Museum location: 703 S. Second St., La Conner, Skagit County
By Cathy McDonald | August 18, 2005
Location: Mount Vernon.
Length: Over a mile of trails.
Level of difficulty: Level-to-moderately steep, dirt/gravel/bark trails (muddy after rains, although many trails have an absorbent top layer of bark).
By Cathy McDonald | April 14, 2005
Short Trips
La Conner is all about love. It started with the love of a husband, John Conner, who named the Skagit Valley town for his wife, Louisa Ann Conner.
Today, it continues with the love of its 780 or so residents for their town's historical and geographical charms. La Conner honors its past, through archival photos, preserved buildings and museums, just as it fosters its present and future, with public art, cultural events, and creative shops and boutiques.
By Kristin Dizon | March 17, 2005
The outing:
For the urban refugee yearning for a taste of nature, along with good eats and a tiny historic town, here's an easygoing outing to the northwest Skagit Valley that will satisfy on all counts.
By Kristin Jackson | March 3, 2005
BOW, Skagit County -- Patricia Lott and Ann Marie Wood may not be able to run or climb mountains anymore, but they've found something that's given them wings to soar above their troubles.
And they want to share it.
Birding, they say, has given them back their lives.
By Greg Johnston | February 24, 2005
Short Trips
When you're the world's worst gambler, a casino wouldn't seem like a high-priority destination. But after I wrote last summer about the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino near Ocean Shores, I just had to try gambling one more time -- this time a little closer to home in Bow, a small berg just north of Burlington, about 70 miles north of Seattle. After all, I had another $30 to burn (i.e. lose).
By Jeff Larsen | October 21, 2004
The SUV getaway
July 29, 2004
ON THE SKAGIT DELTA It's high tide at the mouth of the Skagit River, and heads are popping up all over. Harbor-seal heads. There's one right next to Peggy's boat. Another off Jim's bow. Two of them, right behind Gene.
Poking up through the water, the seals' shiny black heads resemble bowling balls, with their round eyes and snout as the finger holes. Their slightly surprised visage suggests that of the homeowner who's spotted a patrol car in front of another neighbor's house: "Hmm, wonder what's going on over there?"
By Mike McQuaide | March 11, 2004
Location: Mount Vernon.
Length: Several miles.
By Cathy McDonald | February 19, 2004
LA CONNER If there is a secret to catching smelt in the Swinomish Channel, Bob Hart should know it.
He's a member of a pioneer family who landed in La Conner when it was little more than an Indian trading outpost, and he has dropped a smelt jig into the channel's smoky green waters with his grandfather, father, children and grandchildren, often drawing up bright silver smelt by the tubful.
Perhaps the smelt know. After an hour and a half of jigging with Hart, we had snagged only two smelt, which flashed like discarded Christmas ornaments in our bucket.
By Jonathan Martin | February 5, 2004
