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.

1 year!! (Part I)

Welcome to our 1 year anniversary trip! Let's be honest, nothing will ever beat our honeymoon to Antigua,  but the next best thing is a different kind of island. The San Juan Islands. Quite different from the warm, white sandy beaches of the caribbean, we opted for beaches of another kind. Welcome, to the San Juan Islands.

This is a trilogy (3 part series) of posts, so don't miss out on the others. This first one is named: "The Fellowship of the (wedding) Ring."


Early morning sunrise in Anacortes, WA as we wait for the ferry that is going to take us, and our car to the islands!

Inside the ferry. We really enjoyed the ferry rides. It's Schaefer's new preferred way of travel. Complete with indoor and outdoor seating. Being pretty early in the morning, we opted for indoor seating.

That is until the captain of the ferry announced over the PA system that we are stopping to let a pod of orcas go by, then we, and everyone else went outside. Who knew there was an orca crossing right here? 30 mins into our trip and we had already seen 6-7 killer whales!

This is at the beginning of our hike to Mt. Constitution. We read about the spectacular views at the peak of this hike, so we decided on this one. I love the stillness and morning fog in this picture.

 
The old age and the color of the forest was amazing! Green stuff was growing on green stuff! This was on our way to Bag End to see the hobbits.

Cozy little stream along our trail...

In case some of you are still unsure, we are headed to Mt. Constitution. I'ts to the right.  It's where they signed the constitution. (1.5 mi down, 2 more to go)



We reached the top! Wet and raining, we made it there.

And just take a look at this spectacular.....amount of fog. Fog in every direction. I was so mad. Thankfully, Schaefer reminded me of the beauty in the journey and not the destination. Life Lessons on your Anniversary: by Schaefer Bell.


One of many mountain lakes along the hike. We were the only ones there and it truly felt like "getting away." Peaceful.

The lakes had a beautiful turquoise color. It was especially so against the green backdrop.

Near the end of our hike at Mountain Lake. About to head to our campsite.

This picture is long into the process of making a fire. This is attempt number 5-6 and I'm not very excited. In Utah you can just about look at some wood and make it start burning. Here in the soggy NW, not so much. I prepared ahead and got some good freshly chopped wood from our church neighbors who keep their wood covered, so I was ready! Each fire burned about 30 secs and then.... nothing. The only thing I heard was the wood laughing at me.

This is attempt 7-8, maybe 9. I knew this would work. I took a bunch of TP from the camp restroom and stuffed it inside my kindling and wrapped it around my teepee. I aptly named this my, TP teepee.
Without fail, it burned...... for about 2 mins, then extinguished. Something had to happen. It was time...

Poor girl had to wait a while in the rain to get warm by the fire.

"Insta-flame!" When we (and by we, I mean me), came to grips that this wasn't going to happen, we drove off into town and took necessary measures. The gas station had log fire-starters. So we bought 2! Just in case. I had to force a smile in this picture because I was brought down to using a log fire-starter. Shamed...
Of note, it is important to mention here that I went our full camping trip using a hatchet without incident.

Our tent suite complete with a lakeside view.
(We saved money by avoiding the balcony suites)

-Dinner for two-
Waiting for our tinfoil dinners to finish cooking, then onto marshmallows and s'mores.

As evening turned to night we were given a beautiful sunset over Cascade Lake.

I love this picture. Great ending to our day as we watch the sunset from our campsite.

Continue on to part two of our trilogy...

Wooden Boat Festival

This post is dedicated to Dennis, a future sailboat skipper

We've had 11 straight days of sunshine (yes, a Washington record for May) and we took advantage of the weather to head downtown to the Port of Olympia to the wooden boat festival.


The Port, at low tide, with the wooden boats along the way. They were pretty nice and the owners had great pride in them.

Just some of the local spice out here at the festival. This older gent was just out pandhandling and he was pretty good. Note the other gent sacked out next to the shopping cart. Just another day downtown.

The capitol, park, and tents....

I can't resist a good corndog with mustard! Perfect crunch too.

Schaef likewise cannot resist some good kettlecorn.

That is the Boy Scouts of America Puget Sound sailboat! It was really cool. I only wish we could've seen it full sail.

The Capella. I liked this one because Capella means 'chapel' in Romanian :)

When Schaefer is wearing a dress you know the weather is good! You can't tell but the wood is emaculately polished and prepared.

There is just something cool about being at the helm. Notice the Garmin. I'm guessing a ship out on the ocean is the best scenario to have GPS.

Aboard the Boy Scout ship. This is the captains quarters. Possibly slightly larger than a closet. Pretty tight spaces underneath the deck.

A wood sailboat.

Full 360 views with this one.

My personally sponsored boat

The most beautiful first mate.... er, Captain anyone could have.

Our favorite boat, Winifred. The picture doesn't show you the details well, but this was a beautiful and roomy boat.

The Winifred from above (the further boat). Makes me want to go on a boat adventure!

If you look closely you can see Dennis and Stephanie on their boat ready to sail the world.

I made Schaefer post this one because this is a real live moment from "School of Rock." We watched a high school jazz band perform and they were quite good. The funny part of course is the older dude playing guitar. The kids are playing this nice song, then out of nowhere this teacher shreds a 2 minute solo on his electric guitar! Just like the movie...

No, the best part of this picture is the lady's dog on the walker!

We're ready to sail the Puget Sound! What a great weekend of sunshine we had out here!