Deception Without Deceit

Sometimes, vacation means staying at home and having no particular plans in mind, freely combining the things that people usually do on vacations, such as sleeping in, eating out, shopping and sightseeing, and things that were put aside in the everyday routine, such as cleaning up closets and such. So it's really not such a bad thing, a so-called stay-cation - one can unplug his brain and just live spontaneously for a change. No plans, no big preparations, no passports or room reservations needed. One day of our stay-cation, we filled the tank of our Outback with gas and took off to discover one of the most beautiful state parks in Washington, Deception Pass park.

We live south of Seattle, and the park is about a couple of hours away north - it really depends on the traffic, if it's light, then you'll be at your destination in no more than an hour and a half, but we got a couple of congestions along the way there, so it took longer. It's always fun to be greeted by the Seattle skyline - the white slender pencil-like Smith Tower, 462 feet, the tallest building in Seattle in the 1910s (on the left in the photo above), and its opposite dark sleek Columbia Center (on the right), almost exactly twice as tall at 943 feet, the tallest in Seattle since 1985, the second tallest on the West Coast as for now, and the 23rd tallest in the US (the list of all tallest buildings in Seattle here).

And about two hours later, we are in a different world - thick forest, rocks, green water filled with salmon. Deception Pass connects Skagit Bay (part of Puget Sound) with the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and was named so because the first  British explorers initially mistook the long Whidbey Island for a peninsula. The island deceived the explorers, but was it a deceit, really? Is mother nature even capable of deceit? It isn't, and thus the pass (strait) got the name Deception Pass - deceiving without deceit. (English can be so confusing.)

This handsome bridge, or actually there are two of them which are known as Deception Pass Bridge, was built in 1935 and is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge connects Fidalgo and Whidbey islands and was a factor in a decision to built a naval air base on Whidbey which provides those who are interested in military planes (like the Real Adventure Man) with endless entertainment as jet pilots have their training, and the rest of us with unbelievable thunder-like noise, only louder, till sunset.

August is time for salmon fishing, thus many fishermen try to catch their luck from both the shore and boats.

The Real Adventure Man studying the map of the park, which is huuuuge - 4,134 acres, with 77,000 feet of salt water shoreline (Puget Sound) and almost 34,000 feet of fresh water shoreline (3 lakes).

Cranberry Lake

Puget Sound

I continue wearing my jumpsuits for nature explorations. This particular one is from 2 years ago and actually was the very first outfit in this blog (that's how it all started almost exactly 2 years back...). Anya's jeans from Old Navy and long cardigan from Charlotte Russe I think - it was perfect for a cool evening, and I only regret that I forgot to bring mine.

Anya took the portrait of me and the Real Adventure Man, I thought it was romantic and added some photo effects with my free Paint.Net software.

Do you see a rainbow?

Oh jets, jets, jets...

Olympic Mountains in the background.

This could be taken somewhere in Siberia where I am from - this is how beautiful my homeland is, and it's exactly why the Pacific Northwest feels like home to me.

I started with the bridge, and I'll end on the bridge too. The sunset was magnificent that evening. We all felt happy, rested and inspired after our day of exploring the beautiful state where we live. Do you think our stay-cation is finished? Nah! We still have a week to be lazy, clean the closets if we wish, and discover more treasures in our own backyard - figuratively speaking, of course. 

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