Yes, it’s true! Kathleen and I are currently sitting in the living room of an AirBnB just outside Langley, Washington on Whidbey Island. We decided to do a four day weekday getaway (Monday—Thursday) while the roof is being replaced on our townhouse. The place we are staying (click here to see it) is incredibly secluded and the silence is almost deafening in itself. Nature is everywhere. A deer and her fawn were just off our deck this morning. Rabbits run amok…and there are so many different colors of bunnies. Never seen so many in one place and they are truly not afraid of humans. Here’s a quick montage of all the bunny pics I took yesterday (there were actually a lot more but I spared you).

So many!

The police bunny

The one in the middle thinks he’s a meerkat.

Kind of a calico? Or Kathleen says, maybe a tortoise-shell?

And not a single one seemed at all phased by me being within three feet of them.

But they come in all shapes and sizes

Enough about bunnies. It was so wonderful to do some things on this trip. For instance, this place is less than 90 minutes from our house…if we take a ferry. But we were in no hurry coming up and will be in no hurry going back, so we drove around. That means going north for about 90 minutes and then going onto Whidbey Island at the north end by crossing the Deception Pass bridge. We opted to do that since we couldn’t get into the AirBnB until around 3:00 pm anyway and they started on our roof at 8:30 am. And not only did we drive north first, but we also did not take a freeway to get there. Instead of the usual drive on Interstate 5, we took Washington Highway 9 pretty much all the way up. It is a beautiful drive but almost an hour longer.

Then another wonderful thing we did…ate at a restaurant. Yes, we have been doing a lot of takeout since this started but we realized (while having lunch) that we had not been IN a restaurant since we had lunch with our friends Bob and Judy, on March 2 in Florida. And even worse (for us restaurant snobs 😜), we went to Cracker Barrel for that lunch 😲. Monday we went out of our way (by about 10 miles) to visit Anacortes which is the gateway (ferry departure point) for Washington’s amazing San Juan Islands. We haven’t been to Anacortes for quite a while but the last time we were there, we had lunch at an outstanding deli that just happened to be open last Monday so in we went. Everyone was wearing a mask (made us feel much safer) and they had a bunch of outdoor seating that was completely social-distanced. We wore our masks to place our order inside (where everyone stayed six feet apart) and then took them off at our outdoor table. But they went right back on whenever the server brought our drinks or food. Even with masking up, it was quite liberating to be able to eat out again.

We even did it again last night for dinner, here in Langley. Found a place where you again; ordered at a counter, sat outside, every table was six feet or more apart and they brought you your food—fully masked. Again, a liberating experience. Of course now we will head home tomorrow and not eat out again for a few weeks I am sure. Maybe on our next planned trip to the Washington coast with the grandkids (and their parents) in August.

As I love to do when we travel, I took an early morning photo walk around Langley. They are doing their best to survive this pandemic as they are a town mostly supported by tourism and as we all know, that’s not happening this year. They are doing it right with the entire downtown posted as a “Mask Zone.” No one is allowed anywhere downtown without one…except me at 5:30 am when no one else was around. I did this walk yesterday (Tuesday) and I am so glad I did. I got some beautiful sunrise light then while today it is overcast and gray. A true lesson in how your light totally effects your photography. Since most of you can’t travel, I will share my walk with you below. There are captions on most of the pics. And FYI: I took four times as many photos as I will post. These are just my favorites.Make sure to run them as a slide show (Click the first one, then use your arrows keys or swipe to advance) for maximum effect.

Was lucky enough to get some amazing sunrise shots

And some without the sun but with some great shadows.

This is the town’s very cool, old fashioned movie theater, The Clyde. Been closed for the duration.

Bunny breakfast

This guy was almost blue

Loved this sign. Saw it three times in store windows. Great sentiment.

Colors!

Neon! I love me some neon. Wish it had been darker. May have to go back.

Down First Street into downtown in the distance.

The Inn at Langley where we spent our 10th anniversary in 2009.

Obligatory summer flower photo.

And happy to see this…especially done so colorfully.

Pretty sure that’s about it for this trip unless something else amazing happens (like we see a bear or an elk). Promise to be back soon with more fun stuff on your favorite travel blog (when you can’t travel ☹️).

The journey is part of the experience — an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca. —Anthony Bourdain