Washigton, Day 2: San Juan Islands.

Zack and I woke up at about 6:30am. Zack LOVES breakfast and thus loves staying at B&B's. We had talked with the owner of the B&B about getting breakfast before the normal time of 8 o'clock so that we would have time to make it to the Ferry in Anacortes on time. She had graciously told us that she would have breakfast ready for us at about 7 oclock.

So, we headed downstairs at about 6:50 to the smell of coffee and bacon. The breakfast was AMAZING. We had peach raspberry dutch babies with raspberry syrup, bacon, orange juice, and coffee. While eating breakfast, we talked with the owner and got a little more information about the La Conner area. There is apparently a large Dutch population in the area and La Conner, according to our host, actually produces more tulips than Holland. In the spring, La Conner has a tulip festival in celebration on the tulip season.



After breakfast, Zack and I loaded up the rental car and headed to anacortes to the ferry terminal. It was about a 30 minute drive from our hotel the night before. We were planning on heading to Friday Harbor to go on a kayaking trip. Before we had left home, we had done a little research into the ferry over the Friday Harbor. We ended up leaving our car parked at the Ferry Terminal at Anacortes and riding the ferry over the Friday harbor where the Kayaking company picked us up for our kayaking adventure.







The ferry ride across was about an hour long and it was filled with beautiful views. The trip to San Juan Islands itself was definitely worth the ferry ticket price. We made it to Friday Harbor at about 10. We were supposed to be meeting up with our guides from Outdoor Odyssey at 10:30 in the town square. So, we walked around town a little before meeting up with the kayaking company.











Our guides arrived and we scrambled into a van and headed out to our launch site. On our drive to the little cove we would be leaving from, the guides told us different stories and facts about the island. At one time there were British and American soldiers occupying the island. There was a farmer who was growing potatoes. Another man from BC, Canada had come over to the island with his prize pig. The pig ate the farmers potatoes and so he shot it. This did not make the gentleman from Canada very happy and he complained to the British Government, asking that the farmer be hanged for killing his pig. The farmer appealed to the US government and the US sent soldiers to the island to protect him. The British government then sent their own soldiers. The dispute lasted about 10 years and during that time, the solders became friends and when the British government ordered their soldiers to shoot the American soldiers they refused. A third party was called in to mediate and things were settled peacefully.

There also is apparently an over abundance of rabbits on the island. The farmers brought in foxes hoping to alleviate the problem. However, the foxes preferred the more forested area of the island and the rabbits continued to grow in number. The rabbits were eventually injected with a virus which killed most of them.

We finally made it out to out put in and we carried our boats down to the shore. We then got a short lesson on how to paddle and put our "skirt"on the boat. We pushed off into the little cove and spent a short time getting used to the boats before heading out to paddle down the coast of the San Juan Island.





Our guide's name was Chris. He was a Marine Biology graduate student from West Washington. He was very personable and knowledgeable about the sea life that we were seeing. We were really blessed to see a lot of amazing wildlife on our trip. We saw several types of jellyfish, bald eagles, orka whales, harbor seals, shore birds of various kinds, and several species of kelp.











The water was freezing, but with the spray skirts keeping your legs dry and trapping warm air around your legs, it wasn't too bad. I did find that it was a LOT harder to take pictures on this kayaking trip compared with our trip up north earlier this year. I would have to pop the spray skirt loose, get the camera out, try to keep hold of my paddle and try to balance with the waves hitting the boat. So, my pictures were limited. I also took our old camera on the kayaking trip in case it got wet, meaning that the quality of the pictures was not as good as it would have been with our other camera...but it served the purpose and we got some neat shots.



We kayaked past the island light house to the southern tip of the island and then headed back to a little cove called Deadman's Harbor for lunch.We asked Chris about the harbors name. He said that the harbor that we put in at was called small pox harbor because the natives used to go there to try to break their fevers when they had small pox. Some of these natives would end up dying and their bodies would be taken by the current down to the harbor where we stopped for lunch.



we pulled our boats onto shore in Deadman's harbor and relaxed, talked, and explored, while Chris prepared lunch. We had fresh veggie sandwiches and fresh fruit. After a morning of paddling, this food was delicious. As we sat on the shore eating, we got to know a few of the people in our group a little bit better. There was a family of four from Toronto Canada that was in our group. They were really nice and we had a good conversation with them. They are avid baseball fans and they have traveled to and visited 27 of the MLB fields. That was what had brought them to Washington. They had gone to the Boston/ Mariner's game the night before. There was also an older woman and her daughter in our group. They were sweet and a little feisty.











While we were sitting on the beach the daughter was looking through some binoculars and she yell, "whales, I see whales!" We quickly scrambled to get our trash cleaned up and our boats launched. We headed out toward them, but soon had to stop. We were not allowed to get closer than 200 meters from them....which was a lot further than I thought that it would be. Despite our distance restraints, it was still awesome to see them. They are HUGE. Chris thought that it was a pod of about 20 - 40 whales. I was trying to take pictures and I heard Zack say wow, and turned to see a massive splash. One of the whales had breached and I had missed everything but the splash afterword. We watched the whales for a while and then started back toward the put in, as it was getting a little late.











Chris, our guide, had worked in the North Cascades and Olympic National Park during previous summers. So, on our paddle back, he gave us lots of good ideas and tips for our hiking over the next few days.

Our trip back was a little rougher and we were hitting some bigger waves. Zack was starting to feel pretty sea sick by the time we made it back to the vans.



we made it back to Friday Harbor a little before the ferry was scheduled to leave. So, we walked around town for a while and ended up getting a little huckleberry ice cream.





we loaded the ferry at about 6:30 and headed back toward Anacortes. On our return trip, Mnt. Baker's snowy peak could be seen jutting out above the clouds.









Zack and I had dinner in Anacortes at Fidalgo's Drive Interaunt. Zack had a Halibut sandwich and clam chowder. I had a chicken mushroom Swiss melt and sweet potato fries. We got a rootbeer to go and headed back down to La Conner, where we were planning to stay for the night.





We had booked a room in a different B&B called the Wile Iris Inn. We were a little late for check in. We got there a little after 9, which was when the outside doors close. Thankfully, we made it to the Inn just before the night clerk had left for the night. The inn was more like a hotel than a B&B, and our room was nice, clean, and comfortable. There were wild iris cookies in our room, which were HUGE. We were pretty full from dinner and ended up just trying a bite of them and then saving them to eat on our hike the next day.





We headed to bed shortly after we got to the B&B. We had another full day planned for the next day and needed to get some sleep.