Windjammer Park — Attraction in Oak Harbor

Since I was born and raised here, I am trying very hard not to be a negative Nell, but I do need to be honest from our family's perspective.

Aesthetics: Concrete. Not just some cement, and not just used for necessary or interesting features... a LOT of concrete. Almost 50% of the original east half of the park is taken up by massive swaths of cement where there used to be grass, kitchens, tables, climbing equipment, a wading pool, and beach front BBQ pits with their own tables and windbreaks. Most of these fell into neglect, hence the drive for a replacement park. The new park features some of the most expensive kitchen/eating buildings in the state (thanks, taxpayers!), a large hammock-swing and a few rough, concrete climbing logs. From the inadequate parking to the concrete waterfront trails (which are not finished as of 7/18/2019 and could have been beautiful boardwalks) are huge, sweeping, flat, featureless concrete pads edged with tiny gardens. Where once were donated memorial benches for two or three people to share, now there are massive timber constructs looped with heavy steel bands to prevent lounging and skateboarding. They also have no backs, so hopefully you don't need that feature.

From a USE standpoint: After three visits the kids had the most fun in the toddler area... that's actually saying something, since my kids are 6, 8, and 12. After 15 minutes there really wasn't anything for them to do since the park is basically divided into three portions: 1) the sewer plant/toddler park, 2) the splash/climbing park/lagoon, and 3) the "adult" portion of the park (that is, two basketball courts, an immense parking lot where a playground and successful RV park used to be... like to RV? Move along to another community, please!) and the huge, expensive, and useless "Gateway Pavilion" (a massive "H" that offers no shade, no shelter, no place to eat, no place to sit, and no real purpose that I could distinguish).

Can't forget the Loo! The new "bathrooms" are large, steel, open-air perma-potties that cost a ton and serve two people each rather than buildings that served dozens at a time. My kids did not want to use them to change into swimsuits or as bathrooms because they felt too vulnerable ("people can just look in through the slats!") Thankfully, at present, the city has left some actual porta-potties there in case the park actually draws a crowd.

Conclusions: Everything is many times more expensive than it needed to be, and far less attractive than it could have been. It is a real demonstration of the results of a city that lacks a real feel for what it wants to be in the future; a mish-mash of modern and rustic, minimalistic and classical, utilitarian and recreational... in short, it tries to please as broad and generic an audience as it can, and some folks like it fine. There are some nice features, to be honest, but they could have been accomplished in a better way. Much of the park is, to me, perfume on a pig... you can't really beautify a sewer plant that is smack-dab in the middle of the city's MOST PRIZED FEATURE... its waterfront.

Windjammer could have been half the park at half the expense, and the rest of the cost could have been used to clean up the issues with the bay itself. I do hope people find the park restful and entertaining. Heck, I hope I'm proven wrong over the years and it becomes a thriving social center that draws in tourist dollars... but for now it is a ghastly expensive eyesore, poorly managed and designed, that my kids would rather ignore on our way to Fort Nugent Park...

If you're a senior, like me and my husband, try to climb over all the crazy high, unstable and heavy wood on this beach, or many others around this island ... It sure would be wonderful to walk this beach or any others. But, sadly we can't. My dream is that the town workers would ensure public beaches were clear for everyone to walk on. With new hips and knees, shoulders and arthritis it would be an act of thoughtfulness if only the island made the beaches accessible. The great cross walks at every corner in Oak Harbor, stop at beach parking lots. No wheelchairs, baby carriages, dog carriages. Not everyone is "able". So we park in our car, or walk the path. But in summer it is so sunny and hot. It would be lovely to have shade trees along the path and more benches, to take rest. Getting old is not for the faint of heart. Guess I will do what other seniors do. Park in the lot, sit in the car, and have a look at the majesty of the scenery. That is something. I will appreciate that. Where are the restrooms? We just drive home for that. Dog friendly but watch your dogs if they pick up stuff on walks, because broken seashells, dried up clam parts, and seagull poop is everywhere. Not sure if anyone from highway or parks dept. ever cleans the walking path. It's the ability to see Mt. Ranier and the Cascade range and Mt. Baker (if you turn back from the Puget Sound). I adore the majesty. No place like it. But we can't walk the beaches without the potential of falling and breaking ankle, feet, knees, hips etc.. So if you're fit and able to walk through and over wood, enjoy it while you can, because life catches up. It...

It’s a giant brownfield for the entire town, with a sewer outflow pipe right in the middle of the beach and a sign warning people that the water is likely to have high bacteria concentrations on a regular basis. When I was there a family of tourists, who didn’t recognize what that sign meant, presumably due to a language barrier and a naive expectation that no one in America would create a park with an apparent swimming beach on top of a sewer line and a giant municipal brownfield(?!), …had their child playing knee deep in the contaminated sand, mud and water. When I tried to warn them and explain the circumstances and the meaning of the sign, at first they were skeptical and sort of incredulous. For the record, I share their incredulity. At an absolute minimum, for the physical safety of visitors who might not speak the cya jargon of disingenuous bureaucracy that so permeates American culture, much more prominent signage. Including perhaps a physical barrier in the general vicinity of the sewage outflow pipe extending to any shoreline that is likely to be contaminated to an unhealthful degree, which is likely to be the entire waterfront of all of the parks on this very sheltered, shallow bay with minimal exchange with open water to dissipate the...