San Juan Island, Washington
September 6, 2022
Today we drove from Bend to Anacortes, Washington. The drive was a bit over 7 hours, about 410 miles. Even mid-day traffic through Seattle was heavy. We got views of Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood from the car.
September 7, 2022
This morning, we took our car on the Washington State ferry from Anacortes non-stop to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Let’s say we the Alaska ferries we took in June impressed us more. We waited about an hour to board the ferry, and the trip took a little more than an hour.
On arrival we drove about a third of the way around the island to English Camp, part of the San Juan Island National Historical Park. It told us about the Pig War, which occurred around 1860, and which resulted in a settlement of the border, but only after the Civil War. Then we drove to Roche Harbor, site of the original lime works on the island. After we looked at the old DeHaro Hotel, we had lunch nearby in a nice setting.
Then we drove to Lime Kiln Point State Park, a real highlight of the trip, where we took a short walk along the coast to a light house. We were lucky enough to see orcas! This was a first for us. We watched for orcas in the water for a bit over a half hour, and a pod came very close to us. Quite exciting. We walked a bit more after we finished with the whales to see the forest and coastal views.
Then we drove through the middle of the island, mostly agricultural land, back to the largest town, Friday Harbor, and visited small Whale Museum. We then checked in to our hotel next door with a good view of the harbor and ferry boats.
September 8, 2022
We drove across the island toward the southeast. Our first stop was South Beach with lots of drift wood and a great view of the Olympic Peninsula. Then we went to Cattle Point Lighthouse (photo top of page), where we took a short walk to the beach. Next we walked along Fourth of July beach. Afterwards, we went to American Camp portion of the National Historic Park (the second part after the English Camp we saw yesterday). The visitor center was closed, but we did see some historic buildings.
Grandma’s Cove
From there, we walked down to the beach at Grandma’s Cove and saw seals. When we finished the walk, we returned to Friday Harbor for lunch. Afterwards, we walked around the town and went to San Juan Island Museum of Arts which had moving exhibit of photographs from Afghanistan. In the late afternoon, we relaxed and sat outside at the hotel, listening to a nearby band playing nice music.
American Camp
September 9, 2022
This morning, we went back to Roche Harbor and walked through the outdoor San Juan Island Sculpture Garden. It was really impressive with many works of art.
From there, we drove to the Pelindaba Lavender Farm, which had a few flowers still in bloom. It gave interesting information about how lavender is processed into various products. We then returned to Friday Harbor, where we had lunch.
In the mid-afternoon, we took a four hour whale watching boat tour. It was a small boat with 16 passengers, and we saw sea lions, seals, an otter, lots of birds, minke whales and orcas. The air quality started to deteriorate this afternoon, but it was still a lovely trip, not cold or windy.
Stellar sea lions, like in Alaska
It was harder to photograph the whales from the boat than at Lime Kiln park
We enjoyed the our and had a lovely dinner outdoors at our hotel’s restaurant. However, we noticed the odd color of the sun as it set, and knew from experience what that foretold.
Tomorrow we will take the ferry to Orcas Island where we will spend two nights.
