Vashon Island
Back to the travelogue portion of the life of the Midwesterners gone west, we did some more exploring on Saturday, with our first off-shore experience since the move.
When we go trail running in the woods of Point Defiance Park which starts at the top of our hill where we
park our car, we can see a ferry boat crossing the water from the other side of the park to Vashon Island. Saturday, we took the ferry, which was a big day of exploration, even though the ferry terminal is less than 1 ½ miles from our house.
The ferry ride was just over $30 for two people in a vehicle, and was a pleasant experience. The big boat is so smooth you can’t tell when it starts and stops moving. There’s a nice enclosed area upstairs with a snack bar, ample table seating and even puzzles. Go upstairs again and there’s a big open-air deck. We didn’t see any whales, but just being on the water for this little bit was enough to inspire Ann to want to look into getting a boat again.
Once on the island, our first stop was a store called The Country Store and Farm. It was a mix of things for tourists (like me), real things (like tools) and the upstairs was a vintage clothing store. It wasn’t Goodwill and Salvation Army prices, but it did maintain a high standard of quality. The one thing we did need was a leash because we had left ours at the house, and the Country Store and Farm came through. We purchased Mary a nice new leash made of hemp. Note to younger readers: Before marijuana was legal there was a big movement for deregulation because hemp was going to be what we made all of our clothes and basically any fabric out of, as soon as we got beyond restrictions relating to marijuana. Now that it is legal, no one cares about expanding the hemp industry anymore.
While Ann was shopping, I walked Mary over to a little patch of woods behind the school that has a
famous “Bicycle In a Tree.” The old legend was that someone parked it there when he went off to WW I and never returned. This was debunked by someone who said he left the bike by the tree because he didn’t want it anymore in the 1950s.
My forester wife will point out to anyone willing to listen that something like this didn’t occur because the bike was left leaning against the tree, because the bike is 7 feet high. Someone placed the bike into the tree seven feet high. People will argue, “No, the tree grew, and the bike was lifted up as it grew taller.” She explains that no spot on a tree ever grows higher off the ground. People don’t believe her. Then she asks, “Have you ever been in the woods, and found an old three or four-strand barbed wire fence grown into a tree?” “Yes, of course, many times!” they’ll reply. Then she’ll counter, “Have you ever been in the woods and walked under an old barbed wife fence that was grown into a tree several feet up in the air?” Then they’ll think about it, and know that she is right.
From there, we visited Oscar the Bird King, a giant troll. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, and only add that Oscar is much more impressive than my pictures convey. A short walk from Oscar is a historic lighthouse, less impressive in terms of size as far as lighthouses go, but cute nonetheless. Next door to the lighthouse are a couple of historic caretaker houses you can rent for about $500 a night, with a two-night minimum in the off-season, and $2,500 a week in the summer.
After that we grabbed a coffee and snack at Minglemint, a historic store and coffee shop similar to the Country Store and Farm, but more focused on food stuff than other things. We visited a very nice art gallery across the street at the Vashon Center for the Arts, and learned they have an impressive lineup of live performances coming up in their auditorium. This seemed unusual for a small town auditorium, but I suppose it
helps to be just across the water from Seattle.
We couldn’t go all day without being in the woods, so we took Mary on a walk in the aptly named Island Center Forest. We walked the Fir Trail Loop, and noticed there must be a recent history of logging on the island, as the fir trees were much skinnier than we were used to, but they were still impressively tall.
If you want more info, I found as I was writing this that every place we visited has a presence on the Internet. Links below.
https://www.facebook.com/csafvashon/
https://vashon-maury.com/the-story-behind-the-bicycle-in-the-tree-on-vashon-island/ https://www.thisisvashon.com/vashontroll
https://vashonparks.org/pt-robinson-keepers-quarters
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