Part II- The Two Islands (Towers)

I really don't know why I'm doing this Lord of the Ring theme, but that is what happens when I think of trilogies (which this is). So part II- The Two Islands. Orcas Island to Friday Harbor.


The ocean shore as it comes up to town

After waking from our soggy camping morning, we packed up and headed into town of Orcas Island to explore.

Morning after camping... Not our best. But the scenery is great :)

Schaefer did a fabulous job of B&B selections! This cozy place is called The Blue Heron. The host was Bogdan Kulminski (which is a very Eastern European name), but he only had the name, no Romanian or Polish connection.

Our favorite part was this cute little patio just out of our room. As you can see it has a great view of the ocean and surrounding area.

Now, that's better. All cleaned up and off to see the sights.

If you read the previous post you will know of our disappointment at the top of Mt. Constitution when we were encompassed in complete fog. So, with some extra time and some blue sky peaking through we decided to drive to top (yes, you can drive but we opted for the hike) to see if we could catch the so-called views. As you can see, they are incredible!! You can see so much, in all directions.

The views did not disappoint! They built a tower (more Lord of the Rings) at the top of the Mt to get above the tree line. Pictures of course cannot express the grandeur of the views!

Panoramic
Canada, Washington, Mt. Baker, and many islands in between.

The clouds are still rolling in/breaking open, so every few mins we captured a picture with an open view.

Really like how the clouds look in this one. Looking north to Vancouver, BC.
 

There are some 750 islands included in the San Juans...
 

This little Mexican restaurant has fabulous food! Mijitas. We lucked out and had great food everywhere we went. Thank you TripAdvisor. Schaefer has the touch when it comes to choosing the best places to eat. Perfect record thus far! She has some kind of quinoa burgers with mashed sweet potato candy/goodness/delight (yes, at a Mexican place) and I had fish tacos. Both dishes were delicious. Mine had me sweating a little bit. Not because of price, but because we all know I don't handle spice so well. (picture me with a stack of napkins wiping my forehead).
 

Our view from the van while on the ferry. Front row as we head to the next island.
 

Friday harbor is an absolutely gorgeous harbor on the main island of San Juan. This is taken as we drove off the ferry.
 

This is the yacht we were on for the next two nights! OK, not really. But we had to take a picture of it. We looked it up online later and it is ridiculous inside. You should look up "After Eight" and search for pictures. When comparing boats in the harbor this yacht looks like it swallowed four yachts and made a ship.
 

On board with Captain Carli- The beginning of our whale watching trip.
 

Me checking out the views from the boat :) There was another couple on the boat from Germany and about all they could say in English was, "OK." They were really nice though.
 

Trying to stay warm in the crisp air. Very glad for some sunshine though! It was quite welcome. Capt. Carli was great and treated us well. Fun to talk to and a good connection for the future as far as vacations go. He got us as close as they let you get to the whales!
 

Aren't they awesome!! They are so cool to see in the wild. I'm not going all free-willy on you guys, I'm just saying how cool these animals are!
 

This is unfortunate that it is not in complete focus because if you look carefully you can see the whale is jumping! It was hard to get great shots because in the boat you're rocking and bouncing around a bunch- Anyway, stay tuned for more in the next post. We really have some great photos.