This Whidbey rental is like walking onto a state ferry

Published 6:30 am Thursday, July 11, 2024

CLINTON — Spend the night with some ferry magic.

What’s up with that?

A 3-minute walk from the Clinton terminal, this 5-bedroom beachfront Airbnb has a room that’s a ferry rider’s dream.

Ferry Cove, a vacation rental since 2021, has a mix of a National Parks campsite, a ’50s kids’ summer camp and seaside inn vibes … until entering the basement.

It is like stepping onto the car deck of the vessel Tokitae.

“I wanted this to be the coolest place ever,” said owner Ryan Anderson, 50. “This was a dream-out-loud project.”

He took the ferry quarters theme to an insane level.

Anderson, who lives in Seattle with his wife Brooke and their four children, said he rode the Mukilteo-Clinton ferry about 120 times over the course of four months last year specifically to get details. The ferry room debuted in January.

“Everything is modeled exactly after the boat,” he said. “I spent hours and hours with a camera and notepad and documenting all the pieces.”

Same gray paint color, same “Engine Off” and “Set Brake” font and graphics as the ferry. Ditto for the yellow traffic lines where the cars park on the Olympic class vessel.

There’s even a green rope and a red Tokitae life ring.

If that’s not enough, a loudspeaker chimes in with that familiar ferry message: “Your attention please. We are now arriving at our destination. Drivers and passengers return to your vehicles.”

It’s a recording of that woman’s voice you hear on sailings.

A handheld radio allows custom messages.

“Will the owner of a white Ford Explorer please come back and turn off your alarm off? You’re bugging the heck out of us,” Anderson joked, picking up the mouthpiece.

The home’s exterior is painted the green-and-white of our state’s fleet of workhorses. A deck with Adirondack chairs lets you watch the real ferries go by, crisscrossing between Clinton and Mukilteo.

Ferry Cove sleeps 14 total.

Sorry, campers. The place is booked for this summer, but there are openings in the fall. The 2025 daily rental rate is $850 through Sept. 15 and about half that for off-season. Many are repeat guests.

The retreat comes loaded. Kayaks and paddle boards. Every board game of your childhood dreams. The coffee bar and stylish kitchen of your middle-aged fantasy. The yard has a hammock, picnic table, tree swing and bonfire pit.

It’s a mom-and-pop operation.

“My wife does the cleaning. I do the fixes,” Anderson said.

The couple bought the property three years ago.

The house was originally built in Capitol Hill in Seattle and later barged out to Whidbey Island in the 1940s or 1950s, Anderson said.

“It was a money pit,” he said. “I’m a home builder, so I knew what I was getting into. We just blitzed it for three or four months.”

It was a departure for his construction company, RW Anderson Homes, which does new builds and custom remodels.

The bedrooms are themed. One is patterned after the classic movie “The Parent Trap.” The captain’s quarters mixes the “The African Queen” and the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland. Two cozy rooms have king beds. Portraits of Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir hang in a bathroom. The ferry room was the last project in the renovations.

The attention to detail is in every nook and cranny.

“I obsess about it. It drives my family crazy. The kids say, ‘Oh, Dad is on a creative bender,’” Anderson said.

A wall in the ferry quarters has a 7-by-11-foot mural of a photo from the ferry landing at the Clinton dock.

It’s so realistic it’s tempting to walk straight into the wall.

“I took probably 1,000 photos,” Anderson said.

He contacted the ferry agency for help with the signage.

“I was expecting to get a big ‘eye-roll,’” he said. “But they were extremely gracious and took an interest in our project.”

There are some things not seen on a ferry, such as the sign that says: “Attention — sleepy kids must report to bunk beds immediately.”

The bunks, trimmed with iron pipe ladders and railings, sleep six.

Anderson enlisted a Benjamin Moore worker to curate the grays, greens, yellows, reds and other colors on a state ferry.

“She came out on the ferry with me and had a digital readout and she matched all the paint colors,” he said. “Every color is a custom color based on the Washington State Ferry system.”

The setting and touches make for a smooth sailing.

One guest review noted, “We had an idyllic stay at Ferry Cove.”

Is there a person, place or thing making you wonder “What’s Up With That?” Contact reporter Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterbrown.