We "treasure"
our memories of a Whidbey 2005
visit!!! Deception Pass (c.) site of much history and tragedy. In Coupeville (r.) the
historical society.
History is important to
Whidbey Island, as it is to
Weston, CT. And farms...in Weston, CT we are trying to preserve
what a farm looks like!
American Journeys: Want a Nice Vista? Just Glance Anywhere on Whidbey Island
By
LINDSAY MORAN
September
21, 2007
IT takes about an hour to drive the length of Whidbey
Island, and less than that to discover that it’s nearly impossible
to make a wrong turn. Every country road on this glacially formed
island off the coast of Seattle, and even Highway 20, its main
thoroughfare, lead through astoundingly diverse but ever-enchanting
topography: tunnels of towering redwoods, farmland dotted with barns
and grazing horses, stunning vistas of sparkling bays.
Overhead, you’re just as likely to spot a soaring bald eagle as a
thundering military jet from the Naval Air Station for which the island
is well known.
Whidbey, a sea-horse-shaped strip of land on Puget Sound, is a place of
extremes that are geological as well as cultural. From the artist
communities and quaint hamlets of Langley and Coupeville to the
decidedly military milieu of Oak Harbor, it attracts all and sundry
types: nature lover, history buff, avid boater, bird or whale watcher,
painter, writer, military aficionado, outdoor sports enthusiast,
leisure-seeking retiree. Former and current Navy pilots and their
families call Whidbey home, as do many an aging hippie or dreamy-eyed
artist. Imagine “Top Gun” meets “Cocoon” meets “Hair” — all on a
visually astonishing sliver shaved from an edge of America.
Whidbey is accessible via two main routes from the Seattle area, each
with its own particular charm. At the southern end, a 20-minute ferry
ride from the suburb of Mukilteo offers mystical views: on the
dreariest of Pacific Northwest days, you can easily imagine Meryl
Streep as the French Lieutenant’s Woman, enshrined in black, beckoning
from the foggy shore. From the north, the breathtaking Canoe Pass and
Deception Pass Bridges, which link Whidbey to Fidalgo Island (and by
extension to the mainland) merit more than just a drive-by in any
weather.
Even several visits — by foot, by car or by boat — will do little to
diminish the awe inspired by these massive steel bridges and the
roiling waters below, named Deception Pass in 1792 when Master Joseph
Whidbey (hence, Whidbey Island) and his H.M.S. Discovery exploring
party realized that this narrow waterway, charted by the Spaniards as a
peninsular bay, was a turbulent channel.
In horse and buggy days, travelers used a mallet and saw to ring for an
unscheduled ferry to transport them between Whidbey and Fidalgo. Today,
jet boats convey tourists on excursions under the bridges while
skippers who are part historian, part naturalist impart trivia and
point out wildlife: bald eagles (and their gargantuan nests), seals,
porpoises and an occasional wayward whale.
For real whale-watching, head 12 miles north to the Fidalgo Island town
of Anacortes, where several companies run cruises around the San Juan
Islands. In early September, the resident “J-pod” of orcas (killer
whales) frolicked in the glistening water, making itself available for
up close and personal viewing. Ruffles, the oldest and largest male of
the pod, busily breached, mesmerizing admirers.
A logical home base for exploring both Whidbey and Fidalgo is the
centrally located town of Coupeville, once nicknamed City of Sea
Captains and still remarkably unspoiled. A stroll down the
tavern-and-shop-lined Front Street or out onto the long pier, around
which squawking seagulls and fast-moving harbor seals feed on fish,
feels like a walk back in time.
For lodging that evokes the maritime past, the nearby Captain Whidbey
Inn — in the 1960s, the island’s namesake was given a posthumous rank
promotion by the establishment’s owners — strikes a delicate balance
between atmospherically cozy and downright cramped with its tiny doors,
dimly lighted rooms, nautical clutter and shelves of dusty ancient
texts. For those who prefer convenience above character, there are many
small hotels and B&Bs within walking distance of Front Street.
From Coupeville, there are day-trip possibilities in all directions,
including kayaking on Penn Cove or horseback riding at the Madrona
Ridge Ranch. Every nook of both islands is accessible by car in less
than an hour.
NEARBY Fort Ebey State Park has well-equipped picnic sites that
overlook a long, pebbly beach. It’s not the French Riviera — what with
limb-numbingly cold water, clusters of seaweed that look like nests of
menacing serpents and driftwood impediments strewn about — but it
doesn’t pretend to be.
The park, Coupeville and the surrounding area all lie within Ebey’s
Landing National Historic Reserve, named for Isaac Ebey, a settler who
in 1857 was shot and beheaded by Indians out to avenge the murder of a
chief by other white men — thereby cutting short an industrious
existence.
A seven-mile shoreline hike from Fort Ebey leads to Fort Casey State
Park, boasting a bona fide coastal citadel, enormous gray cannons and
pre-World War I gun emplacements. As a tourist attraction, the defunct
fort holds so many potential hazards — high platforms with nary a
handrail; steep, unprotected ladders — it’s a wonder you don’t have to
sign a waiver to visit, but the views of Admiralty Bay from its vantage
points are spectacular. Today, large ferries and sailboats crisscross
the iridescent water.
The town of Greenbank, south of Coupeville, is near Greenbank Farm — a
former dairy farm, now owned by a nonprofit organization, that is made
up of forest, field and wetland, with marked trails for exploring. Also
at the farm, the Whidbey Pies Café specializes in loganberry
pies; a few shops sell antiques, local artwork and specialty cheeses;
and a wine shop features regional wines. The farm once produced
loganberry wine, but today there are neither vineyards nor wine
production, and it was even difficult to obtain a tasting — advertised
at $1 a wine — in the shop staffed (or not, as the case may be) by
volunteers.
Langley, farther south, looks much like Coupeville, the main difference
being that downtown Langley is made up of two quaint streets, instead
of one. Langley shops sell handmade goods, and galleries display the
works of artists in residence. On the waterfront, the Dog House tavern
— the Dog as it’s called by locals — seems to have enjoyed as many
lives as a cat: a general store; a high school gymnasium; a site for
vaudeville shows, silent movies, dance classes and, perhaps most
improbably, meetings of a ladies’ temperance society. Today, it seems
like the kind of place where you might encounter many a salty dog.
The dining room, cluttered with vintage paraphernalia including a
restored 1923 Nickelodeon player piano, offers an unpretentious
atmosphere in which to eat decent fish and chips while looking out over
the water.
My favorite among the Whidbey and Fidalgo destinations is Bowman Bay,
just north of the bridge in Deception Pass State Park. The approach
traverses woodland so dense and green that you half expect a hobbit to
pop out from behind a tree. Rocky yet vegetated bluffs curve to form
the majestic inlet, a popular launching point for both neophyte and
experienced kayakers, who, on a glorious September morning, looked like
so many playful porpoises practicing their rolls.
Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands lie in the “rain shadow” of the Olympic
Mountains, and thus receive substantially less precipitation than
Seattle. Still, they don’t always seem like a resort destination;
during the winter, I was assured, displaced mainlanders and many
military spouses suffer from island fever.
For me, the opposite held true. On my last morning in Coupeville, as I
stared at the large gray whale skeleton overhead in the old wharf house
and reflected on leaving Whidbey, I found it hard not to feel lower
than a whale’s belly.
VISITOR INFORMATION
WHIDBEY ISLAND, on Puget Sound, is accessible by ferry from the Seattle
suburb of Mukilteo or by bridge from Fidalgo Island, on Highway 20.
From the Seattle-Tacoma airport, the trip by car and ferry takes about
two hours in moderate traffic.
The Captain Whidbey Inn (2072 West Captain Whidbey Inn Road,
Coupeville; 360-678-4097; www.captainwhidbey.com) has rooms for $93.50
to $170.50 and cabins for $175 or $192.50. In September, new management
provided spotty service, but the place has an incomparable view of Penn
Cove, especially at dusk, when snow-capped mountains form a distant
backdrop to sailboats moored for the night.
Garden Isle Guest Cottages (207 Northwest Coveland Street, Coupeville;
360-678-5641; www.gardenislecottages.com, $110 to $130 for a cottage)
provides a comfortable stay, with owners who share their knowledge
about the island.
The Inn at Langley (400 First Street, Langley; 360-221-3033) is known
for a waterfront spa. Rooms and cottages are $265 to $495.
Christopher’s on Whidbey (103 Northwest Coveland Street, Coupeville;
360-678-5480) serves regional dishes like raspberry-barbecued salmon
and Penn Cove seafood stew, both $18.95. At the Dog House Tavern (230
First Street, Langley; 360-221-4595), fish and chips costs $12.75.
On the 100-foot boat of Mystic Sea Charters (710 Sea Farers Way,
Anacortes; 800-308-9387; www.mysticseacharters.com), equipped with
high-tech binoculars and laminated sea charts, a day of whale watching
is $64 to $79, and the company promises that if you don’t spot an orca
whale, the next trip is free.
Greenbank Farm (765 Wonn Road, Greenbank; 360-678-7700;
www.greenbankfarm.com) holds farmers markets, antiques and art shows,
and wine tastings.
Oak Harbor not paying
attention for more than a year or so (we read about it online in
the...Whidbey News-Times)!
City
demands tourism changes
Whidbey
News-Times
By Jessie
Stensland
Sep 05 2007
Oak Harbor
members of the Island County Joint Tourism Committee have
pushed through some significant changes in the way the group and its
marketing coordinator operate. The result, they say, is a new
management plan that will provide more equitable treatment for Oak
Harbor.
“We are a
different animal than Coupeville or Langley,” said Randy
Bradford, manager of Oak Harbor’s Coachman Inn and member of the
committee. “To promote us in exactly the same way you promote Langley
and Coupeville just doesn’t work.”
The three
representatives from the county’s biggest city felt that the
countywide marketing effort focused on other parts of Whidbey and
Camano islands at the expense of Oak Harbor. They also saw
accountability issues and other problems. Jill Johnson, executive
director of the Greater Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce, is a member of
the committee. She pointed out the tourism committee, unlike the
various chambers or the Economic Development Council, hasn’t had to go
before the governmental bodies that fund it and justify the program on
a regular basis.
“I don’t think
it’s unrealistic to expect the committee to be able to
demonstrate what they’ve done, why things have been done, and to point
to what’s been accomplished,” she said.
Oak Harbor City
Councilwoman Sue Karahalios, also a member of the
committee, said planning was a problem.
“We were
going in so many different directions and everything was so
scattered,” said Karahalios. “There was a need for focus.”
Some of the
concerns are nothing new. In 2003, the Oak Harbor City
Council voted to give the required one-year notice to pull out of the
tourism marketing program, which is funded from lodging taxes collected
in each jurisdiction — Oak Harbor, Island County, Coupeville and
Langley. City leaders were upset that Langley was only
contributing 1 percent of the lodging tax, while the other members gave
2 percent. Many also felt that the advertising campaign worked better
for the more rural parts of the county; many didn’t like the “do
nothing here” campaign slogan.
In the end, city
leaders cut the city’s support to 1 percent of the
so-called hotel-motel tax. The campaign slogan was dropped, the
advertising agency was fired and a marketing coordinator was hired
instead.
The most basic
mission of the committee, Bradford explained, is to
promote tourism of the entire county during the shoulder or off-season.
Hotels are filled during the busy summer season, but they could use
some help during the winter doldrums. Cities and counties are
able to leverage up to 4 percent in lodging taxes, which are taxes on
overnight stays and hotel, motels and bed-and-breakfasts. The tax money
is supposed to support tourism-related activities, and now because of a
change in law, facilities.
The budget for
the countywide tourism effort is just over $200,000 this
year, including some carryover money, Johnson said.
But even with
the changes in the group, Oak Harbor representatives
aren’t completely satisfied.
The problem, the
three Oak Harbor members say, is that the campaign has
been geared to bed-and-breakfasts and the concept of a romantic
getaway, which works well for quaint Coupeville and Langley. Oak Harbor
is better known for offering a wide range of metropolitan services,
Johnson said.
Bradford, for
example, said the bulk of the Coachman Inn’s business
comes from the Navy and other businesses. He guesses that the marketing
effort has had little or no effect on his business. Nevertheless,
Bradford and the other two representatives aren’t advocating pulling
out of the committee, though there are city leaders who would like to
see that happen. Councilman Paul Brewer, for example, wants out as soon
as possible. He advocates putting the city’s lodging taxes into the
fund for the municipal pier project.
Karahalios said
that Oak Harbor has an obligation to stay with the
program now that the city’s representatives have asked for changes to
the management plan. “We need to give this a chance,” she said.
Under the new
plan, she said the committee will bring forward a report
to the Oak Harbor City Council before the end of the year. She said the
budget and spending will be formalized and approved by the committee.
She expects that Oak Harbor will receive “a more equitable treatment”
in spending.
Johnson also
said the committee members think it’s important to be
“neighborly” with other communities on the island and to help them out
with a major marketing effort they couldn’t afford on their own.
Still, she said
her support remains tenuous.
“We should give
it a chance, but we should not let it drift along
without direction forever,” she said.
Bradford
emphasized the problems with the committee, in the scheme of
things, are rather small and understandable. He said RoseAnn Alspektor,
the marketing coordinator, has a difficult job making everyone happy.
“It’s not the
easiest thing in the world to work with a committee of
18,” he said.
Even so, not all
of the uneasiness about the committee was satisfied by
the new management plan. There’s also a question of the coordinator’s
salary, which some find bloated. Alspektor earns $48,000 a year for a
job that’s not clearly defined as either full-time or part-time. Her
assistant makes an additional $20,000 a year.
“I think we are
a tad askew,” said Karahalios, who added that the
committee should look at comparable salaries from the area. Alspektor’s
salary is significantly larger than the salaries of either director of
the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce or the Island County Economic
Development Council.
Alspektor didn’t
want to comment on the concerns about the program. She
pointed to other members of the committee — Chairman Marshall Bronson
and Island County Commissioner Mike Shelton — but the News-Times was
unable to reach either man for comment.
Meet
your island farmers
Whidbey
News-Times
By Nathan Whalen
Sep 30 2006
For the past two
years, Mary and Larry Leonard have been working to
restore an apple orchard and Christmas tree farm on Central Whidbey
Island.
The Leonards,
owners of Island Tree Ranch, had to install a new drip
irrigation system and an electrified deer fence to help protect the 15
varieties of apples that grow in the orchard. They also planted 5,000
trees on their 29-acre property.
“We feel like
we’re getting to where we’re seeing progress,” Larry
said.
People can see
the fruits of their labor next weekend. The Leonards’
farm is one of the 17 farms participating in the first Whidbey Island
Farm Tour put on by the Conservation District and the WSU extension
office.
The self-guided
tour takes place Saturday, Oct. 7 from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. The tour will allow people to see the entrepreneurial spirit some
small farmers are showing.
The Leonards
purchased their farm, which was previously known as
Fircrest, from the Jim Davis family. They wanted to return the farm to
the way it was years ago.
They have been
selling apples at the numerous farmers markets scattered
throughout Whidbey Island. During the farm tour, they will sell apples
and cider, display some of Mary’s art, offer ice cream and a hay rides
so farm-goers can see the variety of trees and plants that are
scattered throughout their “L” shaped property.
They are working
on getting an organic certification for their apples
and, in five years, they hope to start selling Christmas trees. They
have to wait for their trees to grow first.
The Leonards
aren’t the only ones who are showing an entrepreneurial
spirit with their farm.
Sarah Richards
purchased a nearly nine-acre piece of land near West
Beach Road. Originally she planted lavender to serve as a wind break
for her vegetable garden. Since then she has expanded the amount of
lavender. It now covers two-and-half acres and she operates a gift shop
selling lavender-laced products such as oils, jams, soaps and dried
plants.
“I planted nine
plants as a wind guard,” Richards said. “I just kinda
went crazy after that.”
She said it
takes a combination of tourism and the sale of the
value-added products and plants to maintain her business. She is able
to keep her store open seven days a week during the summer and five
days a week during the off season. She said she often has people from
the Seattle area call, inquiring about good times to visit.
When the farm
tour takes place, she will offer ice cream and lavender
lemonade people can taste while they visit. She will offer advice on
lavender plant care and how to process the plants. She is also planning
to sell a lavender rub and hold a composting demonstration.
Richards is also
a member of the steering committee that spent the past
nine months setting up the farm tour.
The tour is a
way to show people products that are grown and produced
on the island.
“We hope the
farm tour is a small way to motivate the island,” said
Karen Lennon, director of the Whidbey Island Conservation District.
She said the
tour will provide accessibility to local farms and expose
people to the products that are grown and made on the island.
Other farms on
North and Central Whidbey island that are participating
in the tour are Sherman’s Pioneer Farm Produce, Rosehip Farm and
Garden, 3 Sisters Cattle Company, Hastie Lake Farms, Penn Cove
Shellfish, Au Sable Institute and Camelot Downs.
Participating
farms on South Whidbey Island are Chocolate Flower Farm,
Forget-Me-Not Farms, The Old Parsons Place, Alpaca Familia, Whoamule,
Mauk and Paradise Found Fiber Farm.
Lennon said she
hopes the tour, which takes place on state Harvest Day,
will become an annual event in which more farms on the island will
participate.
For the tour to
take place, the Conservation District received a $2,000
grant from the Washington State Conservation Commision. Several local
businesses provided a total of $3,600 in support for the tour. Those
businesses are Bayview Farm and Garden, Goosefoot Community Fund,
Langley Vinyard Farm, Skagit Farmers Supply, Star Store and Whidbey
Watershed Stewards.
Take
the tour
The Whidbey
Island Farm Tour will be held 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 7. The
event is free to the public. For more information about the
Whidbey Farm Tour, go to www.whidbey farmtour.com. to download a
map.
NOTE: we are not sure this URL is correct.
Dine
between farm
visits
While the
Whidbey Farm Tour will showcase local farms, it also provides
a chance for island chefs to showcase Whidbey Island products. A
baker’s dozen worth of island restaurants are supporting the farm tour
by cooking locally-grown produce that day.
Participating
restaurants are, in Langley, The Edgecliff, Prima Bistro,
3 Cats Cafe, and Neil’s Cloverpatch Cafe. Restaurants in Freeland and
Greenbank are Whidbey Pies Cafe, Prima Bistro in Bayview, Gerry
Kitchen, Gordon’s and the Laughing Cat. Participating restaurants in
Coupeville are Miriam’s, The Blue Goose, Potluck on the Porch and The
Oystercatcher. A special cooking class takes place during the farm
tour. The class begins at noon at the Tilth Farmer’s Market where a
selection of local produce will be purchased and cooked up for lunch.
Tempting
tourists with island treasures; Marketer hopes to
grow tourism on Whidbey
By
BREEANA LAUGHLIN
Dec 07 2005
Instead of
telling tourists to "do nothing," Whidbey visitors are being
invited to play pirate. Well, sort of. The new tourism marketing
slogan is "Find what you treasure on Whidbey and Camano Islands," and
replaces the previous message, "Do nothing here."
The new slogan
is one of many tourist-tempting efforts put together by
a 16-member joint tourism committee to attract visitors to Whidbey and
Camano islands.
To support the
tourism campaign RoseAnn Alspektor, Island County
tourism marketing coordinator, is making a call out to South Whidbey
residents and business owners to help her spread the word about the
hidden treasures that can be found on Whidbey.
"If you are a
business that relies on tourism, let me know about you,"
Alspektor said.
"There's glass
studios where people are doing extraordinary things,
incredible art, quilters, weavers, not to mention the entertainment
field," she said.
Assisting
locals
Alspektor can
help all kinds of businesses take advantage of marketing
opportunities and spread the word about their island offerings to media
outlets, such as travel magazines. The tourism coordinator is
also looking for photography, video and "off the beaten path" stories
from local residents.
"People that
visit and live here have great stories to tell," Alspektor
said. "There is so much to discover here it's just unbelievable."
Alspektor has
been a Whidbey Island resident herself since 1997, and
said she still learns a new story about the island every time she goes
out.
Many of
Whidbey's attractions are like hidden treasures. Although
the rural character is a large part of the island's charm, the lack of
signage can make it difficult for tourists to find what's out here.
"We have to come
up with clever ways for tourists to discover we're
here," Alspektor said.
A "treasure map"
highlighting tourist-destinations is one of the tools
that has been created through tourism campaigns. A television
commercial recently aired on KING 5, KONG TV and NW Cable News.
Alspektor is also in the process of making a new travel brochure.
Alspektor often
attends tourism-related events in Washington, and will
be participating in the New York Media Blitz. She is also planning
ahead for the 2010 Olympics that will be held in Vancouver, BC.
A
better Web
An ongoing
tourism marketing project is the revamping of the Island
County tourism Web site to better reflect what the Whidbey has to offer.
"The Web site's
going to continue to evolve and focus on compelling
storytelling," Alspektor said. She is also looking to create a
master calendar on the site that would encourage islanders to search
for and plan their events. This could possibly remedy a current
challenge Alspektor has noticed; the clustering of events that target
the same audience and all take place at the same time.
This causes
lodging places to become overbooked and long ferry lines on
some weekends, while other weekends, places to stay are left almost
totally open.
"There's no
reason for feast or famine in tourism, because we have
things going on all year round," Alspektor said.
"One thing that
would really help in terms of spreading out events all
year round is a master calendar that links events to lodging and
services," she said. Businesses will be able to check the calendar to
see what's going on before they decide when to hold an event.
"And," Alspektor
said, "If I knew easily what was going on, then I
would be able to plan some marketing themes around that."
Finding
funds
The marketing
efforts are made possible by the 2 Percent Joint Tourism
Fund, which is managed by a 16-member Joint Tourism Committee made up
of government and community representatives. The tourism fund budget
for 2006 is $159,537.
The Joint
Tourism Fund is one of two programs funded by sales taxes on
lodging. The other program is the basic 2 Percent Hotel-Motel Fund,
which is distributed to various organizations through an annual
application and award process.
So far, the
joint tourism group's new marketing efforts have received
positive feedback, Alspektor said.
Positive
pitch
The new slogan
is finding receptive ears.
"Find what you
treasure works for locals, as well as people from far
away," Alspektor said.
She said a
downside to the previous campaign -- "Do nothing here" --
was that it appealed only to a narrow market of frenzied, stressed-out
people looking to escape the bustle of the mainland.
Many locals
didn't buy into that campaign because they thought the
island had much more to offer than what the slogan suggested.
"The new slogan
should be welcomed by locals," Alspektor said. "People
do feel that we treasure where we live."