The Passing Of Tom Robbins From America's Most Misunderstood Region

The bard referenced is Tom Robbins, the misunderstood region is the Pacific Northwest, more specifically, Western Washington. Even more specifically, the Skagit Valley region of Western Washington.

MSNBC published an interesting article about the passing of Tom Robbins, titled "America's most misunderstood region has lost its bard".

I particularly liked the poetic part of the article which described the Skagit Valley, a location where I spent all my formative years...

He once said he didn't know the plot of his books before he started writing; you'd be forgiven if you weren't sure of them when you were done reading either.

But then you'd come across a description of the Skagit Valley, where he made his home, and plot seemed secondary.

"It is a landscape in a minor key," he writes in "Another Roadside Attraction." "A sketchy panorama where objects, both organic and inorganic, lack well-defined edges and tend to melt together in a silver-green blur. Great islands of craggy rock arch abruptly out of the flats, and at sunrise and moonrise, these outcroppings are frequently tangled in mist. Eagles nest on the island crowns and blue herons flap through the veils from slough to slough. It is a poetic setting, one which suggests inner meanings and invisible connections."

For decades Tom Robbins lived in the Skagit Valley town of La Conner, which is sort of the Skagit Valley's #1 tourist town. Due to La Conner's waterfront attractions along the Swinomish Channel, with the Rainbow Bridge acting as a scenic backdrop.

Before I moved to Texas I lived in the Skagit Valley town of Mount Vernon, on the east side of that town, a couple miles from Big Rock, it being one of those 'great islands of craggy rock arch abruptly out of the flats", alluded to by Tom Robbins in Another Roadside Attraction.

Hiking to the top of Big Rock was a frequent happening, for me...

La Conner Washington: One of Washington's Most Popular Tourist Towns

I can remember way back in the last century when La Conner, in the Skagit Valley, was a rundown, impoverished fishing village, with a rickety wooden bridge that crossed the Swinomish Channel to the Swinomish Indian Reservation on the west side of the channel.

I don't know what it was that sparked La Conner turning into a booming tourist town.  I know the change occurred some time after Leavenworth resuscitated itself from a dying logging town to one of the most successful tourist theme towns in America.

Maybe the changes to La Conner started when the old rickety bridge across the Swinomish Channel was replaced by what is now the iconic La Conner Rainbow Bridge.

La Conner is named after Louisa Ann Conner. You can figure out where the La comes from. LA's husband, J.S. Conner, bought the new settlement's trading post. At the time the town was called Swinomish, after the local Indian Tribe. The Conners moved to what became La Conner back in the 1870s.

The 2010 version of La Conner has a population of 761, at last count. This population soars, daily, due to all the tourists, and swells hugely during the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

La Conner is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Swinomish Tribe has also prospered, along with La Conner. You can visit the reservation by crossing the Rainbow Bridge. The Swinomish are a very friendly tribe.

At the north end of the Swinomish Channel, where the channel empties in to Padilla Bay, you will find the Swinomish Casino. At the Casino the Swinomish also operate the Northern Lights RV Park. In the casino you will find the best seafood buffet I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying.

La Conner has a reputation as an artist's colony. In the YouTube video below you will get a look at La Conner, hear from some of the locals, and hear mention made of some of the resident artists. But, no mention is made of author, Tom Robbins, he of multiple book fame. One of Robbins' more popular books, Another Roadside Attraction, sets some of the tale in the La Conner environs.



The Swinomish Channel sees a lot of boating action. There are multiple places to dock your boat along the town waterfront, giving you easy access to the La Conner galleries, shops, restaurants, coffee shops and brew pubs.

You can also arrive in La Conner via seaplane, landing gently on the Swinomish Channel. That is the Rainbow Bridge you see in the distance through the spinning propellers, as the plane lands.

Watch the YouTube video below to get a bird's eye view of the Swinomish Channel, the Skagit Flats, the Cascade Mountain foothills and La Conner...

Washington Tourist Theme Towns: Lynden, Leavenworth, La Conner & Winthrop

Washington has several theme towns. I'm not sure that is the proper name for them. Towns with a theme. Maybe just calling them Tourist Towns suffices.

Leavenworth is definitely a town with a theme, with that them being a town in the Bavarian Alps, with the Cascade Mountains substituting for the Alps.

Winthrop is another town with a theme, with the Winthrop theme being an Old Western Town. Winthrop came to life when the North Cascades Highway opened a few decades ago. Prior to the highway being built, Winthrop was a very isolated location in Washington. Now it's a major tourist destination.

La Conner, in the Skagit Valley, was a very poor, rundown, sad little town, way back in the 1960s. I don't remember what sparked the change, but the change to La Conner is amazing. La Conner is now a classic tourist town, with galleries, good restaurants, brew pubs, marinas and a lot of visitors.

And then there is Lynden. Lynden is the reason I am from Washington. My Dutch ancestors came to America in the late 1800s. They kept trying to find a place to live that they liked. Further and further west they went. And then they heard of this place in the far northwest corner of America. My great-grandpa was sent, solo, to check it out. He spent a summer, and then returned to his sister, my great aunt Anna, and my great-great grandpa and grandma, Cornelis and Aagie, bringing with him apples, thick bark from a tree, tales of berries growing wild, lush farmland, tall trees and land that reminded him of Holland.

And so they moved to the Lynden area, along with a lot of other Dutch people.

Lynden retains its Dutch character, leading many to say a visit to Lynden is like a visit to Holland without needing a passport.

When you visit Lynden you can't help but notice that there seems to be a lot of churches. And the lawns are all immaculately kept. Lynden may be the most litter free town in America.

I am likely forgetting a Washington theme/tourist town or two. Of all of them, Leavenworth is my favorite.

La Conner, Washington

That is La Conner's Rainbow Bridge, connecting La Conner to Fidalgo Island, Shelter Bay and the Swinomish Indian Reservation. La Conner has 2 main streets, one being 1st Street, the other being the Swinomish Channel, with 1st street carrying cars, pedestrians and bikes, with the Swinomish Channel carrying a lot of boats.

There are many places to dock your boat along the Swinomish Channel in La Conner, plus a couple very big marinas. You can easily sail up to a restaurant's dock for lunch or dinner. Or to browse through La Conner's shops and galleries.

The center part of the town is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Tom Robbins, author of Another Roadside Attraction and other novels, calls La Conner home.

In spring La Conner is swarmed by thousands of visitors who come to the Skagit Valley to view the tulip fields during the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

You can float your boat north on the Swinomish Channel to the Swinomish Northern Lights Casino on Highway 20. There you'll find a RV Park, marina, restaurants and slot machines.

Click for more La Conner info and pictures.

Washington My Old Home

Washington has become a tourist Mecca in the past few decades.

With iconic attractions like Pike Place Market, Mount Rainier and the Space Needle along with the Cascade Mountains, the Olympic Mountains, Mount St. Helens National Monument, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, 5 volcanoes including Mount Baker, destination tourist towns like Leavenworth's Bavarian Village and Winthrop's western town, both in Eastern Washington. In Western Washington you can sort of visit Holland in Lynden. Another tourist town is La Conner in the scenic Skagit Valley, where in the Spring the valley floor is covered with tulips and other flowers.

Add in a thriving arts scene including music, theater and museums, plus, orchards, breweries, wineries and to give you plenty of energy to see and do it all, the world's highest per capita number of places to buy coffee.

And in the past decade Seattle has become the homeport to 5, or is it 6, cruise ships, sailing to Alaska, sort of a modern day version of the Alaska Gold Rush when Seattle served as the launch pad to Alaska, with many Seattle fortunes made outfitting gold seekers.

In Washington you can try and seek your fortune in the many casinos owned and operated by Washington State Native American tribes, like the Tulalip and the Puyallup.

While it is true that it rains in Washington, particularly on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, in summer you'll find many days without a cloud in the sky.