August 26-27, 2023
At the end of August we anchored off a private island, Eliza, near Bellingham, WA. Alex’s old boss and his partner own a small piece of property on the island and have spent every other weekend the past few summers clearing space and building a small cabin with a loft. They recently finished insulating and getting the roof on so they will be able to come stay on the island in the winter as well. With sweeping views of Bellingham bay through the trees and over a cliff, plenty of room for the dog to roam and collect sticks (more like small logs), and dreams of creating an Ewok village with elevated walking paths that connect between the trees and make their way down the cliff to the beach below – it’s easy to see why they love spending as much time here as possible. Not to mention the bounty of crabs, oysters, blackberries and other foraged gems to be found on this little isle.
It’s like the kind of place you see in the movies where you know all your neighbors, and sometimes you know all their business too. They tell us that quite often a few hours before dinner or right about dinner someone will send out a message and everyone brings whatever they made to eat to one neighbors place or another and it becomes a party. Like clockwork as they are telling one of these stories they get a message from a neighbor with that nights location and the invite to come on over! Sharing in the bounty of food and company, the island residents love sharing the history of each of their families’ experience on the Island and often the ins and outs of how their particular house slowly became what it is now. Many of the properties began with nothing larger than 12×12 or 12×16 cabins because of regulations. So some have made expansions from there, while others left the small sheds and started completely new structures on their land.
There are 3 trucks on the island which are maintained by the caretakers and are shared and borrowed whenever you need to cart things from the only dock to your property. Property owners are allowed one golf cart – though I only saw 2 or 3 of those around as well while we were there.
The views all around the island are breathtaking and we felt quite privileged to get a walking tour of the island and meet some of the folks who grew up coming to Eliza in the summers and have now inherited their plots of land and homes from the previous generation. Other than a water tower – filled by an industrial size water maker and which you pay for by the gallon used – all other resources must be brought in to the island by personal boat or by hiring a local landing craft with a barge. It’s fascinating to see such a huge variety of structures and set ups across the Island. One of the properties we passed was in the process of repairing their roof after a tree fell on their house last year. It was a lovely wooden cabin with two rooms and we were immediately invited in to see the progress of the repair.
On this tiny island, so near yet so perfectly secluded from large population centers and any commercial resources, you learn to take care of each other, to share resources and skills and settle in to a simpler and beautiful way of living closer to nature. Hopefully we’ll get another chance to visit this lovely hidden gem. We left with full bellies and full hearts and large bags of crab and blackberries!! Thank you to all for the kind welcome.
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