Deception Pass Bridge

Thursday, we packed it up in Port Angeles and started back to Seattle. We took the ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville on Whidbey Island. From there we hung out at Deception Pass for most of the day. We did some tide pooling and hiked across the bridge. During our 1982 great adventure we bicycled across this bridge. We had to be riding in the roadway then, because the walkways are too narrow to even envision walking bikes with saddlebags on. We must have been fearless back then, because it was scary enough walking the bridge’s sidewalks, what with all of the traffic on the bridge. The tide pooling was fun until Anne slipped and hurt one of her knees, “Honest Mark, it’s not as bad as I thought it was.” It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. So, we piled into the Prius again and headed to La Conner, a small town on the Swimomish Channel. We had lunch there and then treated Anne to the local quilt museum, which she loved. Between that stop and some Aleve, she seemed to be feeling better. We finished up with a drive-by of some of the Skagit daffodil fields.

Friday, the girls went to the spa. Ashlan had given Jay a gift certificate to one downtown last Christmas. There they were baked in a dry sauna, dunked into the cold plunge pool, assaulted by a Puget Sound saline pool and then steamed clean. Then they hit repeat. Meanwhile, Carl, Sagan and I went to the Seattle Center. From there we took the Monorail downtown, which seemed a bit intense, what with a security guard dueling with young toughs hanging around. Fortunately, Carl devised a secret escape route. I’d only left Sagan alone with Carl for a minute, but when I returned Carl was having an emergency. The back of his pants had ripped open. We then beat a hasty retreat. I had to act as Carl’s rearguard. On the way back we stopped at a skate park. One of the teenage skateboarders began performing a trick for Sagan, or at least attempting to. On his first try, he announced, “This one’s for you, unless I don’t make it, then it’s not for you.” Next came, “Second try,” then, “Third times a charm.” He finally did it on his sixth attempt. He had skated into a vertical surface, flipped the board up and balanced on the lip of the wall’s corner. Then he flipped his board down again, landed on it and then skated away to the sounds of our cheers. He didn’t hear Sagan say, “Do it again.”