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Measuring just 60 miles by 10 and occupying part of the Puget Sound waterway, 25 miles from Seattle, Whidbey is blessed with mild winters, little rainfall and some astonishing scenery.

The landscape is one of preserved golden prairies of barley and alfalfa, pebble and shell beaches dotted with bleached driftwood and still waters backed by mountains of snow. There’s hiking along the cliffs and biking on back roads or rugged forest tracks.

You can take to the coastal paths on horseback, hire a boat and go orca-spotting, or simply sit beside the water watching for the bald eagle.

Whidbey is also blessed with two other unique attractions: Captain Marshall and Mrs Jan Bronson, a devoted husband-and-wife team often seen tootling from their 1890 Queen Anne Victorian guest house in a pea-green Thirties Packard motor car.

Usually the couple are carrying bewildered (but willing) guests to the ice cream parlour for chocolate chip sundaes or to admire the blazing orange sun setting over the silvery waves at Ebey’s Landing, the first national historic reserve in the US and unchanged since settlers arrived in the 1850s.

Jan and Marshall have one aim: to enjoy life and make sure everyone else does too.

Their place is the Compass Rose in Coupeville, the second oldest town in the state of Washington, where sea captains of the 1800s retired. Soft lamplight glows through lace curtains and roses clamber up the porch.

Included in the National Register of Historic Places the house, like its owners, is cherished by friends and fans the world over, its rooms crammed to bursting with fine china, crystal, silver, hats, paintings and copper pans – antiques and memories of three decades of international travel entertaining foreign dignitaries as part of Marshall’s role as an attaché in the US Navy.

I first arrived on the island six years ago for a photography workshop at the Pacific Northwest Art School in Coupeville. World-renowned tutors of painting, photography and arts and crafts come here to teach because they love the laid-back, funky scene, and are inspired by the spectacular seas, mountains and rolling fields. I took a week’s workshop with the legendary National Geographic photographer Sam Abell, who visits every August.

Looking for somewhere to stay after the short trip from Seattle on the Whidbey SeaTac Shuttle, I came across Compass Rose. Jan, in a long pale-mint, Victorian-style dress with layers and ruffles, opened the door with a theatrical flourish and cried: “Oh, my pearls! I forgot my pearls!” and slammed the door shut.