Chuckanut Drive

Well, it wasn’t the mountain adventure our friends from Whidbey took a week ago. It wasn’t even an overnighter. But our outing yesterday was spontaneous, the day was bright, and the fall scenery spectacular along the 21-mile narrow, winding Chuckanut Drive. The finishing touch was our lunch at the Oyster Bar Restaurant, a restaurant that began as a small shack in the 1920’s selling oysters to travelers on Washington State’s first scenic highway. Pacific oysters, whose seeds are native to Japan, were first grown in the U.S. at the Samish Bay farm in 1921. The farm, Rock Point Oyster Co. (now Taylor Shellfish), was the first certified oyster farm in Washington state. The Oyster Bar is no longer a shack, but an elegant linen tablecloth and candles kind of place, with an excellent menu and presentation. From our window table overlooking Samish Bay, we could see the Fidalgo, Samish, and Cypress Islands floating in the distant haze (photo above right). Parked in front of the restaurant as we drove up, was a sporty, red roadster. Now that would have been fun to drive on a day like yesterday.

... PLM