Short crossing: less than 20 minutes. Some blue sky just above water, thick dark clouds all around. Drove south to check out Cultus Bay before settled in Langley.
The goal tonight is the dinner at Inn at Langley, choreographed by chef Matt Costello. It's a feast for the eyes: food, plates, as well as utensils. Very creative and pretty. Portions are very small: all bite size. I was still hungry before eating two servings of every desert course. Definitely a treat, and definitely overpriced. Meal $155, drink separate (1 white, 1 red, 1 desert wine set for $55, or 5 wine flight for $95) but each pour barely covered the bottom of the wine glass. The wines are retailed for about $15/bottle if purchased from stores. So adding ~10% tax + 20% tip, you are looking at a $200-$300 expense.
Dinner starts with a set of cocktail, all in minute quantities. From left to right in the photo: a) gin & tonic bubble + lemon water in a spoon; 2) kumquat cup of whisky topped with a dried cherry on a pedestal; 3) mojito flavored sugar stalk in a glass; 4) coconut ball with vodka topped with a coffee bean (our favorite) on a pedestal; 5) a bloodymary leaf in a small but heavy steel paper holder. All 5 came in a rectangular plate. This took forever to assemble. But it's fun to watch the team do it.
Salad is poached peas with pea leaves, and a jell made of water used to poach the pea, topped with some dark caviar. Very pretty. I like the jell. The pea and the leaves both lost the fresh pea taste. The caviar tastes bland. It comes in a plate that looks like a flying saucer. What's in the photo is just the middle 1/4 of the plate.
Bread doesn't come on the side, instead as two meal courses. First bread course is a warm molasses brioche with house made butter and a slice of taleggio cheese. This comes in an oval dark plate, with a gold colored spoon.
Steelhead cooked sous vide, grapefruit sauce, shaved Belgium endive, topped with salmon roes, sprinkled with dill and burrata cheese. This comes in a frisbee like thin plate, which looks a bit flimsy. This is my favorite course for the taste. The salmon is really tender. The cheese doesn't have much taste.
Second bread course is a biscuit topped with caramelized bacon fat with marionberry jam and aerated bacon fat. This comes in a square plate and silver colored knife. I like the bacon fat top. However, would prefer a regular rustic country bread without the trims, to both sweet bread courses.
Finally I saw the chef fired up the stove, and heated up a pan. He was frying morel and divided up among two dozen dark gray earthware. A pressure cook release some not-so-nice smell: asparagus. This turns out another my favorite dish of the night (however, I'd be happy to go without the asparagus): a piece of quail breast, morel, white asparagus, sprinkled with dried curry leaf. Don't know how the quail meat was cooked, it was excellent: tender, but cooked through. I also like the lemon-flavored drops and the toasted leaves used for decoration.
One cube of braised lamb, wild onion, a sheet of dried onion juice, porcini, sprinkled scallion. The onion juice is pressed between bamboo sheets. The sheets were broken to pieces and each goes to a plate. It's amazing that the entire meal doesn't involve any last minute cooking, other than twice, mushroom was pan fried in a single pan. Except for the asparagus, no smell in the dining hall. This meal can be enjoyed without a nose.
Now desert: rhubarb and primrose juice in a glass, floated a tiny piece of fresh cheese, and sprinkled with wheat grass. Very pretty and I like the taste. Next, a glass ball is cut off from the ceiling, inside you find a velvet cake, crumbled hazelnuts, chocolate. My favorite is the baby food glass bottle, inside is butter scotch pudding, crumbled cracker, whipped chocolate frozen by liquid nitrogen, violet beads. The chocolate has an interesting waffle-like texture. Tea and coffee is now served.I get to take the menu home, which has my name printed on it.
3/12, Sunday. Cloudy with occasional rain. Daylight saving started today. 11am, we joined about 20 others on a grey whale watching cruise with Mystic Sea out of the small Langley port named Sandy Point. Took a Dramamine pill before I board, anticipating rough water once we are out of the Sound. Instead, the boat only went to Port Susan, just between Camano Island and the mainland. 
We saw two whales. Multiple times, but each lasted a few seconds only. Still quite fun. Apparently these whales are the front troupers of a pod of 12 who like to go into the sound and dig shrimps in shallow water. So if you have a house by the water, you'd see them. Out of many groups that migrate north along this part of the shoreline, only this group comes in. The two we saw are #49 and #56. Today, there were another whale watching boat and two fishing boats stalking these two whales. Along the way, we also saw 4 bald eagles, a couple of seals.
At Double Bluff beach, dug some clams. It was rainy. I'm surprised to find quite a few people and dogs here.At South Whidbey State Park, saw 4 other cars, but one person. There's a trail down to the beach, closed due to land slide. Walked there anyway, to a narrow beach. Good view of Olympic Mountains.
Fort Casey State Park is my favorite park on Whidbey Island. Right by the Coupeville - Port Townsend ferry. In the 1890s, Fort Casey, in union with Fort Worden (north of Port Townsend) and Fort Flagler (north tip of Marrowstone Island), comprised a triangle of fire guarding the entrance to Puget Sound. 
The lighthouse dated earlier. Now you can walk to the top of the new lighthouse (without the light). The cannons can move up and down, so to hide from the incoming ships, being on a bluff. However, with the invention of planes in the early 1900s, you can hide no more. The shells weight ~200-300Kg. It took a crew of over 20 people to operate a single cannon. I like the sweeping view and the grassy ground. On a clear day, you could see Rainier, and all the Olympic Mountains. Today, some Olympic peaks were visible.
Before heading back to the mainland, we hiked the short summit at Deception Pass, for sunset. Too many dark clouds. Going to rain the next day. Along hwy-20 saw many trumpet swans and snow geese. It's an amazing sight, at least a couple of thousand in one field, especially when they took off at the same time.
