Our third trip in the '12 Months of Christmas Trips' took us to Skagit County. It was a bit early for the Tulips, but we knew the Daffy's would be out (they're usually on the decline by the time the tulips really kick in) and I'd found some interesting things to do that we hadn't done before, and had a great time exploring!

Nice Drive
I really like this particular stretch of highway... its always an interesting scene to me, and is one of the many reasons I really like living where I live.

Marysville
We stopped for a bit to eat on the way, and found ourselves in the shadow of the water tower

Padilla Bay Interpretive Center
Our first stop was at the Padilla Bay Interpretive Center... We went there for the aquarium... but they had it closed for maintenance that day.

Entering the Center
It seemed to have been recently refurbished

The fish of the bay
They had a sampling of the fish and crustations that reside in the bay.

Some are a bit exreme
Pretty interesting fish...

checking out the bay
The display had drawers and doors to open, with information about the various animals and evironments found in the bay.

Playing Checkers
Well, sort of. =] He mostly had fun sorting the chips.

Wood Carving
This wood sampling, which was pulled from the mud in the bay, had a series of interesting formations in it.

Interesting patterns
The carvings were made by a clam. After spending its early life as plankton, the little clam anchors itself on a wooden structure, and begins boring into the wood by rocking on its foot, and scraping off wood particles, which it eats, with the edges of its shell.

Wow
This is the size comparison of a Humpback and a human's backbone.

The Investigator
The little guy really liked playing with the magnifying glass!

How do you explain this one?
We just eagle was playing rough, holding the duck down.

Heading through the tunnel
This was one of the little guy's favorite parts of this stop! =] He quickly discovered that it had an interesting echo effect inside the tunnel.

Out on the platform
They had a platform that overlooked the pay described by the center

The Bay
The platform really provided a nice view.

Little Mountain Park
From there, we went to Mount Vernon's Little Mountain Park, which is one of the best city parks I've seen in a long, long time.

Awesome View
It was almost like a view we could get from an airplane

Nice.
We really enjoyed the view...

Another overlook
Installed in 2004, this overlook has a great view of the town.

out on the deck
The little guy didn't really like being able to see through the flooring

Mount Vernon
The overlook had a commanding view of the city below

The Tulips
We were a bit early for most of the Tulips, but you did get a good sense of what was going to come

Daffys
This field of Daffys was behind most of the others.

Starting to bloom
Some of the roses were pretty stunning, even though they weren't all open yet.

A Sea of Color
During a few sunbreaks, the yellow of the daffy's really popped!

Rows of Yellow
we enjoyed the Daffy's quite a bit!

Last look
After checking out the various fields, we took one last look, and headed for home... the little guy fell asleep while we were looking at the flowers, so we didn't stop anywhere. In all, it was a very fun day!

 

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