Just returned from a week on Bainbridge Island, WA and what a phenomenal place! Thought I would have to leave Mr. Conch Out there. One is always on "island time" when there, which translates into an unhurried pace of life, no traffic, no stress, happy and friendly residents, and an incentive for exercising patience and good temperament at all times. Most development is either clustered at the edge of the gorgeous little harbor downtown area or offset (read=not visible) from the roads, where a corridor of vegetation and mature trees has been preserved. A majority of the Island is preserved in open space in perpetuity. Wildlife is abundant. Beautiful views of Island harbors, Puget Sound, and the downtown Seattle skyline (which I think is especially lovely at night).
People are natural looking and the children courteous...not many tattoos or body piercings in evidence. Schools are very good and parents seem exceptionally involved with their children's activities (it was graduation week). We did not encounter a single discourteous or speeding driver in our week there, which was incredible for someone living in CA. Roadkill was almost non-existent, attributable to saner drivers, I expect.
Quality craftsman-style construction is the norm and housing prices reasonable, particularly when one considers the quality of life. There are over 200 published authors living on the Island, where there are several excellent book stores and the education level of residents is the highest of any township in the U.S. The Island sports its own performing arts center. Many excellent restaurants...regional "slow food," unequaled seafood and wild salmon, French, Italian, East Indian, Thai, and vegetarian, as well as good pub grub at several spots, and a myriad of coffee houses. Other than banks, only two "formula" businesses, a low-key McDonalds near the high school and a new Safeway Market. The urban amenities of downtown Seattle are a 35-minute/$6 ferry ride away and ferries run every 40 minutes. Bus service in downtown Seattle is free to all. Oh, yes...without question the most delicious lattes you've ever encountered, which counts for a lot with this person who takes their own San Francisco Graffeo blend anywhere the suitcase goes.
We stayed in a cottage on a small animal farm, which had horses, sheep (five new lambs...adorable), chickens and ducks and geese, four new English pointer puppies and a Siamese cat. The owners brought freshly-laid eggs from "the girls" to our door each morning. Butter loved romping through the forests and along trails on the fenced property. We went cycling in Seattle one day, visited with friends and made new ones quite easily, attended an excellent farmers' market, had some wonderful meals, attended a string quartet concert one night and a literary reading by an Alaskan author at a local bookstore on another. Buzzed over to a Seattle seafood restaurant one night in a friend's vintage Crisscraft. No time for the 5-screen cinema or the 2-screen independent film cinema on the Island. And drank a lot of those great lattes!
Now adjusting to re-entry...:roll: Whoever said that California is a "laid back" place had obviously never been here when they so opined. It says a lot for Bainbridge Island that one can remain so thoroughly relaxed while drinking that much great coffee. Can you tell that I liked it there?
People are natural looking and the children courteous...not many tattoos or body piercings in evidence. Schools are very good and parents seem exceptionally involved with their children's activities (it was graduation week). We did not encounter a single discourteous or speeding driver in our week there, which was incredible for someone living in CA. Roadkill was almost non-existent, attributable to saner drivers, I expect.
Quality craftsman-style construction is the norm and housing prices reasonable, particularly when one considers the quality of life. There are over 200 published authors living on the Island, where there are several excellent book stores and the education level of residents is the highest of any township in the U.S. The Island sports its own performing arts center. Many excellent restaurants...regional "slow food," unequaled seafood and wild salmon, French, Italian, East Indian, Thai, and vegetarian, as well as good pub grub at several spots, and a myriad of coffee houses. Other than banks, only two "formula" businesses, a low-key McDonalds near the high school and a new Safeway Market. The urban amenities of downtown Seattle are a 35-minute/$6 ferry ride away and ferries run every 40 minutes. Bus service in downtown Seattle is free to all. Oh, yes...without question the most delicious lattes you've ever encountered, which counts for a lot with this person who takes their own San Francisco Graffeo blend anywhere the suitcase goes.
We stayed in a cottage on a small animal farm, which had horses, sheep (five new lambs...adorable), chickens and ducks and geese, four new English pointer puppies and a Siamese cat. The owners brought freshly-laid eggs from "the girls" to our door each morning. Butter loved romping through the forests and along trails on the fenced property. We went cycling in Seattle one day, visited with friends and made new ones quite easily, attended an excellent farmers' market, had some wonderful meals, attended a string quartet concert one night and a literary reading by an Alaskan author at a local bookstore on another. Buzzed over to a Seattle seafood restaurant one night in a friend's vintage Crisscraft. No time for the 5-screen cinema or the 2-screen independent film cinema on the Island. And drank a lot of those great lattes!
Now adjusting to re-entry...:roll: Whoever said that California is a "laid back" place had obviously never been here when they so opined. It says a lot for Bainbridge Island that one can remain so thoroughly relaxed while drinking that much great coffee. Can you tell that I liked it there?
