Deception and beer

Wednesday 14 July

I'm a bit jet-lagged, so although my intention was to do this last night, I went to bed at 9pm instead and it's now 6.30am on Thursday.

The flight on Tuesday was fine - the upgrade to World Traveller Plus made it a bit more comfortable although I'm not sure it would be worth paying  that much more for it! Still, you can't look a freebie in the mouth... One huge benefit was that I was first through immigration at Seattle and there were no queues at all. Jeanna was there waiting for me and we set off in her car to her new house in Lake Stevens, which is about 30 miles north of Seattle. The airport is to the south of the city so we got some good views as we came past - it really looks stunning with all the lakes and waterways around - it reminded my a bit of Sydney. When we got to the house we sat out on the deck and chatted over Jeanna's home-made cookies while she told me about the itinerary she had worked out for my stay!

Mount Baker

So yesterday we set off to catch the 10am ferry across Puget Sound from Mukilteo to Clinton on Whidbey Island - about a 15 minute crossing. The weather was perfect - clear and cloudless and not too hot - so there were great views across to various mountain ranges. We then drove to the north of the island to Deception Pass State Park. Deception Pass is a narrow waterway so named because the expedition led by George Vancouver discovered it and believed it to lead to the open Pacific Ocean. The weather was clear enough for us to see over to land in the distance (actually Canada!) but it would be easy to think that this was open water in poorer weather.

Deception Pass

We decided to take a short walk to see the bridge over the pass and then carried on for what turned out to be about three miles around some of the park's perimeter and over the top called Goose Rock. Most of the walk was through forest and was only marred by the noise of testing coming over from one the Boeing headquarters across the water. We had a picnic lunch and then headed back home via the quicker (but less scenic) Interstate.

After a quick stop at the house we went off to the Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville. For the extortionate sum of $1 we took the brewery tour which was basically an excuse to drink beer. The tour guide (it did not surprise us in the least that he had spent time in Australia - typical surf dude type!) told us a bit about the history and process of the brewery which everyone soon forgot as we sampled five different types of their beer - all very good indeed! We stayed there for some food (burger - what else?) before returning home.

A great first full day!