Vashon Island, Washington

On Sunday we loaded Dexter into Klaudia and drove to the ferry terminal in West Seattle to begin our day trip to Vashon Island. According to Dexter’s dog runner, there are no leash laws on Vashon Island, so we thought we’d give Dexter a taste of his old life without leashes and let him run his heart out.

For the geographically challenged…

Vashon is definitely rural. It’s totally Dexter’s cuppa tea and oddly enough this wasn’t Dexter’s first trip to Vashon. His dog runner took him over Christmas except she took him to the beach whereas Peter and I took him to the woods. He loves the woods because there is no much gossip to sniff in the woods.

The round-trip ferry fare for one car, two passengers, and one geriatric dog was around $22 which I felt was kinda pricey but it did include a sweet potato dog treat. That damn dog treat crumbled into seven million pieces and those pieces fell into every small crevice in the car, so I’ve learned the messy lesson on ferry booth dog treats and will not make that mistake again no matter how hard Dexter smashes his nose against the window trying to snatch the treat out of the ferry booth lady’s hand.

The journey to Vashon took about an hour from our house to the ferry dock on Vashon and then it was another 20 minutes to get to Dockton Forest which is on the south side of the island.

The ferry was six car lanes wide plus wiggle room. The middle lanes, 3 & 4, boarded first followed by the outer lanes (1 and 6) and lastly, lanes 2 and 5. Alighting occurs in the same order. Boarding, ferrying, and alighting ran like a well-oiled machine which was amazing since the ferry was a relic.

This was the view from the driver’s side window on the return ferry journey.

Sadly, we didn’t do much while on the island other than walk through through the forest for about an hour during which time, Peter channeled his inner boy scout and placed a pile of sticks organized in an asterisk formation so that we could find our way back.

Dex ran through the forest like he was back at Hampstead Heath in London except there was one big difference. Dexter has less confidence in this forest than he ever did at Hampstead Heath. I think this is a worsening eyesight thing. He now runs only 20-30 feet ahead of us and then will either wait for us to catch up or will come trotting back to check on us and then run ahead again. This is out of character for him and I know he’s aging but it’s still hard to accept.

I wish we had more time on Vashon because I would have liked to have found the bike that is embedded in a tree, stopped at the small locally-owned coffee stand where you pay for your cuppa via the honesty system by dropping your spare coinage in a tin can, buy fresh eggs at a roadside farm stand, and have lunch at the most well-known local eatery called The Hardware Store.

Maybe next time…