SKAGIT VALLEY TOUR: PART ONE
 Saturday’s weather didn’t look promising on Friday so we postponed the drive to our alternate date, but Sunday looked so good a few of us who could make the time decided to go. We will still go on the 12th weather permitting.
 
I was the only "Southerner" and we wanted to go a little later than planned so I rolled into Starbucks for my first coffee of the day ~10:00AM with a target arrival in Edison to meet Greg and Cathi O’Connell at 11:30AM. By 10:00AM the first coffee tasted pretty good. I was a little early getting into Edison so I got out and took some photos of a couple of homes I like before two Hertz cars and a blue 2007 Mustang drove by me on the way in. - Yo! It wasn’t a tourist waving at you. It was ME.
 
We had lunch at a café with outdoor seating. By now everyone knows the weather was A++
 
Greg, Cathi and I were the only ones with the rest of the day available so we headed up Chuckanut Drive. I took the in-car photos with one hand while glancing at the LCD on the back of the camera to see if the camera was pointed in the general direction. My hand slipped and I accidentally fired off a shot at the dashboard. Honest, it was accidental. Good news. We weren’t speeding. 
 
I’m surprised the photos came out as well as they did shooting though the windshield in a moving car with one hand. No bugs were killed in the making of these photos (a few were, probably). 
 
Is it as legal to do this as texting while driving? I don’t think it should be. I promise not to do it again. (on Monday 5/7) Hey, I trade stock options. Which is more dangerous? They can both cause a wreck.
 
We saw a sign in Fairhaven that said "Play Here"
 
After that, we followed the planned route through Fairhaven and Bellingham, down the east side and around the south end of Lake Whatcom to highway 9 where we headed north, except that instead of dining at the Blue Mountain we kept going because we already ate in Edison. We did stop at the legendary "EverybodyS" in Van Zandt where I got to meet Margolis, the transplanted New Yorker proprietor with whom I carried on east coast speak. It was just like being in the Catskills.
 
Cathi had an ice cream cone while Greg and I had pickles. Greg added some kind of meat thingy that looked to me like a goat tongue beat to death and dried out on a rock but it didn’t seem to hurt him. "EverybodyS" is famous for their pickles and they were indeed good. Collectively we had pickles and ice cream, and dried, beaten goat tongue in Van Zandt. Make what you wish of that one. 
 
By that time it was late afternoon and Cathi and Greg had friends waiting on them. So while they made their way north to Deming, I, at the suggestion of Margolis, headed south on Highway 9 to Sedro-Woolly where I turned left on the North Cascades Highway and took the southeast loop road, Rt. 530 home from Rockport through the beautiful logging town of Darrington. I would find it hard to name another town set in such a picturesque setting. For a late afternoon, early evening drive, it was beautiful. I picked up Highway 9 again in Arlington for the last leg home. There was hardly anyone on the road all the way from Sedro-Woolly to Arlington.
 
If the weather is good next weekend I’m ready to go again.
 
harvE