Glympse of Bainbridge Island, WA

Hi Blog! As you know, we are working our way up the East Coast in order to be back in the Philadelphia area in time to visit with our son and his family during their home leave. We arrived at our campground in Lothian, Maryland just in time to fly out to Seattle, Washington. Last year, Dave's uncle, Howard Olsen, passed away. This weekend would have been his birthday. The entire Olsen clan was gathering on Bainbridge Island to hold a memorial service in his honor. Even though it meant flying back across the country, we really wanted to be there for the family, especially when so many of them came up to Wallace, Idaho for Dave's mom's memorial. While it is sad to loose someone you love, Uncle Ole had a long and productive life. It was great to get together and celebrate that life and reconnect with so many family members.  We are definitely looking forward to when we can get the RV back out west and up into Washington.  Look out cousins, we're coming!

We flew out to Seattle early Friday morning.  Due to mechanical problems our flight was delayed over an hour.  We only had an hour layover for our connecting flight. Uncle Ole must have been looking out for us, because they held the plane until we got there. Having arrived successfully in Seattle, we had about an hour and half drive west from the airport to Bainbridge Island.

Bainbridge Island was originally a center for the logging and shipbuilding industries. The island was known for huge and accessible cedars, which were especially in demand for ships' masts. Today, Bainbridge Island has become an increasingly affluent bedroom community of Seattle, a 35-minute ride away on the Washington State Ferries. As we drove, here was our first glympse of Puget Sound.

We ended up booking our Bed and Breakfast through airbnb.com.  After two failed attempts dealing with two very flighty B&B owners, we finally found Holly Lane Gardens Bed & Breakfast. Our host, Patty, couldn't be nicer. Here she is arranging some of her prize winning flowers.

In addition to running the B&B, Patty also caters weddings and operates a stall at the local farmers market where she sells her chicken and goose eggs, heirloom vegetables, fruits and fresh baked international breads. The first morning for breakfast, she made us a Dutch Panakuchen.  Here are the chickens and geese hanging out in their overnight accommodations.  There are still predators on the island, so the farm animals have to be penned up at night.

Many of roads on the island are still private one lane dirt roads.  This is the private lane that serves Holly Lane Gardens and an adjoining property.

As we walked around the farm, we got to meet a couple of the other residents:  Dahli Lama and Willow.

Since the community is an island, many of the residents have their own boats.

There is also a very active artistic community on the island.  The first Friday of every month, all of the art galleries and studios have an art walk that includes open houses with wine, cheese and music. Here is an example of some of the whimsical pieces you'll see around the island.

However, art is in the eye of the beholder:

As early as 1883, Japanese immigrants began to farm on the island and raise their families. During World War II, these Japanese-American residents of Bainbridge Island were the first to be sent to internment camps. They were held by the U.S. government through the duration of the war for fear of espionage. It took decades before the government accepted accountability to those citizens for taking away their constitutional rights.  In 2011, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial was created to shed light on the events. The outdoor cedar "story wall" contains the names of all 276 Japanese Americans resident on the island at the time of the internment.

Today, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community is dedicated to preserving its history and the lessons learned when fear overcomes the importance of constitutional rights and prejudice blinds people from seeing others as individuals.

After reading the stories, we walked down to the beach where we could see the Seattle skyline off in the distance:

Of course, the memorial gathering for Uncle Howard was our primary purpose for visiting the island, but we appreciated this day of exploring the community.  We also greatly enjoyed an early morning run through the Grand Forest, one of several beautiful parks and preserves on the island.

We are glad we had a chance to see these little glimpses of the island.  We are looking forward to when we can come back up with the RV and spend a little more time getting to know it better.