Seattle's 2025 Waterfront

Saw that which you see above, on Facebook.

I've not seen the Seattle Waterfront since August of 2017. At that point in time the Alaskan Way Viaduct was still operational, moving vehicles, and being an eyesore of a barrier between downtown Seattle and the waterfront.

A tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct was almost finished when I visited Seattle in 2017. When that tunnel was finished, the Alaskan Way Viaduct came down, bringing on the massive rebuilding of the Seattle Waterfront into the pedestrian friendly, aesthetically pleasing reality we see in the 2025 photo of a section of the Seattle waterfront.

I am looking forward to an upcoming return to the Pacific Northwest, Seattle, Tacoma, and my old home zone of the Skagit Valley.

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...

Why Are There Not Enough Pickers To Pick Skagit Valley Strawberries?

On the left you are looking at Martin & Cam looking at a strawberry picked at the Ole & Sven strawberry patch in the Valley known as Skagit.

A couple months ago, after I learned about the problems Skagit Valley berry growers were having getting their crops picked. I blogged about it in The End Of A Skagit Valley Sakuma Strawberry Legacy.

On Facebook I have been following the berry picking woes of Ole & Sven, currently not having enough pickers to pick their strawberries, resulting in tons upon tons of berries rotting in the field.

When I was a kid, growing up in the Skagit Valley, when school let out for Summer most of the Valley's school kids went to work picking berries.

We got paid 75 cents per flat of strawberries picked. I remember berry picking as both hard work and a lot of fun. With a party at the end of the season after which we got our paychecks.

I was more than a little shocked to recently learn that the current amount paid for picking a flat of strawberries is $20.

Wow. I assume this to be true due to the fact that I saw no one claim otherwise.

The most flats I ever picked in a single day, back during my berry picking career, was 29, at a field we called El Rancho.

29 flats times $20 is $580.

If this really is the case, that this much is being paid to pick a flat of strawberries, why are there berries rotting in the fields?

I don't understand.

Are kids no longer allowed to pick?

Back when I was a picker we co-picked with migrant workers, most of whom migrated from Mexico, following the crops across the west. Over the years many of the Mexican migrants decided to remain in the Skagit Valley, which is why the Skagit Valley has such a large population of Mexican descent, good Mexican restaurants and celebrates Cinco de Mayo.

I don't remember at what point in time the migrant camps disappeared from the Skagit Valley. Did the United Farm Workers movement result in better pay for working the California fields so there was no longer a motivation to travel north to Washington?

I have no idea.

Surely the people who live in the Skagit Valley know the berry growers are having a picking problem? Why aren't the people helping out?

This past weekend the town I grew up in, Burlington, had its annual Berry Dairy Days celebration. Berry Dairy Days was always a big deal for me and my siblings, partly due to mom and dad making us cool floats for the Berry Dairy Days Parade. And partly due to the fact that the carnival was located a block from our house.

What with this past weekend being the Berry Dairy Days celebration I am perplexed as to what there is to celebrate, what with tons of berries going to waste.

Is free strawberry shortcake after the parade still part of Berry Dairy Days? My best guess would be no.

Spencer Jack is Picking Strawberries Somewhere in the Skagit Valley

From photo evidence I found minutes ago on Facebook, it appears my Great Nephew Spencer Jack has taken a liking to picking strawberries.

And eating them whilst picking.

I do not know whose strawberry field Spencer Jack is picking in. I do know it is somewhere in the Skagit Valley of Washington.

I suspect, maybe, Spencer Jack is doing his picking and eating at Ole and Sven's.

Ole and Sven are known for having the sweetest strawberries in the Skagit Valley.

Maybe Spencer Jack is at the Sakuma Market Stand. The Sakumas also grow some very sweet strawberries. Tess Sakuma was the sweetest Sakuma I knew when I was in high school.

Maybe Spencer Jack is picking strawberries at his Great Grandpa/Great Grandma's field. Spencer's Great Grandpa and Great Grandma's raspberries used to be the sweetest in the Skagit Valley. I suspect Spencer's Great Grandpa and Great Grandma have likely retired from the berry growing business.

When I was a kid, in summer, kids just a little older than Spencer Jack were loaded onto buses and brought to the fields of the Skagit Valley to help harvest the strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and cucumber crops. And likely some crops I'm not remembering.

Child labor laws have since made it a no-no for young kids to work the fields.

I remember it as fun, for the most part, particularly picking cucumbers while laying on a padded board on an automatic cucumber picking machine.

Strawberry fights were also fun, though those could get you in trouble.

Betty Jo Bouvier & the Skagit Valley Food Co-op in Mount Vernon Washington

A few weeks ago I verbalized the sad lament that in my current location in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, with around 6 million people, there is nothing quite like the Skagit Valley Food Co-op.

The Skagit Valley Food Co-op is located in Mount Vernon, in the Skagit Valley of Washington.

There are Whole Foods Markets here in the D/FW zone. And Central Markets. And a lame "health food" store or two.

But nothing like the Skagit Valley Food Co-op.

I don't remember, exactly, when the Skagit Valley Food Co-op first opened. I know it was in the early 1970s. I do remember the location, near the County Courthouse. At that point in time the Co-op was a totally hippie affected, counter culture, very granola, Mother Jones, Mother Earth type of place.

The original Skagit Valley Food Co-op was the first place I ever saw a baby being breast fed.

Over the years the Co-op became more and more mainstream. At some point in time the Co-op moved to a new, big location in the old J.C. Penney's building. Modern cash registers showed up. You could use your debit card.

In the new location a restaurant was added to the Co-op. I remember Friday's Spaghetti Night as a real good thing. I wonder if they still have Spaghetti Night.

It is at least 11 years since I set foot in the Skagit Valley Food Co-op.

After I lamented the lack of such a store here in my zone of Texas, Betty Jo Bouvier, she being one of the Wild Women of Woolley (that's Sedro Woolley to you unfamiliar with the Skagit Valley), mailed me the Skagit Valley Food Co-op's November advertisement.

So, the Skagit Valley Food Co-op has gone even more mainstream since I moved. I don't recollect seeing Co-op ads when I lived in the Valley.

The Skagit Valley Food Co-op also now has a very well-done website. That also did not exist when I lived in the Valley.

The Co-op also has a blog. Blogs had not yet been invented when I still lived in Washington.

Getting a Berry Milkshake at the Sakuma Market Stand in the Skagit Valley

Saturday, August 2, 2008, on the way to Bay View State Park to meet my great nephew Spencer Jack for the first time, we stopped at something new that had been added to the Skagit Valley since my last visit to the valley.

As far back as my memory goes, the Sakuma Brothers have been renowned farmers in the Skagit Valley. When I was a kid, as I remember it, it was mostly Strawberries that the Sakuma Brothers grew.

The new thing I was taken to was the Sakuma Market Stand. This is the very well done brainchild of Sakuma brother Richard. I remember him as a football star.

Nowadays I regularly get beaten, at Scrabble, by a Sakuma Sister living now in California.

The Sakuma Market Stand is a big operation. There's the Market, the Ice Cream House and the Bakery.

At the Sakuma Bakery you'll find shortcake suitable for Strawberries. You'll also find a variety of pies, including berry pocket pies.

Seattle Restaurant magazine picked the Ice Cream House's Sakuma Market Berry Milkshake as the best milkshake to be found in the Seattle region.

At the Sakuma Market Stand you'll find fields of Strawberries, Blackberries and Blueberries, where you can pick your own. Sakuma Brothers have added something called Haygrove Tunnels to protect the berry pickers from inclement weather.

Sakuma Brothers Mass Transit takes berry pickers out to the fields in wagons pulled by tractors.

You'll find Strawberries, Blackberries, Raspberries, Boysenberries, Tayberries, Wild Mountain Blackberries, Loganberries, Marionberries, Apples, Sweet Onions, Tomatoes, Carrots, Cucumbers, Sweet Corn, Pumpkins, Squash, Lettuce, Garlic, Cauliflower, Broccoli and Potatoes.

And, on top of all that produce, the Sakuma Brothers are one of only two commercial tea growers in the Continental United States, with more than 5 acres of the fertile Skagit Valley planted with tea leaves.

It is easy to find the Sakuma Market Stand. It is a short distance east of the intersection of Cook Road and Chuckanut Drive. Exit I-5 at Cook Road and head west on Cook Road toward Chuckanut Drive. The Sakuma Market Stand will be on your left in about 1/3 of a mile.

The next time I'm in the valley I will be on a mission to have one of those Sakuma Market Berry Milkshakes. The last time I was in the valley Blackberries were late in ripening. I badly wanted to have a fresh Blackberry milkshake. To no avail. I did have a fresh Strawberry milkshake though.

If you grow up with Skagit Valley Strawberries being your Strawberry, Strawberries grown elsewhere always disappoint, sadly lacking in real Strawberry flavor. Yes, I am talking about you, California.

The Sakuma Market Stand has a very well done website.

Mount Vernon, Washington

That big white blob you see in the center of the picture is Mount Baker. Your vantage point for looking at Mount Baker is from Interstate 5 in south Mount Vernon.

Mount Baker is a dormant volcano. Mount Vernon is a town in Washington. Mount Vernon is the last town I lived in in Washington. Mount Vernon is the county seat of Skagit County. Skagit County is so-named because of the valley and the river named Skagit.

The Skagit Valley is one of the most fertile, agriculturally speaking, locations on the planet. The climate of Skagit County is similar to northern France, which is one reason millions of tulips are grown annually in the Skagit Valley, but none are shipped to France, due to the import/export laws of the European Union that protect its markets.

I think it is possible to buy a French (or Dutch) tulip in America. Yet one more unfair trade issue.

In 1998 Mount Vernon was rated the #1 "Best Small City in America." By whom, I do not remember. Rand McNally? Forbes? I do remember CNN showed up in town. When I lived in Mount Vernon and it was named the Best Small City in America, I, and others were perplexed. Living there many saw many ways the town could be made better.

Now, 10 years later, having spent those 10 years in Texas, I can see quite clearly how and why Mount Vernon could and would be named the Best Small City in America. Just the scenic setting might be enough. Then you have all the recreational opportunities. Paved trails running through the town. Skagit Valley College. The extremely well-done downtown, with the Skagit River running through it.

A strong sense of community. I'll never forget being in downtown Mount Vernon about 2 in the morning. The Seattle TV stations had let us know that downtown Mount Vernon was in danger of being wiped out by the flooding Skagit, due to crest around noon that morning. A flood of people flooded downtown, working with the National Guard, sandbagging downtown.

As the crest of the flood approached, water began to top over the sandbags. I watched from high ground above downtown. I have never seen water look so violent. Then, suddenly, the water level dropped. Emergency sirens sounded. An hour, or so, later I learned that a dike downriver had broken, flooding a dike protected area called Fir Island. Mount Vernon was spared, but Fir Island was a disaster. Two weeks later it happened again. The first flood was called the Thanksgiving Flood, due to when it happened. I do not recollect what the flood 2 weeks later was called. I believe they were both what are known as 100 year floods, as in, floods that bad happen only once every 100 years, on average. Not every 2 weeks.

I miss Mount Vernon, the Skagit Valley and tulips. Possibly the best place to live on the planet Earth.