Stoutpup

Day 1
One of the best things about living in Washington is all the Outdoor Recreation at our fingertips. We spent the weekend in Deception Pass which is one of the coolest places I have visited in Washington second only to Cape Flattery at Neah Bay last year. We made the hour and a half drive checking into our site at about 3 pm on Friday.

As Corey and I pitched the tent and set up camp, Lucy was a little uneasy about all the dirt and uncushion-y surroundings. But she quickly got over that as we headed down to the north beach a short distance away from our campsite. For a dog breed that notoriously cannot swim, Lucy loves the Ocean. She can either smell it or hear it off in the distance and will pull you with all her might towards the direction of the water where she will dip her dainty toes into the surf and also take mouthfuls of the salty water as happy as a clam. Up and down the beach we walked and then headed back to camp for dinner. Corey was able to catch the sunset from North Beach which is the picture you see above. As in the past, Lucy retired to the tent full of pillows and blankets for a summer night’s slumber at about 8 pm. We stayed up talking and drinking wine by the fire until the Park Ranger came around to tell us that radios were off limits past 10 pm. It was midnight. Fair enough.

Day 2
Now, why is it that my barely audible iPod must be shut off at 10 pm yet it seems required that children throughout the campgrounds start screaming at the top of their lungs at 5:30 am? I’m not talking about kids screaming for toilet paper or chex mix — both of which are completely reasonable shouting requests for a person of any age under the right circumstances — I’m talking a blood curdling “AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHH!” over and over again. For no reason.

We made breakfast, and set out hiking, Bulldog in tow. Lucy is a pretty good hiker and she was a real trooper that day. She led us all over the park, we hiked several trails including a trail up to the bridge. Our last stop of the day was West Beach where Lucy fell asleep in the cool shadow of some driftwood - the sound of the waves crashing in the distance. Dogs normally sleep like 20 hours a day, so Lucy was pretty tired from the past two days of excitement. The beach was beautiful and a perfect way to catch the last hours of sunlight.

Lucy safely and snuggly asleep back at camp, we started off our evening at the band shell to see the Ruže Dalmatinke (Dalmatian Roses) a Croatian band from Anacortes. Very awesome.

Cousins Terry and Gina paid us a visit and we sat around the campfire talking and telling stories into the night.

Day 3
The next day, Corey and I had planned to wake up at the crack of dawn by running into the road in our bathing suits screaming at the top of our lungs, but that plan was foibled by the amount of beers we drank the night before so we ended up sleeping late, expertly packing up our camp and heading out. We popped by Rosario Beach to see the tidepools. Rosario Beach is home to the “The Maiden of Deception Pass” story pole. It depicts the story of the Samish Indian Nation. This entire area was settled by the Samish and Swinomish tribes and they lived on the land until the early 1900’s. An excellent detour on our route home for the story alone we decided - not to mention the awesome tidepool project.

Our final stop was The Anacortes Arts Festival on Fidalgo Island. Anacortes has a great downtown and we were so happy to have stopped. I anticipate Lucy will sleep for days after this action packed trip, she’s already got a jump start on that. We’re home and refreshed from being in the open woods and can’t wait to head out again soon.