Fidalgo Island: Four Seasons

One of my favorite destinations in the world is Fidalgo Island. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Fidalgo is one of the islands of the archipelago in the northwestern corner of Washington state. I was hoping to head up there after our travels through Mexico, but unfortunately, that will have to wait until summertime. For the past few years, though, I have been spending a lot of my free time up there, so I have thousands of photographs which I have taken at various times of the year. I thought this blog would be a good place to share them with you. If you like mountains, islands, forests, clean air and water, hiking, kayaking, boating, quaint towns, and friendly people, you might want to consider taking a trip up to this beautiful and relatively undiscovered corner of the US. Fidalgo is only about 30 minutes off of I-5. It's close to Seattle, Mt. Baker, the Olympic Peninsula, Victoria, and Vancouver...not to mention all the other San Juan islands. Check out these links and photos, and hopefully you'll come and visit one day.

Links

Here's a map of Fidalgo Island and surrounding areas:

http://www.anacortes.org/maps-directions.cfm

Here's a link to a webcam overlooking our neighborhood in Skyline:

www.islandcam.com/anacortes_east.html

This link will take you to the webcam of the ferry terminal near our neighborhood:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/cameras/index.cfm?terminal_id=1

Here's a link to a site all about Fidalgo Island:

http://www.fidalgoliving.com/about.cfm

Winter

View towards Anacortes from Cap Sante Park

View of Skyline neighborhood from Washington Park

The boat dock at Washington Park

View from Sunset Beach at Washington Park

View from Washington Park

Madrone tree 

Flounder Bay

Bowman Bay

Bowman Bay at sunset

Fresh snow over Skyline (not my photo)

Spring

Tulip season

View of Anacortes and Cap Sante Marina

Washington Park boat dock damaged in winter storm

Boats in Cap Sante Marina

My favorite bench in Washington Park

View of Puget Sound from Mount Erie

View from Washington Park

Summer

Welcome to Anacortes

Downtown murals (there are 91 of them)

Boat dock at Washington Park...a busy afternoon

View from Cap Sante Park looking toward Mt. Baker

Hanging flower baskets in town

Sunset over the San Juans

 

A lone sailor in Guemes Channel

Towering trees in Washington Park

View toward Guemes Island

Washington State ferry

Fog bank over Burrows Bay

An overcast day!  

View from Mt. Erie

Deception Pass Bridge

Calm waters off Washington Park

Sunset over San Juans

View of Skyline and San Juans from Mt. Erie

Sunset at Washington Park

Fall

Sunset over Flounder Bay

View from Mt. Erie

Deception Pass Bridge

View of Whidbey Island from Deception Pass

New growth in Washington Park

The City of Angels

Our travels this week did not take us very far from home - only as far as LA. Last year, much to my delight, I discovered that I was eligible to apply for Finnish citizenship. This week I finally had my appointment at the Finnish Consulate in LA to present my application (along with Zach's since he is eligible too). So we made a quick trip down I-5 where a gallon of regular gas sold for $4.29 and spent two days taking care of business and visiting some sights around LA.

Our first stop was our Israeli friend's place near Hollywood. Gadi is an artist and has some of his work displayed throughout his home. His work is very colorful and energetic...

That's me with Gadi...

Gadi, Zach, and Gadi's Israeli actor friend...

Gadi cooked us a delicious Israeli meal in his new blue kitchen...

The next morning we met with the consular officer at the Finnish Consulate...

Waiting to sign our papers in the lounge...love those Finnish chairs...

The consulate is just down the street from Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, 

so after we took care of business, we strolled around the shopping district...

That's Rodeo Drive...

Unfortunately the stores were still closed, 

so I couldn't shop in my favorite designer shops...

Here's Frankie's favorite store...

One of those famous BH hotels...

The ubiquitous palm trees...

BH has very nice public restrooms...

After our fill the the rich and famous of Beverly Hills, 

we drove over to the Getty Museum...

You park your car in the large underground garage and 

take the lightrail up the mountainside to get to the museum...

The museum is largely constructed out of limestone...

Of course, before we could do anything, I had to make sure Z had a full stomach...

One of my favorite Van Gogh's, the Irises, was on display...

(Van Gogh created it while in an asylum in France in 1889)...

The museum not only has interesting exhibits and displays, 

but the grounds have lovely gardens and the architecture is very impressive...

Love what they did to the bougainvillas...

Strolling around one of the gardens...

One of the view points...

So our visit to LA was successful and the drive back home uneventful and fast. We should receive our citizenship papers in about six months, and then we'll have dual US/Finnish citizenship! Next stop...Finland?