Leaving Anacortes

I have to leave today, boo hoo. I just made sure everything was packed up this morning, including Fred having to sit on my suitcase to zip it up. I bought a thank you card for my Mom and Fred, and a sea salt and a chili dark chocolate Lindt candy bar for them. I hid them between some pillows for my Mom to find later (which she did). Then they drove me up to the corner to meet the shuttle. I was there about 20 mins early, and so was the shuttle. So just hung out until it was ready to leave. I was the only one being picked up at this stop. Between the ferry and a gas station in town, another 8 people were picked up. We had to stop 2 more places to make sure there were no walk-ins, which there weren’t. And we arrived at Sea-Tac on time around 3:45pm. I checked my bag, and boarding wasn’t until 4:55pm, so I had time to grab my dinner at Ivar’s as I had hoped. So I grabbed a cup of clam chowder and fried shrimp and chips “to go” so I could eat it at the gate. Went and sat down and chowed down. I ran to the bathroom at about 4:45pm and they were already boarding when I got out. I was on the plane, in my seat, before 5pm. Wow, that never happens. We weren’t supposed to depart until 5:29pm. I ended up with a window seat, and a woman sat on the aisle. I looked at her and said, “You were on the shuttle weren’t you?”, which she was. The seat between us was never filled, nice! And she and I chatted the whole way about her business (horseback riding ranch, Turtle Head Farm) on Orcas Island, her daughter being away at St Mary’s which is why she was flying down, my current situation and aspirations, our travel histories, her brother being VERY into Orca protection, etc. We basically chatted until we went our separate ways at the baggage claim. Very nice lady. Then I called my Dad and he picked me up. Nala was very happy to see me when I got home, and I checked in with everyone to say I made it home safely. Just catching up on a few of my shows that I missed, before I crash.

Anacortes

We rocked and rolled pretty good last night, and the mooring buoy kept banging on the hull, so that was nice while trying to sleep. That and the sounds of jets kept going until pretty late. But we left Hope Island this morning to head back to Anacortes. We had to leave around 9am or so, due to the tides, to get back out under the bridge. But that got us to Anacortes too early to enter the marina, because the tide was too low. So we anchored out and just read for a couple of hours. Once we could get into the marina, we did, then got our stuff together to head into town. Now that my trip is coming to a close, and the sale of the Piedmont house is almost finalized, they can finally start their official trip and leave dodge. So this weekend is an errand weekend for them, so they can get out of town on Sunday. So we had to hit up a few boat stores, the grocery store, Radio Shack, Bunnies by the Bay (suggested to me by someone who used to buy their stuff for a large retailer), pet hospital (to get Merlin’s nails cut), etc. After unloading stuff on the boat, we headed back into town to have dinner at Rockfish Grill. I had the San Juan salad, mixed greens with red onion, cranberries, gorgonzola and candied pecans. Then I had the fresh crab mac and cheese. Wow, it was good, and had a lot of crab in it. We wandered the street a little after dinner checking out the old murals on the building walls in town. And checked out this ship being built in their boat yard. It has a heliport on top… interesting. Then we just headed back to the boat so I could pack. And I thought my suitcase was full on my way up, it’s crazy full now. And I bought a small World Cup USA soccer ball which is going to have to go in my carry on, on the way home. Kind of a dumb purchase before having to fly home. Oh well. So bags are packed, snacks are made for the 3 hours shuttle bus then 2 hour plane ride tomorrow. At least the shuttle doesn’t leave here until 12:45pm, so I don’t have to get up crazy early.

Hope Island

Because of the tides, we had to wait around until 12:30pm to leave Spencer Spit. So we rocked and rolled for several hours (even with the flopper stoppers) until we left. Then we had a nice ride through Rosario Straight, passed Anacortes, and on to Deception Pass. The grey skies started turning blue as they have the last couple of days. Looks like it may turn out to be a nice afternoon again. We approached the bridge at Deception Pass which was quite pretty. As we came up on it, we saw a family standing on top and the kids were waving at us and making all sorts of noise. So we waved back and I took some pictures of them. The Bay beyond the bridge was really pretty with a lot of islands. We found the moorage on the side of Hope Island we were looking for. Fred and I tied up to the mooring buoy, then we got the kayaks down. As we were doing so, we saw 2 planes fly over in formation. Apparently one of the adjacent islands has a military base on it. My Mom and I hopped in the kayaks and started circling the island. The water was really clear and the coastline was very pretty with lots of trees, logs and little beaches. We beached the kayaks to see if Merlin would hop out and go pee, but he wasn’t having it, so we went on our way. While out there we saw a handful of military jets go over, which was pretty cool. My Mom thought we should maybe try to circle the island. But after what we later found on a map to be about ¼ the way around the island, we had to turn back because the current changed like crazy and we didn’t want to get caught up in it. So we headed back to the boat. We watched a little of the local Vancouver news again, which is always interesting. Then my Mom started making dinner, chicken dijon over rice, with corn. Then they we watched an episode of Star Trek (surprise surprise) and beauty and the Beast. Although I got up during Beauty and the Beast to watch the sunset, and take a bunch of pics. Really pretty one tonight. Back to civilization tomorrow.

Spencer Spit

We left Friday Harbor around 9am, and it didn’t take long to get to Spencer Spit, our next moorage. It’s on Lopez Island, and has a long beach peninsula with a cove on each side. We took the dinghy into shore, and had to take our shoes off and hop ankle deep in the water to get on shore. We then walked up the beach a while looking for sea glass, my Mom, Merlin and I. I found a couple of pieces, and Merlin kept picking up random pieces of driftwood, etc. Including a spine of a small animal. Blech!! My Mom bagged it to take back and show Fred. This cove is full of crabbers coming and going on their small boats, which means we almost have constant wake. I wasn’t feeling so hot when we got back because of this, but we all had lunch. That helped a little. Fred was reading up on the topside of the boat, so I went up there and laid on one of the bench seats for a while. The sun felt nice, but got to warm after a while. I came down and took a nap in my cabin for a while, as my Mom did so on the couch. She wasn’t feeling so hot either. We got up and my Mom made pork chops, rice and broccoli for dinner and we both felt a little better afterwards. During dinner we watched the news out of Vancouver. And they actually had a LONG segment on the NHL, can you believe it? They talked about the NHL awards, the Canucks, a big trade the Hawks made, and a retired Canadian player (Robinson) having his jersey sell for $1mil. WOW! And I did read yesterday about the Sharks goalie not being resigned. Bummer, but it was speculated. Good luck to you Nabby!

Friday Harbor... whale watching

Woke up at 9am today to get ready to head out on our whale watching trip. Some people were coming in on the ferry for the excursion, which was delayed due to heavy fog. So the tour was going to start at 11:15am. We got down there and checked in and got our anti-exposure suits. They were padded and definitely warm on this gorgeous day. Made me debate why we were wearing them. We grabbed hats and gloves too as they suggested. The other people on our tour was a family of 4 with 2 girls, maybe 7 and 10 years old. And another family whose daughter was maybe 16. So we had 10 people of a boat that seats 15, plus the captain and a naturalist. We headed out and had quite the ride, going maybe 30+ MPH and over some big waves. The captain was chatting with other boats about where the whales were, and if there were any sightings. While we were waiting, we stopped to see an island full of seals, then a few eagles on this island. Speiden Island, where the eagles were, is apparently owned by the owner of Oakley. We continued on, and apparently crossed the invisible dotted line that separates the US and Canada ;-) to find the Orcas. We soon caught up with a few other whale watching boats who were all watching this family of Orcas. Apparently they are a transient group, as opposed to the J, K, and L pods who live here. There were at least one or two adults and some youths that just kept hanging out. They would swim around the top, show their dorsal fins, blow their spout, dive under, come back up, dive back in and do it all over again. We moved along watching them for over an hour and they just kept doing this. They put on quite a show for us. Even the B.C. ferries coming by didn’t phase them. I took a ton of pictures, and luckily after getting them downloaded and zoomed in, I got some nice shots. Including one of the tail of one as it dove down in front of a sailboat. Lucky shot. We actually ended up very close to the town of Ganges on Salt Spring Island, in Canada. I actually visited there 5 years ago when I came up to the boat and we went around the Gulf Islands. After we’d been out over an hour, we had to head back. We actually went quite the distance to get to the whales, so had to high tail it back. And FYI, the distance we traveled one way today in about 30-45min (at 30ish MPH) would take about 4-5 hours (at 6 knots) on my parents boat. And let’s just say that I understand now why we wore the suits that we did. It was freezing out there. Once we got back we checked out the stuff for sale in the whale watch shop and I got a sweatshirt. We went back to the boat and made some grilled cheese sandwiches for a late lunch before going back into town. There was a magnet and ring I wanted to buy. But first we went to The Whale Museum and wandered around. It was small but nice. I ended up getting a fleece vest there. I was looking at another vest in town, but liked this one better. Then went and got my costume jewelry ring that I just had to have, my magnet, and stopped by the grocery for a couple of sodas and a new magazine. On the way back to the boat we stopped at the fresh seafood place on the dock and bought a pound of tiger prawns for dinner. My Mom made a ginger, teriyaki, honey, coconut marinade for the prawns (she stumbled upon a recipe in one of her cookbooks) over some jasmine rice. YUM YUM!! Then just the normal routine of some shows on DVD (Star Trek… for my Mom the Trekie) and me downloading my pics (YAY for some good shots of the whales). Just a chill night, after much walking the last few days. After tonight, I have 3 more nights on my trip. The last will be in Anacortes, which I don’t count. And we were going to hit this town La Conner, which my Mom compares to a very small Carmel. But since we’ve been in towns for the last 4ish days, I suggested we anchor out the next 2 nights in more rural areas where maybe we can hike and kayak. So that is the plan for now.

Roche Harbor to Friday Harbor

We left Roche Harbor around 8am and got to Friday Harbor around 10. We took a walk to the ferry dock to get some coffee and some cranberry loaf for breakfast. Then we wandered around town. Reminds me a lot of Juneau or Ketchikan. Small but full of restaurants and little shops and galleries. Surprisingly I didn’t buy anything, although will probably head back tomorrow for a magnet and costume jewelry ring I liked. Fred had headed back to the boat already to do some projects, so my Mom and I stopped at Haley's Bait Shop & Grill for lunch. We wandered town a bit more as we contemplated what to do tomorrow. We had already decided to stay here 2 nights, but there isn’t that much in town to keep us occupied. We debated taking the shuttle back over to Roche, just to see the inside of the island, which we were told is all farmland and such and very pretty. Instead we ended up checking out some whale watching companies down on the docks. We found one that goes out on a 46’ boat, or a 27’ Zodiac style boat that seats half the people and is more high speed and you wear full length anti-exposure suits. We decided to book that one for the 3 of us for tomorrow morning. That’ll be fun. We just had leftovers on the boat for dinner, watched some shows and chilled.

Roche Harbor

Happy Father’s Day! And Happy Bday to my Aunt Janet! So I got up today around 10 and took a shower. We wanted to get going and head to the Island. So we hopped in the dinghy and got over there around 11. We first walked though “town”, past the little airport and to the Mausoleum in the forest. Really pretty place. It is a circle of columns with a marble table and chairs in the center. The family who once lived here is interred in the base of the chairs. Afterwards we headed back to wander the Sculpture Park. It is a very large grassy park, with grass paths and high brush that leads you on the meandering way past over 100 unique sculptures by different artists. There is a large pond right in the center. Very picturesque. We spent some time there before heading back to the Marina to have lunch on the dock. I had a wonderful BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato) sandwich. My Mom and I then wandered by the Hotel De Haro, wandered the shops, though the flower garden and picked up some snacks at the little grocery. At this time the sun started to come out and we headed back to the boat to relax for a few hours. This is a pretty cool port of call so far, I really enjoyed wandering here. The place has a lot of character and charm. I ended up making my frittata on the boat, which turned out pretty good. After dinner we headed to shore this time to watch the Colors Ceremony. It was a little cheesy, as the ceremony was performed by 3 17ish year olds in resort logo sweats. But it was still cool. Before heading back to the boat, we walked down to this one beach with a Pi, whale tail, and another sculpture that we missed during the day. It was getting pretty dark at this point so we headed back to watch a little DVD shows and head to bed.

Sucia to Roche Harbor, San Juan Island

Slept in today and woke up to have breakfast for lunch. We then right away got the kayaks down and my Mom and I went for a nice paddle for an hour and 15 mins or so. At one point we spotted a seal, so we stopped to see where he would pop up next. He poked his head out of the water about 15 feet from me and looked right at me, but I couldn’t get my camera in time before he went under again. The winds picked up and it became harder to paddle, so we headed in. My Mom thought for a min, and said, why don’t we just head on to Roche Harbor. The tides are with us, and we already stayed here last night, so we might as well move on. So we pulled the kayaks from the water and prepped the boat to get underway. About 2 or so hours later we were in Roche Harbor. Cute harbor with some really nice houses on the shore. Kinda reminds me of the Hamptons of Washington, the way the adults and kids whiz around on their boats and such. We just spent the afternoon/evening on the boat and watched sea planes and boats come and go. We had dinner, some freshly made brownies, and watched some more Beauty and the Beast (my Mom and Fred are way sucked in). Tomorrow we will explore shore. I am exhausted, and it’s only 8:15pm, it’ll be an early night. The sun doesn’t even set for another hour. Every night at sunset (9:08pm tonight) here, they do a colors ceremony. I borrowed this description I found on someone’s blog online… “Every night at sunset, Roche Harbor's Color Guard performs the flag lowering ceremony. They play the national anthems for England, Canada, and The United States before taking down each of those flags. At the end, there is a cannon fire and then a bugle plays taps. It is really neat because the whole harbor goes quiet for the ceremony and when the bugle plays taps, the sound just glides all over the water. But when Taps is done, tons of boaters honk their boat horns, and it gets a little crazy.” And that’s what it was like for us too. We didn’t go ashore for it, but we could see the flags in the distance and they played the music over a loud speaker which carried over the water. There was a wedding reception taking place in a tent on shore, and we could here all the music from the band and D.J. playing everything from Black Eyed Peas to Bell Biv Devoe to Elton John to John Cougar Mellencamp. But when the colors ceremony commenced, their music stopped and all the guests lined the outside of the tent to watch the ceremony. Pretty cool. And all the while this was going on, there was a magnificent sunset.

Rosario to Sucia Island

Woke up as we were almost to Sucia. Beautiful sunny day today luckily. We had a little lunch as my Mom made a batch of brownies. Fred got the dinghy down so we could go explore the shore. We went for a walk over to this beach where a bunch of kayakers were camping. Then up a short hike to Fox Point which had some awesome 180 degree views. We then wandered this beach where we saw some cool sandstone formations. As we were walking towards it, an otter came out of the brush and started sand bathing about 20 yards in front of us. We took a bunch of pictures then started slowly walking towards it to see if he would flee in to the water so we could get by, but he didn’t. Must be used to humans. We decided to leave him be and turned around. So we went up another path and I walked the trail over to a second dock to take a look at Mud Bay from a different angle. Very pretty island. Heading back to the boat on the dinghy, the wind had picked up, so we got a bit wet. Decided to head back to the boat instead of exploring more and wait for the wind to die down to take the dinghy or kayaks back out. So I just downloaded more pics and updated my journal again. Also watching as this bay (Fossil Bay) has now filled up with about 22 boats between the docks and mooring buoys. And I had to pop on my phone to read the sports news, and just read that our Sharks captain officially retired today. I knew it was going to happen, but wanted to read the words to know for sure. Congrats to him on a great career. So Fred decided to take a nap, and while he did so, I commented to my mom that I was sad my trip was already half over. Then she said that it was a bummer that she suggested I only come for a week. So the wheels started turning, and after talking with my Dad to make sure he was still cool watching Nala, I called the airline and turned my 7 night trip into an 11 night trip. WooHoo! So now I have a whole week left. Nothing like being spontaneous. And since the winds didn’t die down too much today, we didn’t get the kayaks down. So we decided to stay in this cove another night and go kayaking earlier in the day tomorrow. We made BBQ salmon for dinner, watched some Canadian turn of the century cop show that we got on tv, an episode of Star Trek Voyager, then an episode of Beauty and the Beast to wrap up the evening.

Blind Bay to Rosario, Orcas Island

I woke up at 6:30am to Merlin barking like crazy. No one else got up, so I did to see if he needed to go out. Once out, he just stared at me. So back to bed I went, actually surprised I could fall back asleep. Next thing I know it was 11:30am and we were at out next destination, Rosario. I took a shower and ate a little something so we could head to shore. We wandered up to the mansion, which is now the resort hotel. Very beautiful building with a lot of character. It has a spa on the bottom floor, common areas and restaurant on the main floor and a museum and music room on the 3rd. We wandered down to the beach and let Merlin run around. Then there is this great pond above the marina with water lilies, fountains, a bridge and little islands. Really cute. We walked further back up toward the hotel and spotted a deer just off the side of the road. It was staring at Merlin while I got a few good pics of it. There was an pipe organ concert back in the music room of the hotel at 4pm, so we went back to the boat to kill an hour. Back up to the hotel we went, and spotted another deer on the way. It was across the lawn and just kept walking straight toward us. Got some more good pics. We wandered the museum a little full of old photos, a replica model of the USS Nebraska that the Moran family built, and other interesting items. The music room what really great. It had 2 walls of organ pipes, which were apparently just decorative and hid the working ones. Between the two walls was a 1900 Steinway Grand Piano. Christopher Peacock is the entertainer who has worked at this hotel for 30 years. He played the piano, organ, played a slideshow of Robert Moran’s early 1900’s photos and told stories about the family. It was a very enjoyable hour, very glad I went. We stopped at the restaurant in the resort after and decided to eat there instead of on the boat. The restaurant is brand new, only open for 4 weeks, called The Quilted Pig (http://www.quiltedpigrestaurant.com/). All the tables are right at the window overlooking the cove. Everything, except for one small side dish at the menu, is made from scratch right at the restaurant or locally grown. So everything I had from the fresh foccacia, mixed green salad, pork chop with kale and spaetzle and coconut puff pastry with caramelized bananas and cashews was amazing. Wow, what a meal. After dinner we headed back to the dock and spotted our waiter there. Guess Fred left his credit card at the restaurant and waiter knew we were on a boat, so came down to return it. Very nice of him. We watched an episode of Beauty and the Beast as I caught up on my journal and downloaded some pictures. And change of plans for tomorrow… we’re going to try for Sucia again instead of Reid Harbor.

Anacortes to Blind Bay

I woke up around 8:15am when I heard my Mom and Fred up and about. Laid there for a few, but just got up. We wanted to get on the fuel dock before 9am so we could fill up and get on our way. So we did and waited for the guy to come down and fill us up. Between the 4 gas tanks we topped them off with 155 gallons. Is that all? Not 15 mins outside the marina did I spot a couple of dall porpoises playing in the water. That was a cool way to start the day. We’re on a few hour cruise today headed to Sucia Island. They have never been and it’s supposed to be nice, and also pretty popular, so we’ll see if we can get on a buoy or anchor. Well after a little time of going against the tide and only going 1.5 knots, it was going to take several hours to get there. So change of plans. We hung a left and cruised another 90 mins to Blind Bay on Shaw Island. We anchored with no problem, then made sandwiches for lunch. After getting the dinghy down from topside, we took a short trip over to Orcas Landing on Orcas Island. They have a cute hotel, several gift shops, and espresso place and a great grocery. I needed to run into the grocery to buy some stuff for a frittata I’m going to make one of these nights. They had a great deli with awesome cheeses, specialty candy, and specialty food like herring, greek feta, blue cheese in olive oil, crème fraiche , etc. Pretty great little place. We hopped in the dinghy and headed back to the boat. On the way back there was a small island we passed with about 10 seals sunbathing on it and one swimming around. We slowed down from a distance to take some pictures. Once we got back to the boat and unloaded everything, I asked my Mom for her purse so I could get my glasses out. Well what do you know, the purse is no where to be found. So I stay on the boat with Merlin while and my Mom and Fred head back over top Orcas Island in search oh her purse. They hit the gift shop, hotel, grocery, etc with no luck. They were about to give up and get back in the dinghy when they spotted her purse at the far end of the dock, which is where we got back into the dinghy last time. Boy did she luck out. And I was thankful because I would have had to go home and order another $400 pair of glasses and go without any for the next several weeks. Phew!! So once they returned we started planning our next 4 nights out, as my final night (Monday) will be back in Anacortes in the marina. As of now, we are looking at Rosario on Orcas Island, Reed Harbor on Stuart Island, Roche Harbor then Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. After dinner we decided to watch a movie they borrow from me, Laagan. It’s a Bollywood movie and wasn’t sure how they’d like it. First of all, it was subtitled, which didn’t bother them. And it was also 3 ½ hours long, which I had forgotten. And besides fast forwarding through a few song and dance scenes, they both got sucked in and watched until the end. I was very surprised.

Travel day to Anacortes

I arrived at the airport a little before 11am to find out that my 12:20pm flight was delayed until 1pm. Not a huge deal except that I was catching a 3pm shuttle in Seattle that I was now going to miss, and was going to have to wait until 5pm for the next. I called my parents to let them know I’d be in Anacortes at 8pm now instead of 6pm. UGH! But they decided just to pick me up at the airport instead. That was nice of them. The flight was uneventful and I arrived around 3pm. They picked me up and we drove through Seattle as we headed north. This was my first time in WA outside the airport. Pretty place. We arrived in Anacortes around 5pm or so. We were all hungry, so we stopped in town at the Brown Lantern and all had fish and chips with sweet potato fries and slaw. It was delicious and I finished it all. We drove through town a little and saw a bunch of the murals painted on the sides of buildings and even some downspouts on buildings shaped like watering cans. Really cute. Afterwards we finally headed to the marina to go to the boat. The boat was at the end of a very long marina, which we later learned was about a quarter mile long. Quite a walk with a rolling suitcase. I just settled in and we just hung out. We watched an episode of the old show Beauty and the Beast while having some popcorn. They went to bed and I did my In Touch crossword puzzle before laying down and watching an episode of The Amazing Race on my iPod (I downloaded a few seasons before leaving), Think I crashed around 1am.

What a day...

I was out running errands with my Aunt, when I got a call from my Mom.

They have been up in Washington for about a week now. In that time they came to realize that their passports, boat customs docs, their satellite phone, etc were no where to be found. So to be legal on the water, and to be able to move across the border, they kind of need these things. When they packed up their house to be sold, their stuff went off to several storage units. And they thought these items were maybe put into a box taken off by the movers. So my Step-Brother was set to go to that storage facility today to have them get the crates down so he could go through them. Apparently he spent several hours there with no luck.

So the call I got, was to tell me this, and see if I could go to their other storage units and see what I could find. So my Aunt agreed to go with me and off we went. The unit probably has 100ish boxes all numbered, but not in numeric order. My Mom has a list of what each numbered box contains, but of course these items aren't supposed to be in one of these boxes. So a lot of good that does. An hour and a half after ripping tape off a ton of boxes, no luck. We moved on to the next storage unit, within 10-15 mins, guess what we found? Everything but the satellite phone which they'll have to live without. So we then sent the following picture to my Mom...


After which we received a very happy call from her. It's been a long day for all. But at least they know they can cross the border as they do every year. They were worried they would be stuck in WA for the whole summer and were bummed out. But since their house is on the market right now, they are stuck in the States until a sale closes. They already have an offer for the full asking price, so this may be a done deal soon. The listing site for anyone curious is HERE. So while they are this side of the border, I'm going to head up there for a week. I'm not sure when exactly, as they haven't figured out their plans yet. Within the next 2 weeks likely. But probably going RT to Seattle this time, spend a day or 2 in the city (I've actually never left the airport in WA before), then the rest of the time in the San Juan Islands. The last 5 years I have traveled up to the boat, 3 times were to Alaska and 2 times to Canada. So I have never done this trip in the States. Gotta change things up :-) Anyway, I'm exhausted and sore from all the heavy lifting today, Night!