cama beach

My parents came over from Virginia to spend a week out here with my partner and I. We spent 4 nights on Camano Island in one of the cabins on Cama Beach State Park. The beach area has been preserved to reflect how it was in the 1930s. The Center for Wooden Boats, my partner's employer, has an outpost on Cama Beach and we traded a few hours of volunteering for a free stay in the cabin — amazing deal! There was a lot to sketch just on the beach, like this old pump house.

although I think the brown paint of the cabins was basically the worst possible option for color choice, I still found some charm in the identical structures. we stayed in this one, #27. I loved the little white flowers that opened and closed throughout the day. note that if you're coming to stay here, you have to bring everything! every thing. linens, towels, blankets, etc. they did provide a coffee maker, a refrigerator, and toilet paper, all of which we appreciated. 

my mom's #1 wish on this trip was to go sailing, which was easy with renting a sailboat from the CWB! my partner Jonathan knows how to sail and he took us out on one of these boats, a Pelican (there's apparently a small fleet of these on Cama). The wind was pretty good — on one day we sailed across the passage from Camano to Whidbey Island and back, which felt like a big accomplishment. Another time, the wind totally died while we were a ways up the beach and we waited it out a bit on shore. I sketched the sailboat.

one day, we made it up to Deception Pass and around Anacortes! i'm glad that our party was chill enough to let me do a more involved painting from this small island across the water with a great view of the bridge. we took a walk through Deception Pass State Park, which was surprisingly almost totally empty of people (compared to the throngs of people and cars on/around the famous landmark).