Whidbey Island, WA (USA)

Had another nice sleep in my room at the NAS JRB Willow Grove Navy Lodge.  Woke up excited for some flying!  We weren't scheduled to leave until very late this afternoon, but I asked everyone to arrive early (1200) so we could get going. Unfortunately, the aircraft didn't cooperate and we didn't end up leaving until around 1530, around an hour later than our schedule had predicted.  I hate starting late... Once airborne, our enroute weather was OK at altitude but we never saw anything on the ground until we'd reached New Mexico. By then, it was nearly dark. We arrived in San Diego with good weather and a pretty shoreline view (including the well-lit Hotel Del Coronado). After landing, our fuel turn wasn't very quick.  On top of the normal delays with ground support, my co-pilot (Kevin) forgot his cell phone at Operations and we only learned that when they called on the radio (d'oohhh!). After that, however, we had a nice flight up to Fallon. Bonus - that air station does a pretty good job of taking care of us when we visit, so it was the quickest stop all day. After getting in the air again, we head more good weather on the way up to Seattle - we saw Portland and the Columbia River outlined by lights.  Sadly, these great conditions severely degraded as we descended towards Whidbey Island.  In fact, the last four minutes were very busy due to snow and freezing rain.  It kind of ticked me off that they gave me an approach to a runway without "rabbit lights" - that just made it harder!  Fortunately, the runway was only damp. After we parked, the snow started coming down pretty heavily.  As a result (?), it took another hour to reach the Navy Gateway Inn - even worse, though, they had no record of our stay when we arrived (even with reservations)! Another hour later, we finally got rooms. Since it usually takes me awhile to wind down from a flight, I didn't actually fall asleep until very late.  Fortunately, I eventually did - whew...