Taking the Low Roads

Saturday, April 12, 2008
At long last we had a lovely Saturday, with temperatures hovering near 80°F (26.5°C) by late afternoon. Tim and I are itching to get to the mountains again, but decided to take the low roads instead. The mountains are still full of snow.

We headed up north towards Padilla Bay and wound our way homeward via Mount Vernon and Conway. It was lovely!.

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Our first stop was the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. To get to the beach, you walk through a tunnel under the road then out onto a sort of balcony.
 
 
 
Then you climb down, down, down this spiral staircase, no easy feat for someone who is afraid of heights! I made it though, and was sorry to see that I had not looked first. The tide was in and there was very little beach.
 
 
 
On the way back we discovered a magnificent Bald Eagle watching us.
 
 
 
I went into the Information Center to ask if they could guide us to a colony of herons we'd heard about, somewhere near Padilla Bay.
 
 
 
There's a lot to look at in the museum, but we weren't going to waste that sunshine!
 
 
 
We found the heronry, unfortunately fairly inaccessible, so on we drove. Oh it was lovely to be out beside the water, looking at islands and beach.
 
 
 
Across the bay was the beautiful Mount Baker, peeping over the hills.
 
 
 
Behind us was the Anacortes Oil Refinery.
 
 
 
The cheerful 'con-coreee' of Red-winged Blackbirds made me smile.
 

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