Road Trip to Whidbey Island’s Welcome the Whales Day Festival
Join the annual celebration to welcome the whales back to the Bering Sea.
By Erin Bosetti April 19, 2013
This article originally appeared in the April 2013 issue of Seattle magazine.
WHERE: Langley, Whidbey Island.
WHY: The annual Welcome the Whales Day festival (4/21. Free. Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 301 Anthes Ave.; 360.678.3451; orcanetwork.org), which celebrates the return of eastern North Pacific gray whales to Saratoga Passage during their 10,000-mile migration from Mexico to the Bering Sea.
BRING YOUR OCTOPUS CAP: Join the critter parade (starts at 1 p.m.), starring an eclectic mix of handmade sea-animal costumes, and ending with a Salish blessing of the sea. Afterward, NOAA scientist Sue Moore discusses how climate change is affecting grey whales.
PRICK UP YOUR EARS: Listen for the “whale bell,” alerting festivalgoers to sightings of these gentle giants enjoying a shrimp smorgasbord in shallow coastal waters.
GO FOR THE GOLD: Stop by the acclaimed Ott & Murphy Wines tasting room (204 First St.; 360.221.7131; swedehillcellars.com) to sample the 2011 Chanson Rosé and 2009 Tempranillo, both awarded gold at the 2012 Seattle Wine Awards.
GETTING THERE: Take the ferry from Mukilteo to Clinton; drive northwest on State Route 525 and make a right on Langley Loop.
Follow Us
The Rise of the Experience Economy
REI brings back guided travel, betting that memories matter more than stuff.
In my household, with two young boys under the age of five, we often have to remind them to take things back. Did you really mean to tell dad that his dinner isn’t good? You might want to take that back. Did your brother deserve to be hit? Let’s rethink that one. Extreme analogies aside,…
Bellevue Is Treating Accessibility Like Infrastructure
A partnership with Wheel the World makes it easier to plan travel with verified details.
For a lot of people, the hardest part of travel planning isn’t arranging flights or booking a hotel. It’s figuring out whether a place will actually work for your needs once you get there. Bellevue has partnered with Wheel the World, a travel platform used worldwide, to verify accessibility details for hotels, attractions, restaurants, and…
Northwest Enters Winter After Warmest Fall on Record
Unseasonably high temperatures and rain instead of snow have pushed regional snowpack to record lows for this point in the season.
Across the Northwest, a record-warm fall and lack of snowpack going into the winter is putting more drought pressure on Oregon, Idaho, Washington and western Montana. Despite record rain in western Washington recently, and earlier this year in central and southern Oregon, the showers are filling up already overdrawn reservoirs in many areas, scientists said…
Renew Yourself in Bellingham, Washington
Images courtesy of Visit Bellingham Unwind and reset in 2026 with a trip to peaceful Bellingham, Washington. Located between the stunning Cascade Mountains and the tranquil Salish Sea, there’s no better place for a trip packed with quiet moments in nature combined with the amenities of a culturally rich college town. Bellingham is known for…