The Eagles

This weekend Blueberry and I took off to head up to see the Skagit Valley Eagles.  Apparently the Skagit River is home to hundred and hundreds and hundreds of bald eagles that come down from Alaska to feed. 

I say apparently because we didn't see hundreds and hundreds of eagles. I had in my head that I'd see several eagles in a tree and thought how cool that would be.  Turns out that is not what happened.

We took off at the butt crack of dawn to get up there for our 10am departure. In typical Seattle February weather it was raining. The rain, on the way up, varied in how much rain there was. At times we'd have just a mist and others it would be a down pour. All I could think was we're gonna get soaked.

We found, barely, the Shell station and got ourselves ready to go.  The tour company was there and ready to get us on the water. They put us in this old, very old, shuttle that had more dirt in it then anything I'd seen in a long time.  I was pretty sure the dirt was holding this thing together.  We grabbed our life jackets (also caked with dust and dirt - but I kinda expected that of life jackets) and were hussled off the old, musty shuttle and in to this 1970's van that had seen better days.

This is Blueberry looking for eagles. She's being dramatic of course.

The van was disgusting. Dingy, musty, dirty, and well, in a word, gross.  I didn't want to touch a thing in this van. And all I could think was, "Do they not know what vacuums are here in the country?"  Our tour guide, Dave, chatted us up a bit on our way to get in the boat. He seemed nice and happy to be doing what he was doing. He's spent years on the river and said he knew it inside and out.

We stopped at a boat launch and had to hike a bit to the water through a trail of mud. I was thankful I had my hiking boots on.  They were keeping me dry and relatively clean. There on the waters edge was this big raft.

Dave gave no safety talk or nothing, just said, "Here's how you get in the boat." I was first in line so I hopped on in and rolled my way to the back of the boat.  Dave was paddling right behind Blueberry and I.

And we were off.

Did I mention it was raining? Yah, still raining. 

We hit the water, which was calm because this girl is not interesting in white water rafting.  A couple of ripples in the water was all I wanted to see.

Dave was an expert at finding the eagles. I'd say he had an eagle eye...hahahaha.

Ahem.

Our critter count was:
21 eagles for the back of the boat
22 eagles for the front of the boat -they apparently saw one they didn't point out to us
9 ducks
2 Canadian geese
and 3 river otters.

The Skagit River, even in the rain, is beautiful.  The fog was hanging low which made for an eerie kinda feel to the area. And of course with the rain, it was already grey and dark.

After our 3 hour tour that lasted only 1 hour and 45 minutes, we docked and we hopped out. We were all cold, wet, and frozen.  All any of us could think of was getting back into that dingy, gross van and getting warm.

Dave hopped out of the boat, got us all out and said, "Where's the van?" As if any of us knew.  There was no van there to pick us up. 

Dave called the van-dropper-offer and asked. The van-dropper-offer said he'd be there in about 5 minutes.  Fine. I could wait 5 minutes.

40 minutes later after we started hiking up the road to the shell station in the rain and the wind, here comes the van.  The van-dropper-offer hopped out of the van, and started walking down the road.  I'm sure he wasn't interested in the wrath of 10 very wet, very cold, very frozen people. Dave got us in the van and cranked the heat. He apologized over and over again. 

As soon as we got back to the shell station, Dave announced he had received instructions from the owner to give us all a free tour. Oh goody, we get to go back and have a free tour! 

I turned to Blueberry and said, "I'll only come back if they can guarantee we get to ride in this dingy, gross van again." Blueberry just rolled her eyes at me.

After we got our wet clothes changed, we were starving.  A friend of ours had recommended the Birdview Brewing company.  So off we went.  We were starving and so ready to be warm and cozy.

This little place was, let's say, interesting. I have no doubt they brew good beer. There were many patrons in this place having a pint, or growler, or two.  I wasn't really interested in beer since I still had a two hour drive ahead of me. I just wanted food.

The "kitchen" in this place was basically a half wall off to the side and this older woman, working at a snail's pace making food.  Their menu was short and simple, as I would have expected. But the kitchen is what struck me as odd. 

The counters, were covered in food items. Bags of bread, condiments, a HUGE tub of butter, more bread, more plates, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, bags of chips, etc. It was crazy. Her "stoves" were basically two Panini presses that were so coated in grease and gunk that you couldn't really tell if there was a grill under there or not. The other cooking service was basically a flat griddle pan that was on full time, and sitting precariously close to the bags of bread.  I turned to Blueberry and said, "If the water didn't get us, this will."

I ordered a turkey sandwich with Swiss cheese and bacon. Blueberry ordered a grilled cheese. It took an hour to get our meal. And Blueberry's grilled cheese was basically two large slices of sour dough bread and two small slices of cheese.  We paid our bill and we got outta there determined to find a Starbucks.

Despite the wind, the rain, the cold, the 40 minute wait, the few birds, and the crazy lunch we had a great day.   I mean it's not every day you get to look this cool.

Oh and the cold, wet part of this trip killed my camera.  It's d-e-d dead. I'm afraid I'm going to have to fork over some $$ for a new one. Or a used body if I can find one.  Still, this camera isn't that old and I'm so mad at myself for not taking MORE precautions. It's sitting in a bunch of rice right now...let's hope it does the trick.