An Evening at Lieber Haven

When we were tourists, we used to rent a surprisingly affordable vacation house right on the water, just a few doors down from Lieber Haven. Two weeks there each summer and we were ready to drop everything and move to Orcas.

After seven years of touristing, we did.

We thought we’d move out to that area, it was so special to us. The second after we secured a one-year rental on Willis Lane, I had the sensation of a lead weight in the pit of my stomach. It didn’t make sense. We loved it out there. But my gut was literally telling me there was something wrong with that decision, as much as we thought it was a wonderful idea.

As weird as we felt about doing it, my husband called the owner back and explained my immediate gut feeling to him. The next day, we found the house we’ve lived in since moving here eight years ago, and it’s right near town. We can walk, bike, skateboard, or paddleboard into Eastsound within minutes of leaving our front door, and it’s made so much sense ever since.

Lately, the owner of Lieber Haven, Dave Baxter, has been on my mind. We met him 15 years ago while renting out there on Obstruction Pass Bay, and he’s a very special guy. He has incredible life stories – the kind that someone really needs to document – and his wife of 67 years recently passed away.

I went out there a few nights ago to bring him an apple pie and we chatted about life for about three hours (at an appropriate distance). It seemed like only minutes.

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Get this…

Dave built two homes when he was 13 years old – real homes in California that families still live in today. His deaf father was an advisor to President Roosevelt, so Dave was the “translator” on the phone and in person between the two of them from the time he was six years old. Dave’s mother, who was also hard of hearing, was a gifted painter at the age of eight, and he showed me her unbelievably skilled work on his walls. Dave was musically gifted when he was young and was “supposed” to be a concert pianist, but he chose a very different path at a pivotal moment in his life. As an adult, he was a sought-after woodcarver, and if you’ve ever been to the famed Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, you’ve undoubtedly seen his commissioned work. He built boats for famous actors, passed notoriously tumultuous Point Conception 51 times in his life, and survived 32 rolls of his boat in one storm alone. After five days of being stuck in a relentless storm with no more food and very little solid structure left in his boat, he and the other men with him were rescued by a Dutch freighter whose captain happened to go 80 miles off-course to investigate what his radar was suggesting. Dave and the men he was with were treated to abundant food (that they weren’t able to eat due to going so long without food), showers, fresh white clothes worn by the Dutch sailors, and wooden shoes. They were presented with a bill of $4,000 each, stamped “Paid in Full,” and they were generously given $300 each. Dave has all kinds of stories like this, and he’s never even learned to swim. He’s never been afraid to sail, though. He even kayaked halfway to Catalina Island when he was 10 years old before allowing a large, breaking wave to turn him back in the direction of the mainland.

Dave was ever-devoted to his wife, Kitty, in her many health trials for years and years. He taught himself chiropractic work and began alleviating pain she had had for a decade. He ran their resort almost single-handedly for quite some time. And he sorely misses her company now that she is gone. He described his love for her in words that were beyond magnanimous, and he still wears the elephant-encircled gold ring he’s worn since they wed.

Dave continues to have what most of us would consider to be big, industrious plans for life, and his stories will never cease to amaze me.

Thanks, Dave, for sharing your life with a hungry listener.