We took a wonderful day trip today to Whidbey Island. There is far more to do here than I can begin to document, and we could likely go back many times and have a different experience on each trip. Here’s a few of the highlights we had today.

We began mid morning with the ferry from Mukilteo to Clinton. This was a short 20 minute ferry with no waiting on a weekday morning. I did discover that the don’t charge for passengers coming back the other way, so next time perhaps I would reverse the route and come back over the ferry.

We had no particular stops in mind, but just wanted to enjoy the day. Shortly after leaving Clinton, we say a sign pointing to South Whidbey State Park (map) so we made the left turn. The minimal $5 parking fee at the park was good for any other parks we visited during the day and well worth it, so keep your parking stub. There is a beautiful trail through forest down to the beach. It is only a half mile long, but it is moderately steep so be prepared. At the bottom, we were met by a wide-open sandy beach. With hardly anyone there on this weekday morning, this will be a great location to visit again in the future to step away from things for an afternoon.

After setting out from the park, we were all hungry. We soon stubled on Greenbank Farm and had lunch at Whidbey Pies Cafe’. The soup of the day was a very good chile con carne. It was rounded out very well by a slice of cherry pie.

We continued our drive after lunch and decided to stop at Fort Casey State Park (map). This was my highlight of the day. A large grassy area and a perfect breeze presented an excellent kite flying opportunity with my daughter. The fort itself overlooks the sound and is a lot of fun to climb on and crawl through. A flashlight might be handy if you really want to do some exploring. Again, our $5 parking permit was needed here, so keep your stub.

We continued on north toward Deception Pass (map). Just south of Deception Pass, I saw a bald eagle taking flight out of a tree. My three year old, pregnant wife, and father-in-law were all wearing out quickly, so we didn’t get out at Deception Pass, but it’s beautiful even to drive through. It looks like it could easily be a full daytrip in the future, so I hope to post about it in the future.

After Deception Pass, we continued on to Mount Vernon. There we met I-5 and headed south for our return to Seattle.