Spencer Jack & Your Hometown Fidalgo Drive-In Family Restaurant in Anacortes Washington

That is my great nephew (or is it grand nephew?) Spencer Jack in the picture getting ready to have a root beer float in his dad's restaurant, the Fidalgo Drive-In.

I last saw Spencer Jack's dad, my nephew Jason, in April of 2006 when I was in the Skagit Valley of Washington for Jason's wedding. The wedding reception was held at Jason's previous restaurant, Eaglemont Pavilion, in Mount Vernon.

At some point in time, after 2006, Jason opened the Fidalgo Drive-In in Anacortes. I thought I'd been told Jason's restaurant was called Jason's Grub.

This morning my sister emailed me some pictures. One picture was of Jason's brother, Joey, clam digging on Samish Island and one was of Jason at Bay View State Park, wearing a shirt that said Fidalgo Drive-In on it.

I Googled Fidalgo Drive-In to find Jason has a website for his restaurant. Unfortunately the website does not come up in the #1 position due to it being a flash based website. Those do not index well with the search engines.

Checking out the Fidalgo Drive-In website I see Jason has a lot of tempting seafood. I miss Pacific Northwest seafood. I remember the first time I dropped in on Jason's Eaglemont Pavilion he made me cod and fries. Very good cod.

Several other websites have reviews of Jason's restaurant. Below is what some of the Fidalgo Drive-In diners had to say........

Terry V. said....

Great milkshakes!

Sean B. said....

Holy mother of crab, this place was delicious!

After a long, relaxing weekend in the San Juans, my boyfriend and I were dreading the drive from Anacortes to Tacoma. Thankfully, my filling experience at Fidalgo made the journey a tolerable experience.

I had the crab sandwich, which amounted to a giant lump of buttery crab, wedged between a bun. There may have been some vegetables wedged in there, but who cares? It was loaded with crab! The onion rings were also served in generous portions, and soft-serve ice cream was a-plenty in the root beer floats.

I will definitely make a point of stopping here on my next trip to the San Juans!

Chris C. said....

Cool!  A first review!  A former A&W.  Went on a Saturday at lunch with a party of seven into an almost full restaurant.  Put in a big order and it came rather fast.

The food was good and a more than you would expect from a drive-in/fast food place.  Had a selection of burgers, corn dogs, regular fries, curly fries, tater tots, soup, and root beer floats.   All was good. The root beer floats were huge!  The tater tots were crispy and probably the best I have ever had.  The soup was Ivar's, can't go wrong there.

The menu had quite a selection and enough choices to satisfy any group.  Service was friendly.  Place was clean.

Jordan B. said....

Really good burgers and amazing waffle fries. The French Dip was pretty good, but the burgers are better. Pretty big menu for such a small place. Cheese curds are awesome.

Samish Island Washington Clam Digging & Crabbing with the Samish Indian Nation

That is my mom and dad on the left. They are sitting around the communal crab bucket, breaking dungeness crab free from its shell.

Samish Bay is to my mom and dad's left. This crabbing and horse clam digging likely took place on Father's Day weekend, which would make it in June.

Well, actually this would have taken place on the weekend date with a good low tide, suitable for crabbing and clamming, closest to Father's Day.

This annual event took place on Samish Island. Which isn't really an island. It used to be an island, but then, long ago, some industrious pioneers, likely Dutch, built dikes to turn block the sea, creating farmland and easy access to the former Samish Island.

The Samish are one of the Northwest Indian Tribes. Samish Island was Samish Nation land.

The Samish were very good at carving canoes and building longhouses. One of the Samish Longhouses, on the eastern end of Samish Island, measured approximately 1,250 feet long.

There is no town named Samish, but there is a Samish River. And Samish Bay. The Swinomish Tribe and the Skagit Tribe have big casino resorts. The Samish Tribe does not.

In 1847 the Samish Tribe had over 2,000 members. By the time of the Point Elliot Treaty, 1855, the Samish had dwindled to around 150 members, decimated by measles, smallpox and attacks by the Canadian Haida and Tsimshian Tribes.

Though there were Samish Tribe members attending the Point Elliot Treaty Council, none signed the treaty. Thus, the Samish were not given a reservation of their own. Without their own reservation the Samish were sent to the Lummi and Swinomish reservations.

But, many of the Samish had reservations about being stuck on rival tribe's reservations. So, a large group of Samish went to their tribal land on Guemes Island, which is a short distance west of Samish Island. On Guemes the Samish established New Guemes and built a big longhouse which housed over 100 tribemembers.

By 1912 the Samish were pushed off Guemes Island by bad behavior by white settlers.

The Samish Tribe kept plugging away, trying to get recognized and respected. In 1926 the Samish organized a formal constitution.

In 1971 the Samish Indian Tribe was awarded compensation for land taken by the Point Elliot Treaty. For 26 years the Samish fought in adminstrative and federal court proceedings til they finally regained official federal recognition,, for the Samish Indian Nation in April of 1996.

The Samish Nation is currently headquarted in Anacortes. I don't know if the tribe has any plans to build a casino.

Two Gray Whales Wash Up On Skagit Shores

Two dead Gray Whales washing ashore on Skagit County beaches? That can't be good.

One was found near Deception Pass on Whidbey Island, at least I assume it was on the Whidbey Island side of Deception Pass, but it could have been on the Rosario Beach side, on Fidalgo Island.

I have seen a giant Gray Whale moving slowly, barely off the beach, at Rosario. It drew a lot of onlookers, many perplexed as to what the huge whale was doing so close to shore, worrying that it was sick. Most assumed the whale was just feeding really close to shore.

You see something like a giant Gray Whale, in the saltwater in which you've swam, and it changes how you think about getting in the water. Not that the Gray Whales have any record of hurting humans, they are fellow mammals, after all.

The other dead Gray Whale was found beached on the north shore of Samish Island. It was approximately 42 feet long. That is a lot of whale. The tidal flats of the north shore of Samish Island make for rather shallow water. I wonder where along that beach the whale died?

Necropsies will be done to the whales to try and learn what did them in. Some reports are saying the whales were unnaturally skinny. I hope they are not like parakeets in a mine, a dire warning that something has gone really badly wrong in the Puget Sound.

But, salmon runs have been doing real well. There should be plenty of whale food in the water.

There have been 4 reports of Killer Whale (Orca) attacks on Gray Whales, with one caught on video, with the attack happening on Sunday, to a Gray Whale named Patch, who has been tracked visiting the Puget Sound for 20 years.

I hope there is not something in the Puget Sound that is riling up the Killer Whales. One of my most memorable life experiences was fishing out near Lopez Island in the San Juans, with my mom and dad, and finding ourselves surrounded by a big Orca Pod, including 2 babies. This pre-dated the digital camera era. No pictures were taken. One of the Orcas came right up to the boat, as if both curious and as if to say Howdy.

I have trouble imagining an Orca being a bully to a Gray Whale. There is quite a size differential, with the advantage going to the Gray Whale by a long shot.