It’s been 3 years since we packed up our home in Virginia and headed west. I still get contacted for work in the metro-DC area. *sigh* Sometimes I am tempted–the memories of life and work there are really special.
Though we left Virginia for work in the San Francisco Bay Area, we found home 800 miles to the north. We placed ourselves on Vashon Island 1 year ago after a 2-year detour in Northern California. Vashon is a bucolic place about 14 miles long and 5 miles wide. We are a short ferry ride from Seattle and Tacoma. And bless that ferry–Vashon is its own world because of it. I knew the moment I sat and listened to someone describe her life on it (thank you Anna Olive) that it was perfect for our family.
While cruising the US in the summer of 2012, I spent a week, turned 11 days, in the Pacific Northwest before returning to California. I didn’t want to leave–I felt like I was home. But we packed up our Vanagon and headed back to California and got the girls back in school. I told Kev my vision–to live on Vashon. He listened. A month later we visited together.
Vashon was still the Vashon I remembered from childhood and everything I read about it. With its woods and water, I found it all very Maine-esque. People were quieter. There were roadside farms with their pay-by-honor stands. It was still called “Pot Island” by the areas surrounding though I didn’t smell anything, but there were many old VWs covered in moss with “Keep Vashon Weird” stickers splayed across the back. But after summer in Maxie, our Vanagon, I found nothing out of the ordinary. With two groceries stores to choose from, I found the Thriftway a mix somewhere between Whole Foods and Safeway, regardless there are Trader Joes off either ferry so my favorite foods were close by. The downtown had a few galleries and the restaurants hung local artists’ work for a month after a First Friday art tour. With about 10 restaurants on the island, one vegan, another vegetarian, and a Thai restaurant that wasn’t Americanized but really good, I was set.
After two days of tooling around with Kev, I stood in the middle of the main intersection of town and said, “I don’t have an original idea. It’s all here.” It felt like home.
Today, we are year into Vashon, and life is good! Kev is working downtown and does the best with his 12 minutes of driving, 25 minutes of riding, and 25 minutes walking commute. He even purchased rain pants to put over his jeans so he could still walk in the sideways rain of November. He has a SUP and little boat to get on the water and crab on. The girls are happy here and we have filled our home up with love, friends, 9 chickens and 4 doves. Bella started at a local private school for 7th grade after a year of homeschooling, and is ready for another year of silk aerial. Lisee is finishing out her final year at the local elementary school, and has picked up soccer and dance.
I wake up to light, salt water, and beauty every day along with a small orchard with some very mature (maybe planted by the Shermans–original island homesteaders) apples trees and some new fig, plum, pear and blueberries that we’ve planted. It’s our little slice of heaven. Home.
Linda Crayton Photography has been on hold. I’ve missed it. It’s time for me to explore what Linda Crayton (Photography) will be here.
I am hanging my shingle!
If you want to see what I’ve been doing in life, I relied on my iPhone and Instagram to record it all. Click here to view and follow my instagram.
While on our East Coast Voyage 2014 I was lucky enough to see Zoe & Max again. Blessed. That’s what I am. I met Max as a newborn in their home in DC and serendipitously they moved close to where Kev’s folks live. We pencil each other in every summer. They are a great family. Here are some of my favorite from their session.
