Friday, May 20, 2011
Joe and I planned an amazing overnight trip for our anniversary weeks ago. We booked the ideal secluded campsite on the western side of San Juan Island at the county park. This campsite was booked for every weekend through the rest of the summer. We lucked out that a Friday night was still available, the day after our actual 4th anniversary. It also just happens to be the date 5 years ago when Joe proposed on the Brooklyn Bridge. Joe arranged to take the day off of work. I may have mentioned the San Juan Islands before. You can see many of them from Bellingham and the surrounding shoreline area. There are 743 islands and only 428 islands at high tide. 60 of these are inhabited and 4 are served by Washington State Ferries sailing from Anacortes. San Juan Island is the westernmost major island serviced by ferry. It consists of rocky shores, sandy beaches, prairie and pastureland and lakes and forests. We were so excited to take this trip to celebrate us.
The night before we packed up Chance’s stuff for the trip. She tested out her new backpack. It’s about time she pulled (“carried”) her own weight around here!
We left the house just after 7am to be at the Anacortes ferry terminal early enough for the 9am ferry. We arrived around 8:15am, shortly before the loading of the 8:30am ferry to Victoria, BC. There were great views of Mount Baker to the east, by Bellingham. If Chance only knew where we were about to take her.
We boarded the M.V. Yakima vessel in Anacortes. The remaining cars drove onto the two car decks. The ferry holds a maximum of 2500 passengers and 144 vehicles.
We were so excited to be bound to the San Juan Islands on such a gorgeous day. When look back to the mainland you could see Mount Baker. There were some weird birds I hadn’t seen before (possibly cormorants?) on the dock bumpers.
We couldn’t help singing the SNL classic: “I’m on a boat, I’m on a boat…I got my flippie floppies.”
We soon left port.
We soon had a great view of the Olympic Peninsula with massive mountains to the southwest.
We continued to see Mount Baker from the sea. In the foreground is Guemes Island.
The ferry went near Rosario Strait which separates Cypress Island to the east and Blakely Island to the west.
During the journey between Blakely Island to the north and Decatur Island to the south another ferry passed by.
It was a little windy out on the open decks.
We checked in on Chance in the car. She seemed to be doing fine.
We passed between Lopez Island to the south and Blakely Island to the north. Joe admired the islands from behind the glass.
Lopez Island to south and Shaw Island to the north.
I couldn’t resist doing the Titanic on the front deck. “I’m the king of the world, on a boat like Leo.”
The ferry arrived at Friday Harbor, a historic walkable seaport, the only incorporated town in the San Juan Islands.
We disembarked and walked around near the harbor.
Friday Harbor is really cute with waterfront restaurants, boutique shops, bookstores, galleries, and museums.
We stopped at the Market Chef to pickup a sandwich for later when we’re hiking. We got a roast beef and rocket sandwich with house roasted Oregon Country Beef, hot horseradish sauce, marinated red onion, chunky olive salad and island arugula on a caraway-salt roll.
We chose Maloula’s Mediterranean Restaurant for lunch. We had the closest patio table overlooking the waterfront. I had an Insalata Caprese of tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella with a hint of pesto sauce that I ate around and shared with Joe due to allergies which didn’t turn into a problem today. Pine nuts don’t typically bother me too badly in small doses. Joe had a lamb burger and fries.
As we ate lunch we watched the ferry leave port and a seaplane land in Friday Harbor while a whale watching tour boat was leaving.
We drove south down Cattle Point Road to the American Camp in the National Historic Forest. There was a standoff here on the island in 1859 between the British and the Americans which was caused by the shooting of a wandering pig in an American potato camp. Referred to as the Pig War, the pig was the only casualty with no other blood shed. The negotiations created an American fort to the south of the island and a separate British fort to the north.
We hiked to Jakles Lagoon, one of three lagoons off Griffin Bay, to get a good view of Mount Baker from the shoreline.
Joe already wanted a nap. Too bad the day had only just begun.
We continued down Cattle Point Road to the Cattle Point Lighthouse which was up on a cliff along the south shore. The view of the Olympic Mountains across the Strait of Juan de Fuca was amazing. These mountains were maybe 25 miles away across the Puget Sound. It was a little hazy from this distance. It’s also clear to see how massive Mount Baker is from here because we are probably as far away from it as we are the Olympic Mountains.
We hiked up to the lighthouse built in 1935. To the east were tiny islands off of Lopez Island.
We got a phone call here finding out that our moving truck will arrive anywhere between Monday May 23 and Tuesday May 31. Great planning there on the relocate service. We now have a longer time window than Monday-Wednesday. It looks like I will be using my sleeping bag to sleep in the house Tuesday night before I begin my first day of work Wednesday. Joe will have to take a day off to be there whenever the movers arrive. Oh well, back to enjoying the beautiful scenery.
The lighthouse wasn’t the nicest but the stark white building set in the landscape at the top of the hill was beautiful.
Chance loved running through the tall grass field.
We then drove to Lime Kiln Point State Park, better known as Whale Watch Park. Orcas or killer whales spend their entire 40-80 year lifespan in their mothers’ extended family group (pod). There are 2 pod communities here. The Resident Community eats mostly salmon and cod and the Transient Community eats other marine animals in addition to fish. We were hoping to see some playful behavior like breaching, spyhopping, and lobtailing. June through September is prime whale watching season. Sealife here is abundant and the salmon are migrating along the shore. Also seen in this area are Dall’s Porpoises, Harbor Porpoises and Minke Whales.
I tried to speak whale much like Dora from Finding Nemo, but I must not have it down because we never saw any whales.
We hiked over to Dead Man’s Bay. It’s too pretty to have such a morbid name. When I explained our hike at Deception Pass I mentioned nearby Ben Ure Island was infamous for its activity of smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants for local labor. If the US Customs Department was signaled to be close, the pirate Ure would tie the illegal immigrants up in burlap bags and toss the bags overboard. The tidal currents would carry the discarded bodies to this bay on San Juan Island.
We continued to hike north along the rocky shoreline.
Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse was built in 1919 along Haro Strait. This was the last major lighthouse in the US to be fully automated, the last to receive electricity in Washington. The name of the park and lighthouse derives from the vicinity to former lime kiln operations on the northern part of the island near Roche Harbor. The current lighthouse is a replica of the Seattle Alki Point Lighthouse.
I like to climb trees.
Girls were digging on the shore searching for tumbled glass. Chance was very concerned about watching Joe on the shore below. We were informed that the whale watching boats checked in with the lighthouse letting them know that the whales were liking heading this way up the Haro Strait. Unless they turned back, the pod should be there in about 2 hours. It was a little after 3pm at this point.
We decided to drive a few miles north to setup camp at the San Juan County Park. Our campsite was secluded from all the others. It was a walk-in site. It was close to the main road on the west coast, but it was great because our firepit and picnic table were right on the shore of Smallpox Bay overlooking Haro Strait and Vancouver Island.
We debated where to setup the tent. We preferred in the shade of the trees where the ground was softer but it wasn’t very flat. We ended up down the path near the shore, blocked by some bushes. Chance did well carrying in her own stuff. She even explored the site with all her baggage. For some reason since we’ve moved here, she loves to eat tall grass. Not a cool idea since she has the stinkiest farts afterwards and we were sharing a tent that night.
Once we had camp set up we went back to the Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse. We split our roast beef sandwich from Friday Harbor while overlooking kayakers and a ferry boat passing through the Haro Strait by Vancouver Island. I am jealous of those on the ferry if they end up seeing the orca whales near the Olympic Mountains.
I laid out on the rocks to catch some sunrays and hope to see some whales. We awaited more news to hear if the whales were coming. From this point we could see Victoria. The tide was coming, which is usually when the whales tend to pass by this point. I saw some spots in the water that kept coming in and out of the water. I asked Joe to look closer at the point where there were many tree log tops sticking out above the waterline. He confirmed that I was in fact seeing sea otters! They swam closer to our rock outcropping. One turned its head and stared straight at me. It was so cute! I think I scared him away though. They never came back out of the water after seeing me.
We were very impatient after waiting 2 hours for the whales to come. Joe was getting really hungry. Five whales were spotted at a break in the water about a half mile south. We occasionally saw their movements, but not enough to feel like we really saw them. We often thought we saw them but it ended up being a wave or something else. We finally gave up hope that they would swim up to us. We walked south down toward the break to find out that they had mostly turned around. We headed into Friday Harbor to grab a quick dinner and grab firewood before dusk.
We picked up a 4 pack of microbrew and a bundle of firewood at the local market. There was a sports bar across the street called Hailey’s Bait Shop & Grill. We decided to sit at the bar and get quick service. Unfortunately we were bothered by 2 annoying drunk guys the entire time. It could have been a good meal if we could have eaten our burger & calamari in peace while watching the Vancouver Canucks struggle to get back in the hockey game.
Back at camp, Joe quickly started a fire as the last bits of sunlight dropped behind Vancouver Island. The water had risen quite a bit since we set up camp. A bunch of bull kelp floated into the shore of Small Pox Bay.
We were full from dinner and didn’t even feel like smores, but we did finish our beers. I saw a small animal scurry along a driftlog near the shore, about 10 feet from our campfire. We shined the light over there to see a raccoon looking back at us. This was the first animal to spook Joe. There was a deer up near the road that spent probably close to an hour just starring back down the hill at us. It eventually crossed the road, but still kept looking down at us. Joe made sure it wasn’t around anymore before we went to bed.
It had rained overnight. It was really overcast, which was not what the forecast was before we left the mainland. We were really glad we decided to put the rainfly on the tent. All was dry within our tent. We decided to pack up camp and drive to the northern side of the island. We passed the English Camp, part of the San Juan Island National Historical Park. We stopped in Roche Harbor for breakfast at Lime Kiln Café. Joe had eggs with ham and bacon and I had eggs benedict. The resort at the harbor was really nice. It seems they get a lot of Canadians from Vancouver Island since Sidney is right across the strait. It’s a popular yachting destination.
We were glad breakfast was quick because we wanted to catch the 11:05am ferry due to the overcast weather. It actually rains half as much here as Seattle so we were really unlucky. We made it there around 10am and got our car in line for the ferry. We walked around Friday Harbor since we wouldn’t be loading until 10:45am.
Chance was very nervous once we drove onto the ferry. I think it was because this time our car was on the outer edge so she could see the water. I laid in the back of the Xterra with her so she could calm down and take a nap. It took her awhile for her to quit shaking. With how overcast it was we didn’t see the need to go to the upper deck to take pictures so we stayed in the car for the hour long ferry ride.
We stopped for lunch in Mount Vernon at Joe’s new favorite Thai restaurant, Rachawadee, which means lilac. It’s located in an old 50s style lunch counter with 8 or 10 stools. The food is amazing and very flavorful.
We had an amazing trip. There are still so many places to explore. I’d love to bring our bikes we are about to buy (REI currently is offering 15% off bikes) to Orcas Island. We can’t wait to explore the Olympic Peninsula as well.
