Sunny Days: The Turn

Nick and my brothers play golf and I see Mount Vernon, WA, as "the turn". We are more than half way through our trip and we have gone as far north and west as we plan to do in the RV. Northwest Washington State was supposed to be a week for us to rest and relax and get ready to head home. It turns out that this area has a lot to offer and we ended up seeing and doing lots of things. Anacortes is the boaters/loopers base in the Northwest. A lot of marinas and islands--we headed there first thing and checked out the ferry schedule. We decided to go later in the week when the weather promised to be warm and sunny to the San Juan's and Friday Harbor.

We took the 9am Ferry to the San Juan's into Friday Harbor (past the Orcas and Shaw islands)

Took the trolley tour around the island and this is Roche Harbor on
the back side of the Island (past the Lavender farm)

Went to take the 4pm return ferry and it was backed up--turns out they
had a bomb scare and had to call the sniffing dogs out

No worries--we found a nice little bar overlooking the waterfront talked to a man that name dropped Robert Mondavi as he owns Laird Family Winery in Napa Valley and waited for the all clear
we got back to Anacortes around 9pm

Along the way we found a charming little burg called LaConner that had a lot of art, bars, and music.

Found this little jewel along the roadside--just like Craig's at home

Loved the LaConner waterfront on the Skagit River--think the owners are grandparents?

LaConner was full of parks

This park was for Dirty Biter who hung out at the LaConner Bars for 12 years

The one real rainy day we went to the movie--Yesterday (best movie I've seen in a long time). Then we went to Sedro-Woolley (yes, that is the name of the city) and the Logger Rodeo which featured the Chainsaw Carving.

Pretty little burg

The Chainsaw Carving was truly amazing

He's doing the dab (for Holden)

They put pre-finished items up for sale --not inexpensive

At the end of the day they would judge the pieces done and then auction them off
(the one's that won the blue ribbons went for thousands)

We traveled an hour south to Everett, Washington and toured the very neat Boeing Plant tour.

The mural on the super secret factory doors is the largest mural in the world. Boeing is the
largest employer in the state of Washington--no wonder they are concerned with
the troubles of the MAX 8 (a 737, not built here) and the federal budget

We saw the planes of the future as well as the building of the 747 and the 777

Customers pick out different specifics for their planes

The 777 doesn't use the aluminum skin--it uses a much lighter polycarbonate

Waiting for delivery

Then on the night of the 3rd we went to nearby Big Lake where they had fun fireworks in a Norman Rockwell setting. On the 4th Mount Vernon does the fireworks.