We quickly went through the top of mind destinations: Blake Island, Poulsbo, Eagle Harbor, Edmonds, Port Madison, Bell Street Marina, and Langley. Langley is a about a 3 hour trip but the rest are between 1 and 2 hours of Shilshole.
Each of the destinations has it's own merit and each could take up a blog entry, but we landed on Blake Island. We hadn't been there for a while and Jodi wanted to get some long walks and possibly a run in. I wanted to try to shoot some pictures and we both wanted to get off the dock for a while.
The weather, which looked so promising earlier in the week, now didn't look as great, but there was very little wind in the forecast. We can deal with soggy, but didn't want to venture out in Gale warnings.
We were planning to have another couple over for dinner Friday night and a Saturday morning departure was planned, pending a successful session with the mechanic on Friday.
Blake island has a fun history. Chief Sealth was born there. Seattle was named after the Chief, although it's unclear to me exactly how 'Sealth' became 'Seattle'. Native pronunciations didn't neatly translate and one early spelling of the name was Si'ahl, but was also known as Seathle, Seathl, or See-ahth.
In any case it was a camping ground for the Suquamish Tribe and Seattle's namesake was born there in 1786.
While the island was noted by Captain George Vancouver, he didn't name it. The prolific namer of all things, Charles Wilkes, named the island after an officer in charge of surveying , George Smith Blake. Despite having the Wilkes moniker stamped on the charts, the island was known as 'Smuggler's Island' for quite some time. I like Smuggler's Island better.
During the prohibition, smuggler's from Canada would use the island getting booze from Canada down to the thirsty Seattlelites.
In 1917, a wealthy fellow from Seattle named William Pitt Trimble bought the island and built a mansion on it. He also built quite a garden for his wife Cassandra. They also invited the Camp Fire Girls to the Island for camping experiences and the campers named the camp 'Camp Sealth'. This continued for a few years, but then Trimble had other plans for the Island and the Girl Scouts of America went in search of a new camp -- and built one on Vashon Island where Camp Sealth continues to this day.
The executive director of Camp Fire Girls for King County back then (1919) was Ruth Brown. She was instrumental in establishing Camp Sealth. The same Ruth Brown that a few years later created another camp, Four Winds, up on Orcas Island. The same Ruth Brown that some 30 years later chewed out out a young camp counselor on Orcas for leaving tools in flower boxes he was constructing. That young counselor was my father, John Aberle.
Back to Blake Island. Mr Trimble's wife, Cassandra, died in a car accident and one gets the sense that Trimble's loved the island because his wife loved the island. After she died in 1929, he left the mansion and it fell into dis-repair. He sold it in 1936.
During prohibition, the island was used by smugglers from Canada. One fellow recalled that one method of hiding whisky was to use a line with an anchor. They'd lower the anchor then tie bottles to the line and lower them beneath the surface. They'd finally use a small float to mark where the booze was. The kids on the mainland (kitsap peninsula side) would watch this activity through binoculars then at night row over and retrieve the booze, stealing from the smugglers.
During the WWII years there were a few soldiers stationed on the island -- reportedly those with discipline problems. On an island, it was difficult to get into trouble. But the soldiers left the mansion, and the property and boats, in much worse shape than when they arrived.
The mansion mysteriously burned to the ground in the mid 40's, but the guilty conscience of a now 80 year old fellow finally solved the mystery only very recently. Seems that one Don Winslow built a 16 foot boat in wood shop class in the 1940's and put a used 5 horse engine on the boat. He and a buddy motored over to Blake Island and near the shore a wave soaked both them and the engine.
It was a cold day so they decided to build a fire in the now decrepit mansions fire place. They warmed themselves and then found a few boards to use as paddles for the way back. As they neared the mainland they looked back and saw a glow and smoke -- they were scared and frightened as they were the only ones on the island that day -- perhaps an ember from the fireplace had ignited a fire. The next day there were newspaper articles about the 'mysterious fire'. They never told a soul of their excursion. Until now.
In 1959 the State of Washington made it a state park and Native Americans operate a concession on a part of the island, separating Tourists from their money at 'Tillicum Village'. Some day I'd like to actually see the show, but I hear it's largely cheesy and touristy.
The APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim Countries to promote free trade amongst its members. Founded in 1989, it had its first leadership meeting in 1993, hosted by Bill Clinton. And where did Bubba pick to have this first ever leadership of APEC? None other than Blake Island.
So now you know more than Blake Island than you ever wanted to know!
But, now for the weekend problem. We're not going to Blake Island (after all that!!).
3 events conspired to kill the weekend plan. Our friends bailed on tonight (friday). They'd just gotten back from a trip to the BVI's and they were absolutely beat. Then the weather deteriorated. And finally, the mechanic. He was willing to come over late tonight, but the dye had already been cast. We had decided to bail on the weekend. We're STUCK! We are staying at the dock.
Now, how to get exercise, socialize, and have fun this weekend.
Stay tuned!!
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