My Canada - US Travels
BC - Winnipeg
Winnipeg - Quebec
Quebec - Winnipeg
Winnipeg - BC
Epilogue
North West Drive
Washington
Oregon
California
Nevada
Utah
Colorado
Utah again
Idaho & Montana
Alberta
BC
Epilogue
BC Interior
Langley Detour
Okanagan
Cariboo
Prince George to Prince Rupert
Return to Vancouver
Epilogue
Langley, Washington State
Sunday, January 14thWe leave Sechelt first thing, take the 10.30 ferry and arrive in Vancouver for an early lunch. After lunch we head south, the border doesn’t appear busy at first sight. However with the border becoming evermore challenging to cross, I time the cars and it averages 5 minutes per car to get through. And it’s not that we’re in the slowest lane!
Once through, we carry on down the I5 highway, in less than an hour
we reach Burlington. Here, we turn off towards to Whidbey Island, we
are going to take the scenic route down the island and take the
ferry coming back at the southern end.10 minutes and we pass the turn off for La Conner and drive onto Fidalgo Island. Instead of taking the correct turning, we head straight to Anacortes, fortunately only a few miles along - this would be fine if we were taking a ferry to the Orcas Islands or to Victoria.
We back track, and cross over to Whidbey Island, via Deception Pass. We park just across the pass and walk back across the bridge. It’s a great view of the islands and bays from up here on this thin and shaking (as trucks go by) bridge. The tide must be in full flood, we can see the mini whirlpools and ‘boiling’ water as it rushes under the bridge. Last time I was here, I saw kayakers playing in these currents. Must be too cold for them now.
Once off the freezing and shaky bridge we continue our drive south
through the beautiful snow covered countryside of Whidbey Island.
Oak Harbor, a naval base town, doesn’t hold enough interest for us
to stop. We just drive past Coupeville and Freeland, it’s starting
to get dark, and carry on for Langley.We check in at The Inn at Langley. Our room is a big corner suite, has a fireplace with supply of “non heat producing” duraflame logs and, a nice big balcony over the water with a great view. The room itself is “Spartan Rustic”, having created a nice west coast atmosphere on not much money. The only real place for the 2 of us to sit and relax is on the bed.
The bathroom setup is fun, with a massive wet area for the shower. Next to it is a large jetted tub, with a nice big, bathtub height to ceiling window overlooking the water. Great view. Unfortunately the suites don’t appear to be setup for a cold winter, like now. The great floor to ceiling windows which provide the lovely view also provide the less welcome chill factor. With two very noisy heaters, it’s a toss up between sleeping in the warmth or the frigid peace and quiet. The TV, as M put it, isn’t the type on which you’d want to watch a subtitled movie.
Monday, 15th
We wake up to the view of the sea, ‘cause we left the curtains open
on purpose. We go for breakfast in the dining room. The open plan
kitchen is centre stage, it’s a fun setting. They do 6 course
gourmet dinners (Zagat top 50 US restaurants 2007!) and ONLY the 6
course dinner. Unfortunately this time of year they are only open a
few nights of the week, and we didn’t hit one of them. The breakfast
is buffet style and given the type of dinner they do, the quality
was disappointing.We go for a walk in the town. Everyone is so friendly, we spend 5-10 minutes talking with most each shopkeeper. It’s a cute town, with the Inn at one end.
Seems to be very tourist focused, with most of
the industry being artisinal. And they seem to have a thing about
chocolate – fine by me. This is definitely not peak season. Two of
the interesting sounding events they have here are: a murder mystery
weekend in February where the whole town becomes the setting for
this murder mystery, this year’s theme is “Chocolate” :) ; the other
one is a Django Reinhardt festival in August.Now time to return to our room, take in the view and relax. After a relaxing bath whilst staring out over the water and a brief snooze we head out for dinner. We stop in at the Dog House, the local saloon, even with its own saloon doors to get in. The place has a great feel to it, unfortunately it is 100% dead. Moving on. After one other false start we end up having dinner at the Langley Café on the main drag. It’s OK but Langley must have better. Walking back at 8.00, we see a car. Just one car, no people, it’s like being back on the Sunshine Coast, everything is quiet in the evening.