98 was quite a shock for me.  Compare this view with mental images of New Orleans.  Complete and total culture shock--- in the best way possible.

So many neat things to collect on the beach.

How in the heck did Nik convince a complete stranger to let him borrow his fishing pole within 5 minutes of arriving at the beach?!  This kid has a magnetic force field with all things fishing related.

Our first rental house in Coupeville.  Isn't is cute?!

Greenbank Farms

The bank I used to work for in Freeland.  Can you believe after 14 years I was able to walk in and still know several of the ladies in there?  It was so great to see them again, introduce Emalie and catch up a little bit.  Of all the the jobs I had, I enjoyed this one the most.  

We got a personal wine tasting at the winery that Sven's friend owns in Langley.  Sven knows this friend through work in Denver.  Craziest story:  this guys LIVES on Whidbey Island and COMMUTES to Denver.  No joke.  He's on a first name basis with the crew at Alaska Airlines because he's on the plane every 4 days.  After seeing his set-up on Whidbey, I almost get it.  Simply beautiful.  If you ever find yourself out that way, go for a tasting at Comforts of Whidbey in Langley.  You'll be happy you did-- we were!  (BTW-- don't you love the kids' pretend glasses?)

The first house we bought in Clinton.  The trees and shrubs grew and the facade got a 'salmon-colored' facelift, but it's essentially the same.  Boy, does that seem like forever ago.  I remember walking in and immediately feeling at home and knowing this is the house we were supposed to buy.  I remember Dad giving me his old Minolta and showing me how to use it.  I stood in the street photographing the house taking bad picture after bad picture because I had no idea how to use an SLR camera.  I remember bringing Nikolas home from the hospital-- so small and so new.  I remember standing in the kitchen the morning Sven was leaving for deployment-- not just leaving me behind this time, but a baby as well. And my last memory from this house is when Mom and Dad helped me move out of it a few months after that goodbye when Nikolas was only 6 months old.  It was such a lonely feeling to walk through the empty house alone and say goodbye.  It was the first time I'd moved out of a house while my husband was deployed, but it wouldn't be the last.  It's funny how, in hindsight, that each house after that became more of a stepping stone rather than a home.  Such is the life of a Navy wife.....

My means for getting to work in Seattle.  Planes, trains and automobiles.  Or, literally, bus, ferry, bus and/or automobile.  

I love the sounds you hear when boarding the ferry:  the clank of the bridge as you drive over it, the hum of the ferry's engine and the squawking of the sea gulls.

What a stroll down memory lane this tour of Whidbey has been!