So we drove up to Seattle last on Memorial Day night and stayed the night with Laura Belle and Elizabeth. Then we got us super early, drove an hour and a half to the ferry and headed off!
Our first stop was San Juan Island (the main-ish island of the San Juans). We stayed in a really cool small hotel there and did lots of sight seeing, and nap taking, and eating out. Then after two days on San Juan we drove back on the boat and headed for Orcas Island for two more days. We camped there which was fun, but it wasn't really camping. We went out to eat every day. We showered every day. So "camping". Highlights of the trip were many. Here are the top 8.
1. We saw Willie. Shamoo. Killer whales. And not just from the beach. No. From a boat. And not just a boat. From a kayak! And it wasn't like, "hey, what was that speck on the horizon...I think that was a whale." These guys were probably within 50 yards of us and came up repeatedly exposing almost their whole bodies at times!! We could see the white circles on their face!! Killer whales!! From a kayak!! It was incredible. Needless to say we didn't get pictures. We were too busy saying "OH MY GOSH LOOK AT THAT". Here's some other kayaking pics though.
(seals on the far right side of the picture)
(kirsten holding a starfish)
2. We saw a seal kill and eat a fish! On the same kayaking trip. Raise your hand if you've ever seen a seal kill and eat a fish in the wild from a kayak. (I'm raising my hand).
3. Our campsite on Orcas Island. This thing was out of control. Easily the best campsite I have ever stayed at in my entire life. First of all we were all by ourselves. We had about a 15 or 20 minute walk from the car carrying way too much stuff to make sure we are all by ourselves. And the site was right on the water in this little cove. There was nothing between us and the ocean but a 10 foot cliff. It was literally breathtakingly beautiful. We sat Thursday afternoon on the rocks and read/stared out at the ocean for 4 or 5 hours and it was not only the highlight of the trip for me, but probably the most relaxed I've been in years and years.
4. Our campsite came with it's own seal. Oops, forgot to mention that when I was talking about how awesome our campsite was. We had a seal. We probably saw him at least 6-8 times in the two days we were there. He would poke his head out of the water. Look inquisitively up at us. Bob around for a minute. And then swim under. Then about an hour later we would see him again. It was awesome!
5. Ok, this one is going to be extra awesome if you watched any of the Discovery Channel series Life, which we HIGHLY recommend. It's about animals and how awesome they are, and we saw a bona fide Life moment. So on San Juan we went on a short little hike out to this private beach area and sat and stared out at the water hoping to see some whales (before the kayak encounter). While we were there we saw a seagull kill a crab. Cool huh? But listen to how. He swooped down and picked up the crab by the leg and then flew way up in the air and let him go. The crab comes plummeting down onto the rocks below. The bird flies back down to give the crab a look, but sees that it's still kicking so he picks him up and does it again!!! This time the crab's shell shatters and the seagull is enjoying dinner. Seriously people...this was incredible.
6. We drove to the top of Mount Constitution (the highest point on the San Juan's). The views were incredible! We could see Vancouver BC (40 miles away).
7. We went on another short hike to see some waterfalls, that led us to one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. No joke. I don't know if these pictures do it justice. It was a serious "Skittles commercial" moment.
8. We watched the sunset our last night on the island.
It was a GREAT trip. We both really needed a vacation and this was perfect!. Here's a few other pictures That didn't make the top 8.
4 comments:
The Southerner in me has to say that the only thing wrong with the pictures is that you are wearing a fleece jacket at the ocean in June! We don't do that in Georgia!
Love, MOM
Beautiful - glad you got to take a trip to that part of the country!
What a trip! I can't believe you didn't get too scared of the whales. Once I was in a canoe and just saw a sign saying that there might be manatees and I cried so hard that we paddled upstream for an hour just to get out of the boat. you two are way braver than me :)
That was a "Tommy" kind of trip for sure. Beautiful photos!
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