Halfway There!

Last night was our Officer Spouse's Club "Over the Hump" party. To be honest, I've been avoiding doing things with the OSC lately for a variety of reasons, but a huge one being that I'm just sick and tired of dealing with the Navy and this deployment. When my friend was here visiting, it was wonderful because for the first time in a long time I didn't have to eat, sleep and breathe Navy. However, I pulled myself out of my bad mood and put the bad attitude aside for the evening and surprisingly, I had a lot of fun!

I will admit that the main reason I decided to go, wasn't to have fun (although, I had hoped that I would have fun). Apparently, its tradition here that other squadrons (our "sister" squadrons), pool a lot of money from their own OSCs to throw an Over the Hump party for whichever squadron is deployed. And by pooling money, I mean that each squadron donates $200-$300 to the party, which makes a pretty large chunk of cash when you add it all up. Since every OSC event I have been to in the past involved eating dinner at someone's house, I couldn't imagine what kind of party they would throw with all of that money. We knew that the theme of the party was "The Amazing Race", but that was all we knew. The ladies putting the whole thing together kept everything a secret until we arrived last night.

Once we arrived we were greeted with drinks (including bottled water with special labels printed up with the squadron name and "Over the Hump" on them. I'm telling you, they really went all out for this.), and we were divided into teams of 4-5. We had to draw numbers from a bag and whatever number we had was the team we were on. I lucked out and got to be on a team with one of my good friends, which made me happy :-). Our first task was to decipher a clue that told us which car we had to get into. Once we figured out the the letters and numbers were a scrambled license plate number, we found our car, and hopped in. One of the ladies from one of the other squadrons was our driver, and another lady came along to take pictures of us as proof that we completed our tasks.

Our first stop (which was REALLY hard to figure out - they put a lot of time and thought into these clues) was at a local building, that looks like a log cabin, with several companies inside of it. We were given cowboy hats (the kind little kids wear) and bandanas, told to put them on, stand in front of the building for a picture, and then we were off again. The next hour or so consisted of us running in and out of Walmart, Safeway, and some sketchy local bars, doing a Chinese fire drill, making a crayon rubbing of a manhole and begging every single person we ran into for a blue rubber band. Basically, we had 2 tasks. The first was to answer a bunch of questions that were given to us. Some were easy (What is the follow on plane for the P3 called? P8), and some were pretty hard (Whats the capital of Qatar and Djibouti? For the record, I didn't even know how to spell Djibouti. And if you're interested, the capital is simply...Djibouti. Maybe that should have been an easy question.) Our second task was a scavenger hunt where we had to do certain things and find certain things. Now somewhere out there, someone in another squadron has a video of us doing the Can-Can on the corner of the 2 main streets in town.

We had a lot of fun though. The people in Walmart and Safeway seemed to think we were slightly insane. We came in with our cowboy hats and bandanas, but we didn't realize until we ran into another team, that everyone had different costumes. One team was in hula skirts, leis and coconut bras. Another had a shiny pink cape and mask. The third team had princess tiaras, cheap plastic clip on diamond earrings and feather boas. And the final team had pimp hats, a money necklace, and a blacked out tooth. I'm sure the locals were highly amused by us all.

Some things we learned from the night:
~Oak Harbor has some VERY sketchy bars. One task was to go into a certain bar, where a shot had already been paid for, and one person on the team had to drink the shot. We got to the bar at the same time as another team, and while the bartender was getting the drinks, and someone was explaining that we were on a scavenger hunt, a creepy man told us that we should each sit on his lap, take a picture and send it to our husbands. Right.

~Safeway gives out free cookies at the bakery. Getting one of those cookies was one of the tasks.

~Safeway also sells buffalo meat (take a picture of a bison was on the list).

~For anyone wondering where to find a picture of a bison if you didn't take a picture of the meat, there is apparently a bison statue in Ft. Nugent park.

~You can drive over part of the lawn and curb of the base CO's house, without ruining your husband's career, although I don't recommend doing this. (Take a picture of a COW aka Commanding Officer's Wife house was on the list, and this particular COW just had her house decorated with cows the night before.) We weren't the only group who knew this though, so while we were there taking a picture, another group arrived, and proceeded to block us into the driveway to prevent us from getting ahead. While one of our team members talked to the CO and his wife to get answers to some of our questions (How many squadrons are here on Whidbey?), our driver proceeded to play chicken with the other driver, until the opposing team moved out of the way just enough so we could squeeze around them, by driving over the lawn and curb. Thankfully, these people had a sense of humor (and it probably helped that our CO's wife was on that opposing team).

~You can also steal on base without ruining your husband's career, although I also don't recommend doing this. Get a copy of the Navigator, the base newspaper, was one thing we had to do. Instead of going into the commissary or NEX, we simply stole one from someone's driveway. We did have a short discussion about whether or not stealing the newspaper and driving over the CO's lawn would be career killers (we decided we didn't care - sorry Mr. V). However, we did send out the wife of the highest ranking guy to be the thief. We figured that her husband was the least likely to get in trouble.

~People in foreign countries eat some really disgusting food. Our dinner was also Amazing Race themed so we had food from all over the world, and I have to be honest and say that most of it was pretty disgusting. I'm a picky eater though, so I'm sure some people loved it. Dessert was great though. Tiramisu that was swimming in alcohol, and some banana coconut thing that was delicious. We were all very happy when we were presented with gift bags (and by gift bag, I mean a canvas bag with the squadron logo sewed onto it, a nice little sentiment written to the wives, and our first initial in rhinestones - did I mention they really went all out for this party?) full of candy from around the world, and a recipe book with the recipes for everything we ate. I'll have to attempt to make the desserts one of these days.

So all in all it was a fun night. Deployment is now MORE than halfway over, and we've all survived so far so things are looking good :-).

Wonderful Washington Day 7

For our 7th day of Washington fun, I'm not going to write a lot. Instead I am going to direct you to Alice's blog, and her post about our day in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Our Day of Randomness - by Alice

I think Alice covered our day pretty well, so I'm not sure that there is much more that I can say. In summary, we decided to go to Vancouver for the day so that Alice and Carol could say they went to Canada. My friend Amber Lynn also joined us so she could say she lost her "Canadaginity". She lives here in Washington too, but had never been to Canada before this day. There's not a whole lot to do in Vancouver that would be a huge tourist draw, but there are still fun things to do.

Our day consisted of a Canadian border guard who told us not to drown....a random University of Texas guy who Carol had to shout "Hook 'em" to out of the car window on the Canadian border.... Amber Lynn's fascination by the "Welcome to the United States of America" sign, that she pointed out looked like an amusement park sign....lots and lots of traffic due to a group of Iranians standing in solidarity (it went on for blocks and blocks), asking for democracy, as they supported the recent protesters in Iran....a 2 hour lunch because our waitress seemed to forget about us, even though we were right smack in the middle of the restaurant and she walked past us numerous times....a mama raccoon and her babies (Alice didn't write about these guys) who were out in broad daylight begging for food...a seagull that swallowed a giant starfish in one VERY slow gulp....a random Canadian, who saw the pilot wings on the front of my car (I was driving Mr. V's car), and made a whole line of cars back up so we could take his parking spot (amazing since I was under the impression that Canadians didn't like the United States military)....a wedding party dressed in gothic clothing, having wedding pictures taken by a tombstone-like structure....another wedding party on the Canada/United States border....a cruise ship that dragged a dead whale into the Vancouver harbor....a thunderstorm that we tried hard to not be afraid of, only to find out the next day that 4 people were struck by lightening just a few miles from where we were...a real rescue of a stupid person who seemed to think it was a good idea to leave a clearly marked trail and end up in freezing waterfall water/rapids...an adorable Canadian park ranger who became even more adorable when he talked to us with his French-Canadian accent....a suspension bridge that terrified all of us except Carol, although we still walked across it...a United States border guard who was waaaayyyy too excited that Carol and Alice were visiting from Texas (although he was 10 times friendlier than the Canadian border guard)...and finally, a beautiful sunset.

So go ahead and read Alice's blog, and then come back here to see pictures of our day. Or just look at the pictures first and then read Alice's blog. I figure she can do the explaining about the day, and I can provide the pictures :-).

Alice's blog about Vancouver

(Peach Arch State Park - on the border of Washington,USA and British Columbia, Canada)

(Amber Lynn by her "amusement park" sign)

(Amber Lynn losing her Canadaginity)

(Iranian protesters)

(baby raccoons)

(Mama raccoon)

(Canadian geese in Canada - this was really amusing to us for some reason)

(seagull starting to eat a starfish)

(still eating)

(stopping for a rest)

(yep, the whole starfish is in his mouth)

(all done!)

(A Princess Cruise ship going under the Lion's Gate Bridge. We found out the next morning that this same cruise ship dragged a dead whale into this harbor when it arrived.)

(One of many, many warning signs in Lynn Canyon park)

(Another of the many, many warning signs in Lynn Canyon)

(This is what happens when you ignore the many warning signs in Lynn Canyon. They are rescuing a guy who somehow ended up in the water below.)

(a horrible picture, but the only clear one of us on the suspension bridge - we're a little frightened because some kids decided to run past us right at this moment, making the bridge move)

So again - the link to Alice's blog: Alice's Vancouver Blog

Wonderful Washington Day 5 and 6

After spending 4 days riding the ferries back and forth to various locations, we decided that we needed some time to see the local sights, and relax at the same time. So we spent the next 2 days exploring Whidbey Island.

Day 5, Thursday, July 22: We slept in to get some much needed rest, then we packed lunches of peanut butter and jelly, with a side of apples, and headed off to Fort Ebey State Park. Whidbey Island has tons of small state parks, most of which I have never seen, and Fort Ebey was one of them. We took a short trail down to the beach, where we ate our lunch and just relaxed and watched the water. This day started out in typical Washington fashion - cloudy and cool. So sitting on the beach, was actually pretty relaxing and comfortable. I'm not sure how long we stayed there, but the tide was out, so we walked around on the large rocks that are usually covered by water, and I collected more rocks to line our garden. As we were getting ready to leave, some random people on the beach asked us if we had ever been to this beach before when the tide comes in. We said no. She then informed us that if we came back at 5:00 that afternoon we would be pleasantly surprised by the ocean sized waves and the surfers that came out to surf those waves. I had no idea that we got ocean sized waves on Whidbey Island, and to be honest, it still doesn't really make sense to me as to why we get waves like that, but regardless of whether or not it makes sense to me, it turns out that we do, in fact, get ocean sized waves here.

(Fort Ebey State Park)

So we left the beach, and headed off to hike a short trail that led to an old gun battery from the World War II era, when Fort Ebey was an actual functioning fort. We explored the battery for a while, and then we headed down to Coupeville so Alice and Carol could see the cute, historic downtown.

(gun battery at Fort Ebey State Park)

Once in Coupeville, we saw the historic downtown (which takes all of 2 seconds, although it is a very cute historic downtown), got some yummy ice cream, and checked out some gift shops, and then just before 5:00, we decided to head back to Fort Ebey to check out these amazing waves that we were told about.

I have to admit, we were very impressed by the waves. We got there just a little after 5:00. The tide was in, and most of the beach that we had played around on before, was gone. There was a large group of surfers (or what I perceive to be a large group of surfers, since this is Whidbey Island - 20 people), and there were HUGE waves! Granted, I grew up on the Jersey shore, so waves don't truly excite me. I've seen some pretty big waves in my lifetime, and these waves weren't quite up to par with my normal definition of big waves, but it was still pretty amazing. We sat and watched for a while, because I think all 3 of us were in shock that waves this large actually happened on an island in the middle of the Puget Sound. We took some pictures, of course, but the pictures really didn't do it justice. If you're in this area, its definitely something worth checking out, although, if you're looking to see some hot, good looking, good surfing, surfers, this is not the place to do that. The surfers were actually pretty bad, and half of them were balding :-).

Day 6, Friday, July 23: We had planned on going back to the San Juan Islands on this day to see Orcas Island and Lopez Island, but when we woke up it was really foggy, in typical Washington fashion. Part of what we loved about the San Juan Islands was the beauty of them, but the beauty is hard to see when its covered by fog. Since we didn't have any major plans though, we decided to drive to the ferry terminal and ask if they knew what the weather was going to be like on the islands later on in the day. The ticket lady told us that she was pretty sure the fog was going to clear up, but she couldn't guarantee it. So we debated a little, but in the end, we decided to just stay on Whidbey again for the day.

Our first stop was Mt. Erie, which I believe is the highest point in this area. It offers you an amazing view of Whidbey Island and the surrounding areas and islands. We drove up to the top and took in the view for a little while, then headed down towards Coupeville to go to Fort Casey State Park. Fort Casey is an old army fort, and on the property is the Admirilty Head Lighthouse. We took a short tour through the lighthouse and then explored the fort for a while, before heading back home to get some rest. Overall, it wasn't a very eventful day, but it was a fun relaxing one.

(View from Mt. Erie)

(Carol, Alice and me on Mt. Erie)

(Admiralty Head Lighthouse)

(Fort Casey)

I Quit

I've always heard that everything that can possibly go wrong during a deployment will go wrong, but I didn't realize just how true that was until 2 nights ago. I posted a while back about Murphy's law and all the random things going wrong for me, but I just wanted to recap, because I'm ready to quit. Deployment is only half over, so if all of this can go wrong in just 3 months, what can possible happen during the next 3 months?

So far:
~my dishwasher has completely died on me

~my dryer is making a strange screeching sound so I'm assuming thats about to die on me too.

~A shelf fell down in Mr. V's closet about 2 weeks after he left. (In that case, I simply looked at the fallen shelf and calmly closed the closet door for him to deal with when he comes back home.)

~Larry, the kitten I'm babysitting for the length of the deployment developed a hernia almost as soon as his owner deployed. Its not a huge problem right now, but he does need surgery eventually. And I'm supposed to be keeping him inactive until he gets the surgery. If someone knows how to keep a 10 month old kitten inactive, without locking him in a tiny carrier, I'd love to hear how.

~My car battery completely died, but I thought "oh well I'll just drive Mr. V's car until I get a new battery."

~Then Mr V's car started making this weird clanking sound underneath it. His alignment is also off, which I can tell just from driving it, and which he knew about before he left, but he didn't tell me (he may not have known) just how bad it was. So when I took the car in to find out why it was making a clanking sound, the guy simply glanced under the car and told me within 5 seconds that I need new tires because they are worn to a dangerous point - all due to the bad alignment. The mechanic told me flat out that I wasn't driving anywhere in that car until it had new tires on it. So great. Apparently, I was driving around a pretty unsafe car for quite some time.

~When I picked the car up, it feels great because of the new tires, but its still making a clanking sound. However, in the parking lot of the auto place, I can't hear the clanking, and neither could the mechanics, which I guess is why nothing is fixed. Of course the loudest sound I've ever heard the car make just miraculously disappears when I bring it to the mechanic and then reappears 5 minutes down the road after picking up the car.

~Our lawnmower doesn't work, nor do I know how to go shopping for a lawnmower. I feel stupid for not knowing anything about lawnmowers, but the fact is, I really don't have a clue, so I wouldn't even know where to start. Luckily I have a friendly 12 year old next door neighbor who wants $10 from me to cut my lawn. I have happily let him take over the care of my lawn.

~2 lights burned out in our living room. Not a huge deal right? I can change a lightbulb. But for some reason, our house came with standard lightbulbs in every room except the living room. The lights in there are a weird size and when we first moved here, it took Mr. V several days and a few stores to finally find the right sized light to fit in there. Of course, the normal sized bulbs couldn't die, it had to be the ones that are hard to find.

~Our hose broke. Honestly? I didn't even know that hoses could break. But somehow, some spots of the hose got a weird bubble in them, which led to a pinprick-like hole which caused the water to come out of all the tiny holes, instead of the actual nozzle. I need the hose because I have a house full of cats, and I have to scrub and bleach the litter boxes weekly, and use the hose outside to do that. OK fine. I'm capable of buying a new hose, but it just adds to the annoyance of random things breaking.

~My sink was clogged a few nights ago. We have a garbage disposal, and sometimes when I wash dishes (by hand of course since our dishwasher is broken), the water starts to build up because there are pieces of food in the sink. Usually as soon as I turn on the garbage disposal, the water drains right away. But that didn't happen this time. I ended up with both sides of my sink completely clogged with standing water and nasty food particles. I thought I was going to throw up several times. 5 hours, yes 5 hours, after noticing that it was clogged, I finally got it to drain after several attempts at making the garbage disposal work and a trip to the store to buy a plunger and some draino. The plunger did absolutely nothing to help. The draino was specifically for standing water and the directions said to give it 15 minutes to work, but 30 for bad clogs. It took over an hour for each side to finally drain once I poured the draino in (and I did each side at different times).

After the clogged sink, I just lost it. My energy and motivation just completely disappeared. I know that in the grand scheme of things, it was just a clogged sink, but for me it was the last straw in a line of things going wrong. I swear that I have never had this much go wrong on me in so little time.

But here's the best part. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse (which I really need to stop thinking) it did. I discovered 2 nights ago that we have termites. Great. So now I have to get an exterminator, although, maybe if I let the termites eat the house, then we won't have a house anymore, and therefore nothing else can go wrong with the house :-). I think that sounds like a good plan.

Wonderful Washington Day 3 and 4

I'm obviously pretty slow at getting these blogs posted, but here's more updates about my 2 week vacation! Day 3 and 4 were spent on the Olympic Peninsula.

Day 3, Tuesday, July 21: The day started out pretty uneventful, but slowly got a little stressful. We got up fairly early, drove down to the ferry in Coupeville and headed off to the Olympic Peninsula. Its recommended that we get reservations for this ferry, because its a small one, but we decided to take our chances and see if we can get on standby. While checking for reservations the night before we figured out that there were no reservations left, BUT they don't reserve the entire ferry, so there are always standby spots available. We just needed to get there early enough to get a standby spot. So on this day, we had no problem getting on the ferry. I think there were only about 15 cars there, if there were even that many. We were excited about not having to stress about getting on the ferry so we enjoyed the short ride to Port Townsend and then hopped off the ferry to drive to the Olympic National Park. One thing I didn't know about the Olympic Peninsula until I moved here, is that its very unpopulated. From Port Townsend, there is really only 1 main road that will take you down the entire Peninsula. The key is getting on that road in the first place.

We missed the initial exit to get on the road, but thats not a big deal because there are 1 or 2 other places where you can get onto the road. Of course, since we missed that first exit, we managed to get ourselves stuck in construction traffic - the kind where only one lane is open and you have to be led by a lead truck to drive through. Construction is annoying enough on its own, but apparently, in a place where there is only one road, that means that EVERYONE is on this road. My phone has a GPS on it, so I turned it on to see if there were any alternate routes. We discovered then, that it is possible to get very angry at a GPS. We were stuck in one lane construction traffic, and the GPS kept saying "Make the next legal U-turn". Well thats fine. But we couldn't U-Turn because the lanes were only going in one direction thanks to this traffic! Then, at one point the GPS told us to turn left onto a road. We passed that road accidentally, and when we finally did manage to make a U-turn, the GPS was still telling us to turn left, which at this point should have been a right. So after about an hour of yelling at the GPS and cursing the traffic, we finally got ourselves on the right road and headed into Port Angeles for lunch.

This is where the Twilight insanity starts. Since Port Angeles is where Bella and Edward had their first date, it only seems right that a local restaurant called Bella Italia, claimed themselves as the place of their first date. It doesn't matter that this restaurant existed before Twilight. It is now the official home of Bella and Edward's first date. Its only open for dinner hours though, so since it was lunch time we just got to look at it and take pictures, like good Twilight tourists. We were also amused by a sign that said "Unattended children will go to the Volturi" in one of the local stores. If you're a Twilight fan, you'll probably find that funny. If you're not a Twilight fan, then you'll have no clue what that means, so you should take my suggestion and go read the book!


We ate lunch at a small local restaurant in Port Angeles, then we hung out with the locals for a bit:


Then we continued on our trek to Olympic National Park. If you read my post from several months ago about National Parks, you'll know that I'm not a huge fan of National Parks that are nothing but nature. They are beautiful, yes, but the kind of National Park I enjoy the most are the Civil War battlefields that don't exist out here on the West Coast. But with that being said, I LOVE the Olympic National Park. Its one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The entire park sits on the edge of a rainforest (The Hoh Rainforest is actually part of the park, but we didn't make it that far. I don't think the entire park is part of the rainforest but I could be wrong) and its filled with cascading waterfalls and beautiful crystal clear blue lakes. We hiked up to Marymere Falls first. Then afterward, we sat on a dock by the edge of a lake, and just relaxed. We picked a beautiful day to visit the area. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, which is pretty unusual for this area. I'm not sure how long we sat there and relaxed but eventually we had to get up and leave, and start making our way back to Port Townsend to hop back on the ferry (we did manage to get reservations for the return trip).


Back in Port Townsend, we ate dinner in a tiny little restaurant in the historic downtown. Port Townsend is a beautiful, historic town that I am definitely going to have to check out one day. We had to make the ferry, so we only had time for dinner, and no exploring.

Day 4, Wednesday, July 22: On this day we headed right back to where we were the day before - the Olympic Peninsula. This time our goal was to visit Forks and La Push to see the crazy Twilight tourism stops in both places, and to see the Pacific Ocean in La Push. This was Alice's first time visiting the West Coast, so seeing the Pacific Ocean was a must! We got a later start than we did the day before. Again, we didn't have reservations on the ferry, but we thought it would be easy to get on, since it was so easy the day before. This time it wasn't. We got VERY lucky. On Tuesday, I guess no one wanted to ride the ferry to Port Townsend. On Wednesday, lots of people did. We were the very last car that they let on for stand by. Talk about good luck! We avoided the construction traffic this time by taking the first exit to get on the road we needed to be on, and made excellent time to Forks. It should take about 3 hours, but it took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes, and I swear we weren't even speeding, so our day was off to a good start! We got to Forks around lunch time and ate at the Forks Coffee Shop, which isn't really a coffee shop, its an old school diner. But they had good food and we were hungry, so we enjoyed ourselves a nice relaxing lunch. We ended up at the Forks visitor center where we were presented with a Twilight tour packet. The packet consists of an official Twilight map (to see places like Bella's house and Forks High School), plus a Twilight quiz, plus a list of restaurants with Twilight themed food (who doesn't want to eat a Bella Burger?)

Oddly enough, the entire time Alice was here visiting, the sun was out and it was abnormally hot by Washington standards. Forks, however, was different. Forks is the wettest place in the continental United States (which is why Stephanie Meyer set Twilight there), and this proved true on the day we were there. Dreary gray skies, cold temperatures, and misty rain made it feel like summer had disappeared on our short trip away from Whidbey. But since we were in the wettest place in the United States, I thought it was quite appropriate, especially since the last time I visited Forks, it was bright and sunny and not at all what I was expecting.

So we did a quick tour of the Twilight stops. We saw Bella's house (which some random family lives in, and claimed as Bella's house), the Cullen house (a bed and breakfast that keeps a message board up so visitors can know what the Cullen's are doing that day), a local drug store that sold souvenirs and had a sign out front saying it was Bella's First Aid station (since Bella is clumsy and always getting hurt, of course), and a few other random places. Then we were off to La Push, where it was equally as gray, cold, cloudy and rainy. La Push is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, and I have to admit that even in the fog it was still pretty neat looking. However, I was disappointed that Alice and Carol didn't get to see the full effect of the place. Out in the ocean are these huge rock structures that just sit out there, but the fog was so thick that they were impossible to see. However, off to the side of the beach, in a little bay were some of these formations, so they saw those, but thats not the same in my mind.

(Local Forks Pharmacy)

(The daily update about the Cullens)

(The border of the Quileute Indian Reservation, where as any good Twilight fan knows, vampires are not allowed to go)

(freezing on the beach in La Push)

(I think this is my favorite picture of Alice from the whole trip. She really wanted to touch the Pacific Ocean, however, the ocean didn't understand that she wanted to do this on her own terms. So after several really small waves came by, this giant wave crashed onto shore, soaking Alice in the process. She was freezing, but she DID get to put her feet in the Pacific Ocean!)

(Twilight graffiti on the driftwood on the beach)

(I didn't write this, but I thought it was funny, so of course I took a picture)

(foggy La Push)

(beautiful, foggy, La Push)

(More fog in La Push)

(We stopped at this coffee stand on the way out of town, and we thought it was funny that even the local coffee places have made themselves part of the Twilight insanity.)

And that concludes days 3 and 4. Hopefully my update on days 5 and 6 will be posted faster than this one was!

Wonderful Washington Day 1 and 2

Maybe I can write about my entire trip before months have passed since Alice's visit...

Day 1: Sunday, July 19: Alice and Carol arrived in Seattle late on Saturday, the 18th. They were jetlagged and I was tired, so we slept in on Sunday morning. Then we took the obligatory trip to Deception Pass. Deception Pass was one of the first places I saw when we moved here, and I've been told that its a must see for any visitor to the island. Now, whenever someone visits me, its the first place we go. So off we went to Deception Pass. Alice and Carol were amazed by the beauty of the place. We walked across the bridge (yes I made it all the way across for the second time now), and spent a good deal of time just looking at the scenery. We were lucky that the weather was beautiful, so therefore the views were beautiful (although, in the distance, Mt. Baker was almost completely hidden by a cloud). After our bridge walk, we headed down the beach below the bridge. Again, we just spent some time enjoying the views. Carol put her feet in the cold water, I collected some rocks for my massive Washington rock collection (we are lining our garden with them...slowly), we took some pictures and then headed home.



After a homemade dinner of deli roast beef heated in brown gravy, and mashed potatos made out of potato flakes (which is about as homemade as it gets for me), we drove up to Anacortes and went to Washington Park to watch the sunset over the San Juan Islands. When I first moved here, a college friend of mine who lives in Anacortes, took me to Washington Park. She insisted that it is one of the most beautiful places around, and that I had to see the sunset there. Since that visit, I have taken several visitors there to watch the sunset. Its truly beautiful, especially with all of the small islands doting the background. Alice and Carol had never seen the sun set in the west, so they were impressed by that small novelty, along with the pure beauty of the place.



I collected some more Washington rocks before we left, then we headed home to get some sleep for our long day on Monday.

Day 2: Monday, July 20: On Monday, we visited San Juan Island. We had originally intended on visiting the 3 San Juan Islands that the ferry stops at (Orcas Island, San Juan Island and Lopez Island) but we ending up spending more time we thought we would at San Juan Island, and based on the ferry schedule we were really only able to see the one island. This was ok though, because it was still beautiful, and of the 3 small islands, San Juan Island has the most stuff to do. We hopped on the ferry from Anacortes and spend the 1 hour and 15 minute ferry ride standing outside in the cold wind, continuously taking pictures. There are actually a lot of islands that make up the San Juan Islands, although I'm not completely sure how you get to them all. Obviously you have to get there by boat, since there are no bridges, and the main ferry doesn't stop at all of them, this thought alone fascinated me. Maybe its because I grew up in the most densely populated state, but even after being out of New Jersey for years, I am still in awe of the areas of this country that are so scarcely populated. I honestly can't even imagine how some people can live somewhere where your only way out is by boat. Don't get me wrong. I love to see these places and visit them, but I have to admit that there is a nagging feeling of panic in the back of my mind when I think about actually living in a place like that. I'm just completely intrigued by it, even though I don't think I could ever live like that myself.

Anyway, the ferry ride was beautiful. We had been told that people often see Orca whales during the ferry ride, but we weren't lucky enough for that. We just simply enjoyed the view of all of the islands that we passed and marveled at the thought of living on them as we looked at the scattered houses placed on them. These pictures don't do it justice at all.

The ferry docks in Friday Harbor, which is the largest town on San Juan Island. From there we drove to San Juan National Park, where the Pig War took place (google it - it was a skirmish fought over a pig, and is actually somewhat amusing) in the 1850's, when the United States and England were fighting for control of the San Juan Islands. (end result of the time period, not the Pig War - the United States got most of the San Juan Islands, and England got Vancouver Island, where Victoria, the capital of British Columbia is today). The National Park is located on 2 ends of the island. The American Camp is at one end and the English Camp is at the other end. The first picture is us at the American Camp - we were aiming for a shot of Mt. Baker behind us. The second picture is a description of what the Pig War was. The third picture I just find funny because it was taken at the English camp, yet the American flag is flying over the sign that says "English Camp". There was something really amusing about that to me. The fourth picture is a park ranger getting ready to close the park for the day, and he is taking down the British flag. We were somewhat amused and interested at how this happened. Obviously, there are strict guidelines about how you raise and lower and American flag and how you have to fold it. Apparently, Americans could care less about the British flag because this guy just took it down the flag pole, then bunched it up in his arms, then stuffed into into a small area of his golf cart. I'm not sure why that was so interesting to me, but it was. Then again, I'm a huge nerd.



In between the visits to the American and English Camps, we stopped at the Lime Kiln Lighthouse which is supposed to be a prime viewing location to see Orca whales. But since I am an unlucky person, we didn't see any. We got to the light house at 4:10. The people who work there keep a board up with lists of the latest whale sightings. Of course, a huge pod of whales swam by at 4:00, 10 minutes before we got there. I guess all that means is that one day I need to go back, and actually see whales this time!

So after a long, fun filled day, we headed back to Friday Harbor, ate some dinner, took pictures with the only whale that we did see:



Then we hopped back on the ferry and headed back to Anacortes, then home for the night.

Day 3 and 4 updates will follow soon....