With not a damn tulip in sight, we drove through the barren Skagit Valley after a brutal commute to get to Anacortes.  Global warming is real.  Those beautiful tulips popped early and were plowed under by the time we bought our new wheels so we got to view the brown dirt.  Pretty.  Not to be deterred, we put that disappointment aside and went on to have a lovely road trip. 

Why can’t there be a bucolic winding country road up the coast to get to this sleepy little town?  Seriously, driving state route 99 or I5 is not fun especially with the inevitable construction delays and GPS doesn’t program “cute roads” well.  So, we survived people laughing at us as we tried stopping at a few places to get a real paper map.  It was humiliating.  Day Trip Lesson #1 – plot out the trip in advance using an actual map that shows the rural roads.

Luckily, when we got to Anacortes, the volunteer at the visitor’s center was so excited someone stopped in that she heaped maps and tourist brochures galore on us.  We now have a stack for our future road trips. Score!  After wandering the deserted waterfront shipyards, being the weird tourists who always seek out the less travelled path, we tucked into some seriously spicy fish tacos at the Rock Fish Café.  I even got to finally taste Kung Fu Riesling from Charles Smith Winery.  Tasty.  Can’t wait to check out their new tasting room in south Seattle.

Armed with archaic paper maps and full stomachs, we proceeded to actually find a lovely country road that traverses Whidbey Island, through valleys and farm lands in addition to the coastline.  Lovely.  We wound up at the Mukilteo Ferry crossing and Sexy Beast got to have her first boat ride.  Road Trip Lesson #2 – carry hats and sunscreen because having that top down for hours of driving leads to some serious sunburn.  We finally had to put the top up for the drive home.  On this beautiful day, fellow drivers looked at us like we were crazy not to be soaking up the rays.  Poor us, we can only handle so much sunshine because, after all, we are true Seattlites with pasty pale skin.  Looking forward to lots of road trips this summer.  Where should we go next?