Author: Kate Poss | With Photos by David Welton

Note: all photos by Kate Poss, unless otherwise noted My eight-day retreat in Door County WI on the Heartland state’s ‘left thumb,’ felt like the best kind of therapy. My first four days were spent staying at Megan and Tom’s park model home at the Hidden Ridge Resort in Sturgeon Bay. That story can be read here. Megan and Tom are friends and former neighbors who once lived across from us on Morning Glory Lane, in Langley WA, where we have lived the past 23 years. They and their sons are like family to us. Next, I stayed with a…

Note: I am in Wisconsin, the place of my birth, and shaper of my growing up years. My three weeks here are a deep dive into this place carved by glaciers and filled with notably friendly folk. Thanks to the generosity of friends and former Morning Glory Lane neighbors Tom Jenn and Megan McLachlan, I am staying at their park home at the Hidden Ridge Resort in Sturgeon Bay. If you look at the left ‘thumb’ of Wisconsin, that’s where I am. This blog tells the tale of a visit with cousins Rick and Mary, and my first four days…

Note: all photos by Kate Poss, unless otherwise noted. Hello everyone. I am writing this blog from the lovely Mukwonago Community Library, a wonderful community town half an hour from Milwaukee WI. Why am I here in the Midwest? I traveled here for my 50th high school reunion from Kettle Moraine High School in Wales WI. While I am Facebook friends with a number of my former classmates, it’s been 50-plus years since I’ve last seen them. Someone I’ve kept in close touch with is my bestie from high school, Kris Laak-Schoolcraft. She is someone whose friendship has stayed…

Note: Maribeth Crandell recently retired from her position with Island Transit. As the agency’s mobility specialist, she scheduled monthly bus trips, among other work. This is Whidbey published two stories featuring former fun field trips: Riding the bus with Maribeth, and Riding the bus with Maribeth, Wendy and Jack: ADA accessible trails. Now that she is retired, you may be interested in one of her favorite past times: hiking in Island County and beyond. She publishes a weekly blog with retired state park ranger Jack Hartt, Hiking Close to Home, and the pair has written an updated book by the…

Note: David Welton took these photos July 8, celebrating our colorful South Whidbey folks who take pride in being their authentic selves. Thank you, David, for sharing them. “Lots of color. Lots of good stuff,” David wrote in an email he sent with photos of the South Whidbey Pride Parade. The link for Pride Parades mentions the national event’s history and significance. Jill Edwards helped organize the event. As the mother of two adult LGBT+ kids, she wanted the parade to take place, since it had not been resurrected since Covid. “[Pride] has been a big part of my life…

Most everyone I’ve met on Whidbey Island has an interesting story to tell. I wonder what unseen force draws people here to live and cultivate their authentic selves. I write weekly about people whose lives light my own journey of perpetual curiosity. Last week I met a woman who is a cartographer for others’ creativity. Sara Saltee and the Saltee Academy explores our creative wilderness and provides tools to excavate the personal riches that are discovered. Sara Saltee is a welcoming, smart, articulate woman with deep-seeing blue eyes. “The big picture is I’ve been a creativity coach for over 20…

Kelsi Giswold grew up on Whidbey Island, helping out now and then in her dad’s practice, Saratoga Dental, in Langley. With her return to Langley years later, now with her husband Jesse Guerrero, the couple has opened the Soma Institute of Structural Integration, next door to Saratoga Dental. Her brother Braden now runs the dental practice in the wake of their father’s passing. “We moved the school here because we wanted to live and work where we love,” Kelsi said in a recent interview. “I grew up here. I wanted to live here and raise our daughter, and be able…

While the Whidbey Island Fair, held this year from July 27-30, is the culmination of dozens of 4-H projects, members of two of its horse clubs have visited the fairground since spring, practicing for the fair’s showmanship trials. This year, noticing that the three horse barns were in extreme disrepair, members of the Knight Riders and Centaurs equestrian clubs decided to repair and clean up the buildings as a community service project. Kim Olmstead, a 4-H leader for the past 35 years, heads the Knight Riders Club. While meeting at the fairgrounds earlier this year, she and other 4-H leaders…

I recently experienced symptoms of painful diverticulitis and needed immediate care. The on-call Kaiser nurse recommended I visit a walk-in clinic or an emergency department. Wary about the quality of care I might receive at WhidbeyHealth Medical Center’s emergency room, based on a past experience, my husband drove me first to the ER in Anacortes. When we learned its CT scanner—which confirms the presence of diverticulitis—was down, we drove to the ER at the Skagit Valley Regional Medical Center to access its CT machine. Though I was at the center for more than four hours, the quality of care and…

Note: All photos shared by or taken by Spring Roehm, unless otherwise noted Seven years ago a South Whidbey woman enrolled in a substance abuse treatment program. She was homeless. Her five children lived with her sister. She hoped to be eventually reunited with them. The following year, the young mother, who was in her thirties at the time, received help that changed her life. “By 2017, I was clean,” Tanya Stager-Gran recalled in a recent interview. “We were placed in the House of Hope. We lived there four months with my husband and five children.” Langley’s House of Hope…