Charming Town of LaConner

Saying goodbye to good friends at Deception Pass Marina, we left for the short ride over to LaConner.  We've been to LaConner many times via car, always saying that "one day" we'd bring our boat here and moor for the night.  Of course, when we said that, the dream of having a boat was still that--just a dream.  But, here we were, motoring our boat to LaConner to spend the night, fulfilling a wish of ours.
 

  

The channel approach to the southern end of the Swinomish Channel is just off the eastern side of Whidbey Island.  The approach is very narrow and it is imperative to stay between the markers in this area.  We passed this eagle pretty close, but he didn't seem to be bothered until we were well passed.  

 



As you move down the channel, you realize that you are heading right for a rock wall, but then the channel turns and you maneuver around an "S" curve.  

The channel continues past a housing development and soon enough, the Rainbow Bridge comes into view with LaConner just beyond.  (Of course, the Rainbow Bridge is now painted orange, but you can guess what it used to look like.)






We chose to use one of the town's public docks (at $.50/ft for the night) and have our first night with no power.  The public docks are right along the water in the main part of town.  We were able to leave the boat and walk the main drag of town and visit the shops and restaurants.  We had to stop at our favorite, LaConner Brewery, so that Jerry could enjoy their brick-oven pizza (one of the best ever tasted), while I stayed gluten free and had the Brick Oven Nachos.  Both were very good.  We brought the leftover nachos back and finished those up later that night.  

 Just above the public dock where we moored was one of the town's many public plaza's where local art work was displayed and benches available for tourists to rest.  The "art" at this plaza rose high above the heads of the tourists and I'm still scratching my head by its meaning.  I guess this artist felt the local fish were being polluted by all the trash that was in the water.




We seem to attract Blue Heron, and here was another one coming close to the boat for a visit.














I went wandering with my camera, and Jerry was happy to see me returning. 

Our mooring place was directly across from the land belonging to the Swinomish Indian Tribe.  They had a celebration and put two canoes in the water, the younger folks going out first and the elders chasing in the next canoe.





 
Later in the evening when the canoes returned, there was dancing, singing, and drums beating up under one of the three pavilions (one seen above).  We checked the website of the tribe, but did not see what they were celebrating.  The tribe does participate in a canoe trip, along with other coastal Indian tribes, paddling to one location for all tribes to celebrate.  We can only assume this might have been a celebration of the canoes being readied for the trip.

Next morning, we said good-bye to LaConner and headed up the Swinomish Channel heading towards Bellingham and a couple of days visiting friends, Ed & Lois.