Cabin on Camano Island
When looking for a place to book for a short getaway at a time when nobody knew when Covid vaccines would actually be available, somewhere at least somewhat isolated sounded a whole lot better than a visit to a city. Islands, mountains, or in unpopulated rural areas even beaches can fill that bill. In searching areas not too far away to keep with local travel, Camano Island seemed a perfect spot. While it is an island, it’s accessible by a bridge so no boat required. It’s largely rural with just a few businesses like stores and restaurants, and has beaches, forest, and two state parks.
cabins at Cama Beach State Park
I brought my mom with me on this trip as the getaway was a Christmas gift to her. By the time we actually went we had both received vaccines, but of course we hadn’t known if that would be the case at the time I booked the trip. I looked for an Airbnb to stay in, of the sort where you get the entire house to yourselves so we would not need to be in contact with anyone. I didn’t think Camano Island had any hotels, but google says it does. There’s also camping at the state parks. One of them has quite a few cabins, which are more or less just wooden tents since you have to bring everything including the bedding and the occupants use a shared public restroom. They’re also closer together than we wanted for this trip, so we stuck with looking for an Airbnb.
one bedroom had an orange bedspread and free-standing nightstands with lamps
I found a nice cabin on the south end of the island with two bedrooms and a waterfront view. It had space available at a time when both of us had nothing prior scheduled that would interfere, so I booked it. When booking several months in advance you never know what the weather will be, but that’s what raingear is for should the need arise. As it got closer to time to go weather forecasts varied from no rain to raining the whole time we were there. In the end it only rained on part of the way there, part of the way back, and during one night. Even the predicted clouds that were supposed to hover about throughout our stay didn’t materialize, or at least not enough to fog out our lovely view.
the other bedroom had a blue bedspread and wall-mounted shelves and lights
It’s nice when Airbnb’s have a name so the listing is easier to find should someone else want to book it, but this one was just listed as Puget Sound view cabin + beach access. It has two nearly identical bedrooms so nobody has to worry about who gets the best room. Both are about the same size with queen beds. The main difference was nightstands in one and wall mounted shelves on either side of the bed in the other. Both had small closets, but not for the guest’s things as one housed the on-demand water heater and a vacuum cleaner while the other held cleaning supplies. There was no locked closet like you find in most bnb’s where they keep their spare linens and cleaning supplies. Everything here was accessible to the guests.
hammock in the backyard
For the most part this cabin is very easy to find. You just take the Stanwood/Camano Island exit off I-5 and head west. The street changes names a few times along the way, but we never had to turn off it. My GPS was unaware of when we had arrived though so it never alerted us that we had reached our destination. The cabin is set back a ways from the road and you don’t see it as you come around a corner. I’d have missed it if it weren’t for the arrow-shaped sign with the address on it pointing down a gravel driveway people otherwise may not notice. When we got back into the car the next morning the GPS wanted to know if we wanted to continue our route as it still hadn’t realized we were already there. Once you turn at that arrow and head down the gravel driveway you can see the cabin.
kitchen in the cabin
The cabin has a great room with kitchen and living room areas. The back wall contains 2 barn doors, each opening up to a bedroom, with a door to the bathroom in between. The full kitchen and is supplied with pots, pans, and dishes as well as basic cleaning supplies like dish soap and towels. It has cabin sized appliances with a small refrigerator and cute little stove. There’s several choices of where to sit and eat with a couple stools at the small kitchen island, a little table for two with comfortable chairs by the window, and a third table with wicker stools by the door.
living room
The living room area held a sofa and two chairs, one with an ottoman. It had windows pretty much all the way across the side facing Puget Sound, with a view of Saratoga Passage, Whidbey Island, and the Olympic Mountains. The view also included the backyard which had a fire pit and chairs to sit around the fire and a hammock. A porch extended across that side of the cabin, and had a couple seating areas for anyone wanting to sit on the porch to enjoy the view. There’s no TV or internet, but nature provided entertainment. Besides the view there were often birds in the yard and sometimes a squirrel.
bathroom in the bnb
The cabin sat on a bluff above the water. The beach access was a short walk on the main road to a small side street that ran steeply down to the beach. The street ended a bit above the beach, with some large rocks providing a way down and a rope above to assist in getting back up across the steepest of the rocks.
beach near the cabin
We walked down to the beach the evening we arrived and found that at high tide most of it was under water, though there was a small bit of beach near the rock access where we took a very short beach walk with a lovely view. This is a nice cabin for people looking for a quiet place to get away.
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