No matter where you go or what you study, it’s best to have a home base or a benchmark. So the second year of Tidal Life begins with an introduction to how to Whidbey Island, the place it all started.
Whether living on Whidbey or visiting, water is the number one consideration. Water surrounds the island, it defines the beaches everyone comes here to enjoy, and it falls from the sky. A lot.
Whidbey Island Garb and Gear
Spring
In spring, Whidbey’s longest season, wear a light, water resistant jacket everywhere. Usually with a hearty sweater underneath. Be sure to wear a t-shirt underneath that. Jeans or khakis. Bring rubber boots, hiking shoes, running shoes, dress shoes and flip flops. It’s best to have at least two options in the car at all times. Some like the Birkenstocks with socks thing. Personally I find them useless, except for cafe sitting. Which can be done quite well in hiking boots.
Summer
In summer – which starts July 5 – I advocate a tank top and a jacket, but keep that hearty sweater near to hand for after sundown. Jeans and shorts. The flip flops are my staple and the hiking boots vie with casual sandals for second most worn. Forget the Birkenstocks, they’re slow.
Fall
In fall – which doesn’t attack in earnest until late October, though it lobs grenades from mid-August on – instead of the tank top, opt for a long sleeve t-shirt and augment the sweater with a fleece pullover. The rain coat is a must, no Bireknstocks, your socks will only get soggy if you’re going anywhere but the coffeehouse. Hiking shoes, running shoes and loafer or deck shoes are the keys to marching through this season.
Winter
Winter begins a few days after New Year’s, lasts until the last weeks of February when there is a mini-spring, then returns until roughly tax time. Start with the raincoat. Zip in that insulated lining. Bring the fleece and the sweater, the long sleeve t shirt should probably be a thermal mock turtle, a silk version for dress occasions. Jeans. Hiking boots or Sorels, leather tennies, dressy loafers with thick soles. Forget the Birkenstocks with socks except for sitting around the fireplace.
No matter what season, or what you’re planning to do, always pack a spare pair of socks.
Remember the unofficial Whidbey Island motto: What’s an Umbrella?
< The Beauty of What’s out There – Esquimalt part 1 This part of the story actually starts in Bellingham, in 2007, at my first Sustainable Connections Green Building Conference. The morning speaker that year was Joe Van Belleghem, developer of a Victoria project called Dockside Green. At the time the project was under construction,…
Hiking – One or the many ways you can take the coastal path. Former Whidbey Islander Leah Claire, who now lives in Cornwall, sent this shot taken from the South West Coast Path. Being rather new to the British Isles, Leah couldn’t pin-point the exact spot where she took this. “We were somewhere north of Newquay….
Two Whidbey Island landmarks are finalists in what local literary icon Knute Berger has called the American Idol version of historic preservation, the Million-Dollar Preservation Grant Competition. The Ferry House, at Ebey’s landing and the Bowman Bay Kitchen Shelter (technically on Fidalgo Island) at Deception Pass State Park are two of 25 area structures selected…
Winter sailing on the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic City to Cape May, New Jersey. We skedaddled from AC as soon as there was enough light. The morning was cold and I skated around the frozen dock as I cast us off. For our third mid-winter day offshore we again enjoyed freezing temperatures, sunshine and big, soft…
The Ferry Ride Just the ferry ride alone is worth the price of a ticket to Friday Harbor, even if you turn around and come right back home. We stayed though – a whole two nights – enough time to visit all our old favorite San Juan Island spots. Friday Harbor Friday Harbor was comfortably…
One Comment
Yeaaaa! She is afloast but moored to the post in the mainstream of her beloved Whidbey Island! Spend the seasons collecting cameos of the pulse and flavor of life.
Yeaaaa! She is afloast but moored to the post in the mainstream of her beloved Whidbey Island! Spend the seasons collecting cameos of the pulse and flavor of life.