Snohomish County, Washington State

We left Seattle yesterday and caught the bus up here to Everett. The Uber driver who delivered us to our AirBnB wondered why we were staying in Everett … he called it Everott !!!! Then I was thinking, OMG where have we come!!

As he dropped us to our AirBnB, we wondered what on earth he was talking about. Gorgeous sculptures, houses and streets were along the way and when were dropped outside our AirBnB (early) it was in front of this beautiful house, and an absolutely wonderful host Elsie. It is always hard when guests turn up early and you don’t feel like you are ready, and Elsie was so gracious to welcome us. Elsie is an artist/sculpture and is one of life’s wonderful people – we are happy to be staying here with her and her husband Bill.

She and I have the same approach to our AirBnB hosting … homemade cookies, breakfast and just generally love meeting people and hosting them in your home. We are going to extend our stay here and explore a bit more. This house was actually Bob Dillons cousins house (Bob Fink). It has this amazing dining room table which was on board a ship of an explorer – Admiral Peary – the table was the ‘chart table’, on board the ship he was on, when he was in the North Pole in the early 1900’s.

This beautiful old (circa 1900’s) three storied house (+ basement) which has creaking wooden wooden floors, eclectic mix of furniture and art and feels just wonderful to be in. The front porch is just wonderful to sit out and relax in this beautiful quiet neighbourhood. It is one street back from Grand Drive which overlooks the Puget Sound, and the waterfront.

The city is developing the waterfront and even with the small amount it has done, they have transformed it. The pedestrian bridge and viewing bridge is still being constructed (bummer for us – 8km to get down there!!! You have to go around the freeway and train tracks – a bit like driving along from the bottom of the Auckland Harbour bridge towards to the city, although Auckland is beautiful compared to this! – maybe we will come back in a few years and see how it is progressing).

There be a New Zealand flag here 🙂

We headed on down to the Sunday markets and after a quick look around ordered a pizza and asked to join a table of a couple who were just finishing their lunch. Jerry and Chloe are now friends for life. They invited us to join them at Blue Water Distillery for a tasting ( Vodka / Gin ), and then we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon / evening with them. They took us to Snohomish Town for a quick look (we are returning here soon!) and then to their property to sample blackberries, blueberries and huckleberries.

They invited us to join them at an ‘open mic’ night where Jerry plays / sings, along with other musicians. We had a lovely meal here, followed by homemade blackberry pie which Chloe had made and bought with us. We chatted easily about our families (they have 6 kids, 11 grandkids) and were so warmingly welcomed by them. We had a wonderful night and so enjoyed meeting these two wonderful people. I hope that our paths will cross again in the future.

Not so sure about this purple one ?!?

And this is a bit tooooooo close for comfort!

We have been exploring our neighbourhood with ‘Ike’ the most delightful Golden Retriever (also there is a wee toy Poodle called ‘Bella’ who is 14).

We walked about 5kms and seen the most beautiful houses. Unfortunately because of the fires in Canada, we have this very smokey horizon so have no views out to Puget Sound.

There are lots of ‘community libraries’ in people’s gardens … I am so going to have one of these when I return. Colin will be able to build me something wonderful 🙂

Generally this area of Everett is historical and the houses are Grand, and they have to comply with the historic guidelines and standards. It is wonderful to walk around here. I am sure like every town we will find the not so nice!

So from my happy place on the ‘porch’ with Ike, I’ll sign out – there is so much more to explore.