San Juan Island

This past weekend Mr. V and I headed out to San Juan Island. Its one of several islands that make up the San Juan Islands, and it has the largest town - Friday Harbor - of all of the islands on it. A family member asked me a few weeks ago where I actually lived, so thanks to screen shots and the paint application, I created a map to answer that question:

This first map is a google map of the state of Washington. I circled Whidbey Island on it. As you can see, I live in the center of the Puget Sound (you may have to click the picture to see it a little larger):
The second map is of the Puget Sound, with a star on Oak Harbor - the town I live in - on Whidbey Island, and an arrow pointing to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island:
Oh and that gray line to the left of the map? That's the United States/Canada border, something that also fascinates me. You can see Vancouver Island from Whidbey Island and the fact that I live closer to the Canadian border than I do to Seattle is something that I've loved since we moved here. I've come to love the city of Vancouver so its something that I will miss when we move away from here. (note: Vancouver Island is home of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. The city of Vancouver is a city, not an island, that's on the mainland of Canada. I've noticed that this seems to confuse people for some reason. Basically, the island and the city are 2 very different things.)

I'm fascinated by the San Juan Islands because you can only get to them by boat or plane (a small plane), yet people still live there. I'm not sure why its so fascinating to me, but I can't imagine living in a place that I couldn't get on or off of without a boat or a plane. Granted, you can drive your car onto the ferry to get there, but there is no bridge or tunnel to get you there, so if the ferries are out of service (which seems to happen more often than one would think) you're basically stranded. All of the San Juan Islands are like this, but the larger ones have a large ferry going in and out of them, while the smaller ones have nothing except personal small watercraft. I just can't wrap my mind around the idea of living somewhere like that. But with that being said, I love visiting this area. Last summer I went to San Juan Island for the first time when my friend came out to visit me. Mr. V was deployed at the time and its a place he had been wanting to go to, so this past weekend we finally had the chance to go together.

(View from the ferry of the San Juan Islands)

(a house on one of the smaller San Juan Islands - I can't even imagine living like this!)

(a boat and a plane - the only methods of transportation out here)

(arriving in Friday Harbor)

Our first stop was at the San Juan National Park American Camp. Back in the mid 1800's the island was jointly occupied by American and British troops who got into a little scuffle over a pig that someone shot. Basically both sides claimed that they owned the island, one guy shot a pig that belonged to a guy on the other side, they built forts/camps to protect each side, then lived there peacefully on opposite ends of the island for several years until the German Kaiser settled the dispute and awarded the island to the Americans. Thats a really crappy version of the history there, but if you feel the need, google "Pig War" for the more educated version of the story :-).

(American Camp on the southern end of the island)

(Officer's Quarters - one of 2 surviving buildings left)

(Laundress Quarters)

Our next stop was the town of Roche Harbor at the northern end of the island. I've been trying to find out how many people live in Roche Harbor, but its apparently so small that I can only find the entire population of San Juan Island itself (2,152), and no information on Roche Harbor on its own. So basically, its REALLY small. And I'm not going to lie - I sort of got a Twilight Zone feeling upon entering this town. It starts with a large sign over the road welcoming you to Roche Harbor Resort, which I sadly didn't take a picture of. I just found it odd, because it functions like the whole town is a resort, even though it has actual permanent residents.Then once you get into the town its just...weird. I don't know how to explain it. Its just so small, that you feel like you're walking into someone's backyard, except its a town. If you've ever read the Weird Washington book, its also in there. As in, the entire town is listed as one of Washington's weird places. It was an old company town, built around a lime kiln, that is still standing in ruins today (the lime kiln is in ruins, not the town). Also, one of the town's original residents built this enormous, way overdone, mausoleum for his whole family.

So let's recap. The town itself is in the Weird Washington book. The McMillan Mausoleum is also in the book. This is a town that apparently doesn't even have enough residents to even bother coming up with a town population count, yet it appears in the book twice. I'd say that makes it pretty weird.

Aside from the weirdness though, it was a pretty cute town that we explored for a while. When I went to San Juan Island last summer, we didn't make it up to Roche Harbor, so it was something pretty interesting to see this time around.

(part of the old lime kiln)

(another part of the old lime kiln)

(Hotel de Haro - an original wooden hotel. We went inside to look around and its so old that guests have to share a hallway bathroom with only one toilet and one shower. The floors and stairs are crooked and it just has an overall spooky atmosphere.)

(I think the size of the post office speaks for itself. I didn't notice if any of the houses in town had mailboxes so my guess is that if you count the number of mailboxes you can probably count the number of families that live in the town [and I didn't cut out any of the mailboxes in this picture - thats all of them].)

("downtown" Roche Harbor)

(after getting hooked on geocaching a few weeks ago, we've been playing around with some phone apps for it and we found that Roche Harbor has some. So we went looking for them and this is the first one we found.)

(2nd cache of the day)

(the McMillan Mausoleum - crazy and elaborate for such a tiny little town)

(me at the table in the mausoleum - each chair has the remains of his family members. Slightly creepy.)

(before we left Roche Harbor, we found a 3rd cache. Geocaching is definitely an addictive hobby!)

Our third stop was the English camp at San Juan National Park. The English camp is on the northern end of the island and was better maintained than the American camp, so a large part of it is still standing today.

(English Camp- San Juan National Park)

(We got there as they were getting ready to close the visitor's center and one of the park rangers started recruiting everyone around to help out with the flag lowering ceremony.)

(folding the British flag)

(Mr. V helping to fold the flag)

(the park ranger getting ready to put the flag away for the night)

(view of the English camp from the hill where the Officer's quarters used to be)

(Mr. V in the old carriage lane leading to the Officer housing. The trees lining it were planted by the English who lived there in the 1800s.)

Our next stop was at an alpaca farm just to take some pictures - I want one :-).



Our final stop of the day was at Lime Kiln State Park. This is apparently a great place to go whale watching, though I can't say that I agree. Last year we arrived at the park exactly 4 minutes after a huge pod of whales had swam by - talk about bad timing. This year we were told that no whales had been spotted for 3 days. Maybe one day we'll get to see them!

(Lime Kiln State Park and lighthouse)

(view from Lime Kiln State Park)

(Mr. V and me)

(me - its so beautiful at this park!)

(back in Friday Harbor - one of the ferries arriving at the dock)

All in all a great day!

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....