August, 2020
For two days now, I have been camped at Washington Park campground, just outside the town of Anacortes. I have seen mountains and lakes and marshlands and forests and beaches, but … I haven’t seen the town of Anacortes. So this next morning, I drove into town (just a few minutes away), and I parked the big white truck, and I took off on foot to see what I could see by walking some of the residential streets of town.
It’s a lovely town! It’s a perfect town for walking the streets and seeing the sights.
I parked in an older residential area and picked a nice shady spot for the big white truck. (Remember that this camping trip was in August!)
The building next to me, where I had parked, was partially hidden by huge lovely trees. I truly hadn’t realized where I had parked until I got out of the truck and looked up at the building. The Carnegie Library! That was so cool for me and I’ll tell you why. For one thing, I’ve worked in two different libraries in my life … Sno-Isle Regional Library (at its headquarters in Marysville, WA) and the Washington (State) Talking Book & Braille Library (in Seattle, WA). So I love libraries. But also, and here’s the kicker, the mother of one of my very dearest friends was a Librarian in Anacortes and worked as a cataloger for the library. What were the chances that I would simply drive to that very spot and park? Amazing.
Several years ago, the Anacortes Library moved out of this building and into a newer building. This large Carnegie building now houses the Anacortes Museum. Unfortunately for me on this trip, the museum was closed indefinitely due to COVID-19.
But that was ok since I had streets to walk, and things to see, and people to talk with. So off I went on foot to see what the residential area of Anacortes looked like.
Anacortes was incorporated as a city in 1891. Many of the homes here are from that era and from the early 1900s.
The large majority of homes were very well cared for with tidy lawns and flower beds, or with “yards” over-flowing with well-tended shrubs and flowers and herbs instead of lawns. The people here evidently love to garden. In front of many homes, even on the grass verge between the sidewalk and the street, were rows of fruit trees.
Apples … yum!
Peaches … so perfectly ripe that I could smell them before I saw them.
Pears … oh I love pears, and could almost feel the sweet juice running down my chin.
It was awfully tempting to simply reach up and pick something, but I restrained myself. Later in the week here, I did come across a local farmers’ market and happily purchased some fresh pears.
But this morning was just a walk out and about, so let’s keep going and see some more things.
A Casita travel trailer … similar in construction to Escape travel trailers.
The grand old home above was obviously owned by a serious gardener. It appeared to be very well maintained, although there were relatively young trees right up against the side of the house that I would not have planted there. Nonetheless, this house was huge and handsome and homey with a terrific front porch, and it had something that many others didn’t. In the photo below, this same house is on the very right side of the photo … what a beautiful view the people in this house had of the water and of other islands in the area. I bet they could see Mt. Baker too (to the northeast) and surely the Canadian Rockies to the north too.
There were so many great homes in this large, old, residential area of Anacortes. I took dozens and dozens of photos but am sharing only a sample with you here.
A few modern homes had snuck into the neighborhood.
I liked the small house in the photo above a lot. It too had a super view of the water and the islands. Hmmm, or maybe I just loved that little MX-5 that was parked in front of the house. 🙂
I haven’t told you about the people here. They were so friendly. Everyone who was outside either waved to me, or nodded, or spoke a few words to me. As I passed one home, the owners were outside in among small trees along the sidewalk. The people were hanging paper origami birds and flowers they had made. When I admired one of the origami flowers in particular, the woman reached up and plucked it off the tree and gave it to me. When I protested, they both said that they make these origami pieces and hang them expressly so people can take them. They laughed and said how much they enjoy sharing joy.
There were a great many signs in Anacortes saying “Black Lives Matter” and saying “God loves color, so do we” (with a rainbow flag for LGB/etc). Many homes had solar panels on the roofs. Some of the vegetable gardens had signs saying “help yourself”. While I was walking, if I came anywhere near an intersection and a car appeared there as well, the driver always stopped and motioned for me to cross the street. Now, maybe that’s the law in the this town, but people seemed to do more than meet the letter of the law … they just seemed so friendly and peaceful and caring and courteous.
I like Anacortes!