From the editor: Summertime, and the living is easy

Summer is well underway. It is hot, but not as hot as others have it around the country. It is not as hot – yet – as we experienced in 2021. We are fortunate that Skagit summers come with little humidity and cool evenings.

For those of us who can afford it – and that might mean having the time – the calendar is full of entertainment to see, listen to and create from Stanwood and Snohomish counties up to the Canadian border and across it and east into the Cascades. For the adventuresome and patient, there is the hope ferries will arrive in Friday Harbor on schedule – or at all.

Local, live outdoor music is every Sunday at the La Conner Live concerts in Gilkey Square. The season is half over. Concerts start at 1 p.m. through Labor Day Sunday.

Shakespeare Northwest opened its 20th season last weekend. Go see “The Taming of the Shrew” in repertoire with “The Tempest” weekends at the Rexville Blackrock Amphitheater. It is a short season, ending Aug. 12. Bring a chair, blankets and a jacket for the post-sundown chill.

Take a chance that you will get to and back from San Juan Island and take in Twelfth Night” with Island Stage Left’s Shakespeare Under the Stars. You will have to stay overnight, for sure.

There is summer Shakespeare in Langley, weekends through Sept. 3. The Bellingham TheatreWorks Fairhaven Summer Repertory Theatre ends this Sunday, July. 23. Gorge on all three plays in repertoire.

Bellingham ‘s Mt. Baker Theater has a variety of live performances while the Pickford Film Center offers air conditioned comfort seven days a week. While there are only two Pickford Rooftop outdoor movies left, you can sit down outside Saturday evenings through Aug. 24 for Fairhaven Outdoor Cinema.

The best film south of Bellingham is at the Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon. There are concerts throughout the summer – and all year.

Aug. 12 the Lincoln will sponsor its annual BrewFest on the Skagit, at Edgewater Park.

Aug. 9 the Skagit Valley Food Co-op is celebrating its one in a lifetime 50th anniversary. That’s a good reason to join if you are not already an owner-member.

There is the 119th Pioneer Picnic Aug. 3, with a salmon BBQ lunch, a program and free admittance to the Skagit County Historical Museum through that weekend.

Of course there is the Skagit County Fair Aug. 9-12 in Mount Vernon.

Venture down to Stanwood for their concert series if you can figure out how to find their schedule

Get on a boat not your own for a cruise. From La Conner there is the San Juan Cruises Deception Pass lunch or dinner crab cruise. Make a day of it on Diablo Lake with a North Cascades Institute organized boat tour. Learn while you watch on a Whatcom Museum Summertime History Sunset Cruise, through Sept. 12.

Really get outside by hiking Mt. Baker and Blanchard Mountain. Get on the coast and to the water whether you do or do not camp at Deception Pass or Larrabee state parks. Get high closer to home by taking a trail to the top of Mt. Erie in Anacortes. As many know, their park system has tens of miles of trails.

There are all kinds of things to do all summer long in and around the Skagit Valley. Some of them are at the world’s most popular price, free.

This is not everything, but enough to keep you and your family smiling for a while, maybe into the fall.