Skagit Valley from the Passenger Seat

If you’re a parent, you know how it feels to raise children – the days are long but the years fly by. So much energy, emotion, and education flow out of you every single day, and you can feel like you’ll have young children for a lifetime.

Not so. All of a sudden, in what seems like a relatively tiny span of time, they surpass your height, they can take care of themselves, and they’re driving you around.

Five drives on the mainland were mandatory as part of my son’s driving school. Because the appointments were right in the middle of the day and ferry schedules don’t make for quick jaunts off Orcas and back on, we found ourselves with hours of time before and after the drives. You can only shop for food so much. So our son logged drive time as we explored our surroundings.

Here’s a little tour out of my passenger window of the Skagit Valley – famous for tulips and agriculture – which lies between the Anacortes ferry and Mount Vernon.

The ice cream you see here is significant. It’s actually at the very tail end. Snow Goose Produce is known for its GIGANTIC ice cream cones. A single costs $6.50 – about the same as the modest ice cream cone at the shop here on the island – but they put as many scoops as they can on the homemade waffle cone. They are pros at it, so you end up with the equivalent of about seven scoops in your four or five MASSIVE scoops. No joke. It’s insane. I’ve never eaten so much ice cream in my life. I love a deal, too, but I gave my son as much of mine as he could handle and actually had to throw away the rest when I got it down to a normal looking portion because I was so full. And if you know me, I never throw food away. That experience ranks as the single largest dessert I’ve ever bought. It should have cost over $20! And it was locally made ice cream too.

My son’s drive instructor suggested we go there with our extra time, but there were 89 people in line (it was Mother’s Day) so we didn’t stay. We returned on our next drive, and now I know I would order one and share it with about four other people. You’ll notice that’s what people are doing out in the parking lot. Wish I’d picked up on that before we ordered, but it was an experience to remember!