Chiller day than the last two. Weather wasn’t quite as beautiful as the last two days in Seattle, however we felt like this was the weather we were meant to expect in the area.

We got on the road from Seattle around 6:30 (still very easy with the time change) and drove to the ferry at Anacortes – very pretty drive along the way. The ferry took us through several islands, stopping at Orcas and dropping us at Friday Harbor.

When we arrived in Friday Harbor, we thought we’d go to the farmers market and get things for lunch and dinner, but we realized very quickly that the market was in “Low season” with very few vendors.  We walked two blocks to the San Juan Island Brewery to a surprisingly great lunch. Burgers for the boys, Salmon sandwich with pickled peppers and French dip for William.

We drove across the island to Snug Harbor (all of 15 minutes) and it was nice to be out of the Friday Harbor cluster. Snug Harbor is a quiet marina and resort with individual cabins scattered across the side of the island. We checked in quickly and made our way to the dock to attempt to find a whale with Maya’s whale watching – which maybe cld be called, it’s possibly you’ll see a whale but don’t get your hopes up – better to have gone in that way!
Anyways we saw all the non-whale wildlife – 3 types of porpoise (dalls, halls and harbor), 3 types of seal (harbor, stellar and black oyster catcher), a quick penguin dive, miniature puffin, sea lions and many bald eagles and other birds. We enjoyed and also Rawls took a nap.

Cozied up and cooked dinner together at the cabin / salmon (steelhead and amaze!), salad and potatoes. Something simple after last few days was perfect. 

Day 2

Woke up today to similar but slightly better weather – on and off teensy drizzle and some fog but enough clarity to see the landscape clearly.

After breakfast in our cabin, we drove towards the southwest of the island, stopping first at San Juan park. We thought how nice it would be to have this within weekend camping distance of home – beautiful setting and boys enjoyed playing by the water.

From here, we headed to Lime Kiln State Park which is the most likely spot from the island to spot Orcas – there are two groups of Orcas to potentially see (of which we saw neither) – pods that stay within the area and feed off of Chinook salmon: these are endangered as Chinook salmon populations have declined or migratory pods that pass through these channels and have an expanded diet: these populations are thriving. We hiked along the coast to “dead mans bay” and on the way back, I asked Rawls if he was keeping a close eye out for Orcas – “no, mom. I’m trying to find gems on the ground”. Priorities.

From the Southwest tip of the island, we drove up to the Northwest corner towards Roche Harbor. We made a brief stop along the way at the “English camp” where British troops camped out for some time. Apparently in 1859, the US and British troops nearly went to war over the slaughter of a pig // which was really an argument over unclear borders. Apparently US territory was to the east of a channel, but it was unclear which of two channels was the outer border. Through peaceful negotiations, San Juan island was determined to be part of the US. This picture includes and English garden which apparently was setup to provide cheer to the wife of a British officer (while also replacing the vegetable garden of enlisted troops – they weren’t so cheerful)

After visiting here and driving through the arts and crafts Roche Harbor village, we went to lunch at a commercial shellfish farm – Westcott Bay Shellfish – for a “tide to table” lunch. We tried all the oysters and clams!

After some downtime siesta, we went back to explore the Friday Harbor downtown – walking around the docks, shops and this beautiful structure honoring the Salish people.

Our day ended at a gorgeous restaurant, near San Juan Vineyards and otherwise in the middle of nowhere – Duck Soup. The setting was warm, welcoming and our server had children around the boys age and was so wonderful chatting with them.