ANACORTES — Bring your walking shoes or hiking boots, money for meals, a camera, binoculars and a relaxed attitude.
Today we begin our new local travel series — Day Trippin’ — with a journey to Anacortes.
Celebrating the 125th anniversary of its incorporation this year, the city is home to fabulous trails and parks that include Salish Sea beaches and inland lakes. It has a wonderful historic downtown, a lively arts scene and lots of places to eat.
First, a little history:
The Samish people and other Coast Salish tribes were there when the Euro descendants showed up in the 1860s interested in fishing, logging, farming and running the railroad out to a terminus there.
The name Anacortes is a Spanishlike version of the name of city founder Amos Bowman’s wife, Anna Curtis.
Many of the buildings from the late 1890s and early 1900s are still there, as are the Samish, Scandinavian, Croatian, Greek and Italian communities that established Anacortes.
The oil refineries on Fidalgo Island were established in the 1950s and ship building continues at Dakota Creek on the waterfront, but the fish canneries and plywood mills are gone. Even the Alaska fishing fleet based in Anacortes has declined. But the city is tourist friendly.
Anacortes loves its history. Be sure to check out the Anacortes Museum, housed in the old Carnegie library at Eighth and M streets, and, kitty-corner across the street, Causland Memorial Park, with decorative rock mosaics on its serpentine walls and bandstand. The nearly century-old park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Another place for history addicts is the old W.T. Preston sternwheeler boat adjacent to the old Anacortes train depot at R Avenue between Ninth and Seventh streets. During the warmer months of the year, find a large Saturday farmers market there.
Now that you are downtown, there are a few other things you’ll want to do.
Before it’s gone (no sooner than fall of 2017) make a stop at Demopoulos family’s 103-year-old Marine Supply and Hardware at Commercial and Second streets. The place is packed to the gills with cool stuff for sailors, fishermen, homeowners and collectors. Check out the art work by the late Ed Pranger, visit with the shop kitty, Fauna, and buy some maps.
Other interesting shops in the historic district along Commercial Avenue include The Business, Scott Milo Gallery, Watermark Book Co., Read Me A Story toy shop and Burton Jewelers, which also displays the Burton family’s extensive Northwest art collection.
Good places to eat include Gere-A-Deli, a lunch spot owned by the mayor, and the Adrift restaurant for dinner, though you probably should just walk around to find what you like best. Chose from bakeries, Mexican fare, Japanese, brewpubs and bistros.
No doubt you will begin to notice the Bill Mitchell people murals all over town. From his wheelchair since 1984, Mitchell has painted about 150 life-size historic scenes.
Festivals in the downtown area include the Waterfront Festival in June, Shipwreck Day flea market in July and the venerable Anacortes Arts Festival in August.
To get a good view of Anacortes, drive east on Fourth Street up to the top of Cap Sante and take advantage of the nearly 360-degree view.
Island Adventures, at 1801 Commercial Ave., offers whale watch tours March through November from the beautiful Cap Sante Boat Haven below the view point.
If you have a kayak, know that you can put in at numerous locations around Anacortes.
Or bring a bicycle to ride on the Tommy Thompson Trail along Fidalgo Bay. Or take it on the county ferry (landing is at Sixth and J streets) for a ride around adjacent Guemes Island.
For me, the jewel of Anacortes is Washington Park, on the west end of the city, near the state ferry dock.
Arrive before 10 a.m. and you can walk the 2-mile loop without sharing the road with any vehicles. The park also has plenty of foot trails, camping, a boat launch, playground and picnic facilities. But it’s the loop I love. In just one trip, a walker can enjoy three ecosystems — the island meadow and low forestlands, the inner rain forest and the juniper and wild flower south side.
If you like to hike, you should consider walking around Little Cranberry Lake on the Anacortes Community Forest lands (enter at Georgia and Fourth streets, just south of Oakes Avenue) or hiking up Sugar Loaf, which you can find just off Heart Lake Road on the south end of the city.
Your last stop should be Mount Erie for the sunset. Drive up to the 1,273-foot summit. Park the car. Wander over to one of several outlooks.
You will be grateful for such a great day trip.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
If you go
Leave early in the day and allow an hour to get to Anacortes from Everett. Take I-5 north to Highway 20 in Burlington, head west and take the spur into downtown.
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