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....

Sunshine!!

I have to admit, Washington cheered me up this weekend! For the first time in many, many weeks, the sun decided to come out! I woke up on Saturday to a bright and sunny day! The sun was actually shining into my window, which was something I hadn't seen in a long time! We decided to take advantage of the nice day and spend it at Deception Pass. Mr. V has been dying to go hiking or do anything outdoorsy for a while now, and I just wanted to go soak up all of the Vitamin D that I could! On a completely random note, one of Mr. V's good friend's from high school lives in Seattle (and I say its random, because the guy admitted that he chose to move to Seattle, from New Orleans, completely randomly). The 2 of them had been trying to find time for a while to get together and hang out, so on Saturday his friend drove up from Seattle and the 3 of us went off to our Deception Pass adventure.

I am happy to say that I am not the only one put off by Mr. V's hiking expectations. Thankfully, his friend also thought he was a little crazy for wanting to do certain things. It was nice not being the only person whining about what we were doing, especially since the other person whining was a guy. We started out near one of the beach areas at the park and Mr. V decided that he wanted to climb up and over a huge rock formation to get to another section of beach, then a trail. His friend and I protested, and we lost. Mr. V told us that we were both pathetic and to just climb.



After almost falling flat on my face (I was ok. My hands saved me and I ended up with pieces of gravel in my hands instead of my face.), we made it to the top of the first rock formation. Mr. V announced that we had to go over the next large rock formation, which was larger and even scarier than the first one. I protested. His friend protested. We won :-).

We ended up finding a small trail at the top of the rock we just climbed up, which led us back to the very same place that we started (I wasn't all that thrilled that I had just almost killed myself for nothing). We got into the car, and his friend and I were very grateful that we then drove to the trail that Mr. V wanted to hike.

We parked at the parking lot near the bridge, and took a short, short walk out onto the bridge. The walk ended when an 18 wheeler rolled across the bridge, Mr. V's friend felt the bridge shaking and we hightailed it off of there as quickly as possible (with Mr. V protesting because he wanted to walk across the whole bridge).

We ended up hiking the Summit Trail which was really nice. It was classified as a medium difficulty trail, and I'm happy to report that I only had to stop to catch my breath 3 times before making it to the top. I am sadly out of shape, because there was once a point in time where I could do a hike like that with no problem. As much as I whined about it at the time, it really wasn't a hard trail, but hopefully Mr. V will stop trying to convince me to hike even harder trails now. We were able to see beautiful views of Mt. Baker covered in snow (so I understand why these days are commonly referred to as "Baker days" now), and the trail itself was pretty with all the green foliage on it. Once reaching the summit, we continued on a trail that became the Perimeter Trail, which is an easy trail to climb down, but I don't recommend climbing UP it if you are in the same kind of shape I'm in, or worse.

I'm not sure how long the entire hike took, but it was enough to get my blood pumping and help me feel good about being outside again. It was a cold day, but the sun made it bearable and I'm happy to report that Sunday and today (Monday) were also beautiful sunny days! I think Washington is trying to tease me again by convincing me that I like it here, only to turn dark and dreary again once I make that decision. Though, until that happens, I am going to take advantage of this nice weather for as long as I can!