Vashon in Seattle Times

Here is the lastest article in the Seattle Times about Vashon.

Vashon tries to keep it real

I don't really want to unpack my own thoughts on it.
So..I won't.

Vashon EMTs. Our experience.

Several weeks ago our children were in a car accident (with an adult other than their parents).  I don't want to go into the details of the car accident.  Except to talk about Vashon EMTs.

Our two kids (ages 1 and 6) were transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.  When I got the call that something had happened I talked to one of the EMTs.  I believe it was a Captain.  He introduced himself and said, very reassuringly, "Everyone seems to be just fine. We are doing this as protocol." He walked me through what was going to happen. And called 2 more times before they arrived at HMC (I was in Seattle when I got the call).

When they finally arrived at the ER, our 1 year old was sound asleep on on EMT's shoulder.  Our 6 year old had been well comforted.  They had thought to scour the car for things like a bottle, diaper bags, car seats and all the stuff we would need for a long day in the ER.

What they brought most of all was a load of compassion.  They talked to us in a humane way. They were gracious, communicative and did their job so so so well!  I honestly couldn't believe how kind they were.

We also learned weren't going to receive a bill.  An emergency transfer to a hospital is apparently part of our property taxes.

Vashon-spiration

Before we ever moved to Vashon and were living in Seattle we came over to buy a piece of furniture from craigslist.  It was rainy wet,  I was pregnant and we were trying to figure out some furniture for the baby's room. . .

So on this day trip we stopped at Cafe Luna.  We had coffee and a pastry and while we were there I used the washroom.  It was the washroom that convinced me I wanted to move toVashon.  No not the toilet or the soap or whatever, it was all the signs in the bathroom.  The events, the discussions, the classes, the sales...it all seemed like stuff I could appreciate in my community.

Vashon Halloween 2015

Unlike any of the other years (this is only our 4th) having Halloween on a Saturday is shaping up to be more exciting for the whole community (maybe it's because this is the first year we have had a child in elementary school and a whole different level of excitement is at play)

Trick or Treating is happening Uptown (in Vashon town) from 5 to 7 with many businesses offering candy and goodies....

The O Space doors will be open for dancing and Halloween festivities.

And at a quick glance at several telephone poles when I was in town today there are lots of music venues, lots of specials on the menu, and a lot of fun all around.

Our family costume theme is weather----but trick or treating happens rain or shine.

Tranquil and Peaceful Island life

Sometimes the view isn't so clear....

There is a mythology that people have about Vashon...that is it peaceful & tranquil.  The idea that all your neighbors are nice, all people are watching out for each other, and that kindness abounds is no more true here than it is anywhere.

In fact, when you have relationships with people you don't like here (aka enemies) you are more likely to run into them here than you are in a larger and more cosmopolitan area.  My partner was recently accosted by a former (and probably mentally ill) landlord.  My anxiety skyrocketed when I saw a former employee who I had to "let go" at the park today....all in all it's not perfect.

The reality is that life can be wonderful wherever you are....and life can be miserable wherever you are...and for most if it life is in the middle!

On a greater scale the dysfunction of non-profits, businesses, and other things are more present, simply because in a small town one possesses a greater awareness of their surroundings.

On the other hand the care that neighbors possess for one another reveals itself to a greater degree here on the Island.  On Vashon you wave at your neighbors, you learn the faces of grocery store employees, you trust that you would find each other in the case of an emergency.  All in all though  I think that this is the case in cities as well...we just aren't as aware of it.

What do you think?

Blackberry Season

My Beloved got home tonight and I needed a break from the kiddos.  I grabbed our berry containers and headed out for some alone time.  After 20 minutes I had 2 pounds of delicious foraged blackberries. Himalayan Blackberries are prolific in the northwest.  They are an invasive and horrible weed.  They posses an uncanny ability to grow everywhere and are hard to kill even if you can find the central root.    But then, one time a year we all set our distain for this invasive plant and we eat some pretty amazing foraged fruit.

I don't know if it is our very warm summer, or the several rainy days we have had this summer but I think the berries are sweeter than any other year we have lived in the PNW.  When we lived in Seattle I had my favorite parks, overpasses, and overgrown lots that I liked to pick berries in. On Vashon I also have my favorite roadside patches (which of course I won't tell you about!).  I do find it pretty charming that at some of the local beaches though the bushes have been clearly munched by many passers by.

What makes the perfect roadside blackberry patch is usually that it gets mowed periodically sow that the first year shoots (that don't produce fruit) are cut back and you can reach a lot of the berries.  Ideally it is situated enough off the road that you don't feel like you are risking your life, and that no one pays any attention to it.
Here's the question though? Blackberry cobbler or pie?

I heart VashonAll

UPDATE: The Vashon All List Serve through Yahoo groups is no longer a functioning Yahoo group. More commonly people use the VashonAll group on Facebook.  The tone of it is a bit dicey, but still a helpful resource.


If you live on Vashon and use the Internet I think that VashonAll is an invaluable service.

In the past 2 weeks we have.

1. Lost our dog and posted it to VashonAll whereby someone from VIPP (Vashon Island Pet Protectors) called to check on if we found her and gave us a suggestions, which happened to be where she was!

2. Needed a handyperson (man) and gotten several recommendations.

3. Solicited childcare from VashonAll and had many qualified candidates contact us with interest.

Now frankly it might sound like overuse.  Except that now our total solicitation on VashonAll equals 5.

So what is it?  It is an online list-serve. Which is a place where  a group of select people (those who live on Vashon) post things and then you either get an email every time someone posts or a daily list of all the posts.

Beyond what it is in a technical sense is that it connects you to other people's lives.  To the reality that rental housing on Vashon is hard, to the road closures, the wierd noises, the missing pets, the need for plumbers, the teenager who will help you move, the 10 year old who wants to babysit for the first time, the estate sale etc.  It is sort of an online pulse of the Island.

It totally dig it.




Here it is:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/vashonALL/info

there is also now a facebook group called VashonALL.  Which is essentially the same thing but via facebook. I haven't posted anything but have nearly bought furniture from it and have looked up information on it. That one is very user friendly for photos of things for sale etc.

Anyway, that's my 411 and review of VashonALL....

Beachcomber: Banana Split Bandits.

Please, reader, allow me to share you one of the hilarious bits of the Beachcomber:

If you cant read it it says this, "In the ##### block of ###the Ave. SW, several 10-to 14 year olds entered an unlocked home and outhouse, stole banana split makings and left."

If there really is a gang of food stealing tween bandits haunting the Island then surely that is worth being a bit nervous about.  But something tells me there is more to this story.

For references sake this is from the Wednesday July 23, 2014 Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber on page 22 under the Vashon-Maury FYI Sheriff Reports.

Shinglemill Creek

I had a rare opportunity to go for a walk by myself.

This quiet stretch of a path- along Shinglemill Creek is so lovely in winter, spring summer or fall!

Home sweet home.

It is an amazing thing to come home.
When you love where you live it is so so so easy.
When it is 80 degrees and sunny it is even easier.

Water Taxi got canceled...again.

The water taxi had a heart attack or something.  So it is out of commission for the evening.  At 5:05 I got a text and discovered that the 5:30 and the 6:30pm runs from downtown would not run.  It already pretty much as a terminal illness- these boats of ours are thinking about hospice and having conversations with palliative care.  Thankfully we haven't pulled the plug yet. I still gotta get to work!

Well when I found out that the boat wasn't going to run I met up with my spouse and we decided to take a cab from downtown to Fauntleroy.  We ended up grabbing a taxi-van with 3 other Vashon folks.  It worked well but really here's the hilarious thing....we kind of chatted...about things like airplane crashes, and teenage boys hitching rides to Hawaii in wheel wells and that kind of thing but, in classic Pacific Northwest fashion we didn't actually introduce ourselves or swap names or share anything personal.  Ha.

So be it. We ban together us islanders...even if we do so anonymously.

Vashon Library

 Something about reading the same children's books again and again and again makes me want to stab my eyes out.  Even if the themes are great it kinda kills me.  Sure, there is the rare book whose lyrical form works for me an I can enjoy it, but generally reading the same story again and again and again and again and again is worse than having to read the word again...again.

So I love that at the King Co. Library their is no limit to the number of books you can check out.  We will often go to the library and get as many books as we can fit into a bag.   They might only get read once for the couple of days that we have them, but I won't be secretly skipping pages so that it ends faster!

I am also a voracious reader, and my partner, as voracious information gatherer.  So we seriously love love love the library.  I will often pick books up from the fiction section and then start reading the jacket flap only to realize I have read that book.  I read a lot of books...

 So anyway the Vashon library is newly remodeled and is great! So much light and a great kids area! Yippee.

Monsters are hidden in the carpet of the kids section.

This is the only time my kids sit in front of a computer. It's great.

 Decor on the ceilings.

Blessed be books!

Doesn't it look cool, modern, and also very PNW...

Oh, there are also places to put all the books your kids pull of the shelves that you can't reshelve because you now have to chase the little bugger.  Thank you Librarians!

I don't know what child sits down and uses a table at the library. But this is cute. Maybe someday I should bring crayons and papers.

Looking around...

Oh, very cool rocking...animals.

Beach walk- Fern Cove

There are days you forget that you live on an island.
Or days that you forget that the benefits of living on an Island is taking a beautiful day that the universe is offering you and going on a low tide walk.
Sometimes that mud is sticky, and if you are 2 years old it can be scary.
But that stream that pours into the water is fun even if cold and even if you are a grown up.

And it makes you want to pick up that perfectly round rock,
or climb over some driftwood.

This is the wonder of a beach walk.

Island Quilter...Vashon Island Fabric store

Update: This store has closed. The space was needed for another business.  I gotta say this is serious loss to the VI business community. 

I am not a quilter.

I've only made a handful to quilts in my life and they were all child size.  I think they are beautiful but I don't think I have the eye for it, and the other issue is that quilts just aren't my house aesthetic so even if I made one what would I do with it?

On the other hand, I love fabric. I might even love fabric more than I like white sugar or more than I like gluten, more than I like sunny July days in the PNW....no that last one feels like too much of a stretch... But the options for fabric are addictive at Island Quilter.

Yup right in downtown Vashon is a fabric/quilting store.

There is so much stock.
I repeat.
There is so much stock.
So much of it is beautiful.
It's almost all accessible.

I love love love it.

Mostly I go there for thread, a couple yards of this, a couple yards of that...I am not the reason they are still in business sadly.  But I wish  I could be!

Winter Fog on Vashon.

These photos look like they are black and white but the fog makes the colors seem much more dim.

Vashon Island Blessings

Blessed Be, ground that almost never freezes.
Blessed Be, my lungs for fresh air every day.

Blessed be, rain.
Blessed be dampness. and mildew
Blessed be, grey and green.

Blessed be a place for warm fires.
Blessed be, abundant seasoned wood.
Blessed be dens life filled forests

Blessed be the quiet and the darkness.
Blessed be the quiet steps of deer, the awkward bark of coyotes.
Blessed be short days and misty mornings.

Blessed be peeking mountains.
Blessed be ferry boats and cargo ships.

Blessed be.
Blessed be.

6 Reasons NOT to move to Vashon.

I love Vashon. Seriously I  do. I am thrilled we live here, but a lot of people I know have pondered moving to Vashon and more than a couple people we know are really considering a move.  The thing is, this place is not for everyone.  So even though I am all about you moving here there are some reasons to NOT move to Vashon.

1. I think the nature of Vashon is introverted.  Sure there are extroverts here- but communities have personalities and I think this community is an introverted one (PNW in general probably is). This is a place where people stay at home, do there own thing, enjoy families, leave parties early, linger in deep conversations etc.  The social scene here is also legit, don't get me wrong.  But the scene here is NOT socialite.

2.   If you are going to work off Island (and your partner is too), you need to be comfortable with your kids being on an island without you.  For us that means we have an emergency plan and such but for some people having Puget sound between them and their kids is too much.

3.  Ferry Life and Boat life are not everyone's cup of tea. You will spend some time missing ferries, changing last minute plans, reading books on the boat, and excercising while walking laps on the boat.  For Islanders, we learn to love this time- to read, clean our cars, sleep etc.  But this style is not for everyone.

4.  If you crave diversity of choices then the island is a bad place to live.  A handful of resturants, 2 hardware stores, 1 shoe store, 1 bookstore, is quaint and charming for vacation. But, if you are a consumer reports reading comparison shopper. You shouldn't come here.  Sure you COULD live here and comparison shop Seattle, Tacoma or Bremerton- but why?

5. If the rain already gets you down then stay away!  It isn't rainy-er here per se but it feels wetter somehow.  Because it is grassy and mossy and tree covered the Island feels wet even when it ISN'T raining.  When you are in an urban environment the asphalt and concrete dries faster.  So if the rain makes you enjoy being at home and get all cozy and warm then go for it- otherwise stick to your drier environment.

6. Just straight up, there are a lot more 50+ and young families on the island than in most other places.  So if you are 20 years old and looking for a vibrant hook up scene or clubbing culture or even partnership, I would not recommend Vashon as the best location to do that hunting.

7. The ethnic diversity here is...um...lacking. You will have to go off island for that (or import it).

Vashon-West Seattle/Fauntleroy and Vashon-Downtown Seattle

So I feel like non- Islanders just don't quite get how transit on and off the Island works here. SO here's how it goes.

Washington State Ferry

The primary way that people get on and off Vashon Island is through the Washington State Ferries. These ferries, operated by the State are for: walk on passengers, automobiles, trucks, motorcycles and leashed pets (though they are only allowed on the car deck.  They run very frequently and wait is not usually very long (the pattern during the day seems to be 20min.20min.40min).  There are Washington State Ferry docks at the North End of Vashon Island and at the South End of Vashon Island (Talequah-Pt. Defiance/Tacoma). For this post I will only discuss the north end transit options as those are the ones in and out of Seattle.

Every once in awhile there are quirks with the ferries.  Sometimes a boat is broken or enough crew members are sick that the boats don't run as frequently. Then they revert to a two boat schedule.  This has only happened a handful of times this year.  One was Christmas Eve, we waited for hours and hours! It also happened Sept. 7- I only remember the date because we had a housewarming party at the time.  I know there were a couple of others but it wasn't that relevant to us.

The Washington State Ferry from the North End of Vashon goes to a road in Seattle called Fauntleroy which is in the West Seattle Neighborhood- in fact I think that the neighborhood is actually called Fauntleroy as well.  This is key to know!  Fauntleroy is West Seattle!  West Seattle, depending on the time of day is at least 20 minutes from downtown and at rush hour can be over an hour in your own car.

You can also take the bus- the red line- too and from downtown Seattle the the ferry dock. That take awhile but it very convenient, as it drops off in the heart of the city.  There are a couple of other buses that run from downtown to Vashon, I have only ever taken the 116 from downtown and it drops off right at the dock as well.

You do NOT have to pay to leave the Island on the Washington State Ferry.  Because it is pretty much the only way on and off the Island they just double charge when you go TO the island.  The fees can be hefty to get to the Island. As Islanders we buy a 10 ride pass and it is a bit cheaper. It is definitely part of the cost of living though.  To just walk on to Vashon Island it is about 5 bucks for an adult. Oh, little kids ride free too. That's handy!

Water Taxi

There is another option to get to Downtown, which is what I take almost daily. This is called the King County Water Taxi.  The water taxi is a passenger only (and bikes too) boat. It is sometimes called the P.O. This hold about 150 people and departs Vashon/Seattle 3 times in the morning and 3 times in the evening.  It takes passengers from Vashon to right downtown. Many people who ride it work downtown or others like me hop a quick bus to nearby locations. The 5:30pm boat sometimes fills and they have to send people away. I'm sure it happens other times as well but my instinct is that is the most frequent boat to fill.

In evening you line up along the dock and then board accordingly.  Almost everyone has an Orca card to board the boat- but both docks in Seattle and on Vashon allow you to purchase a pass or you can pay cash as you board.  Many people take bikes on this boat. They are the last to unload at the arriving dock.  Buses on Vashon drop people off in the AM about 10 minutes before the PO leaves and pick up the evening as well.  Frankly it is hella convenient.  The ride on the PO boat is just over 20 minutes to downtown- assuming the weather is normal and such!

The problem with the PO at this point is that it breaks down with some frequency. They are building a new one that is bigger- but at this point it runs like a used car.  Kinda reliable, mostly reliable, but a bit wonky at times.

Parking on Vashon
So on another note is parking on Vashon. There is a short term and a long term (two weeks) parking lot that are a short walk (up/down hill) from the ferry. It is max a 10 minute walk.  Because we now take the bus we don't utilize this anymore, but last year we were driving every morning and there was always parking.  We have also parked our car in the long term for a week or so while on a trip.  Pretty handy I must say!

All in all, it works out smoothly more than not!
Are there other things I should address? Seems like you, reader, probably know the questions you have!