Friday - Orcas Island Adventure begins

Before I write this entry, I have to apologize for taking so long in updating my blog.  I have been completely bogged down with the Steel Days Art Show and have been unable to keep up with everything else.  I will be posting these as if they were posted on their actual date of occurrence to help with blog organization, and so that when I print this blog, it will reflect accurate dates in the book.  Again, sorry for the delay and we will return you now to your regularly schedule blog posts!  Enjoy!

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Very early on Friday morning, we left Mom and Dad's "Cave on Oyster Bay" and headed to the Bremerton/Seattle ferry.  We were going to go North to the Kingston/Edmonds ferry, but we decided that it would be faster to take the Seattle freeways North rather than the slower peninsula highway.  It turned out we were right.  We made good time to the Anacortes/San Juan Islands ferry and got in line about 1 1/2 hours before the scheduled ferry arrived.  Mom and Dad said that this is necessary, since there are a limited number of sailings, and lots of people wanting space on the boat.  We killed time by going into the little cafe/gift shop and buying a couple of lightweight parkas for Bill and me.  We thought they'd be good for cool weather in the islands, but they turned out to be unnecessary as the weather was beautiful for the whole week-end.  I am still glad we got them, though.  We can certainly use them at home in the fall!

It goes without saying that the scenery was stunning for the entire ride to Orcas Island.  There are tons of less populated islands that we passed.  Only the three largest islands have the state run ferries giving people access to them.  If you live on one of the smaller islands, you need to have your own mode of transportation to get off island.  For most people, that is a boat.  For some that is a private plane (several of them have an air strip on them).  There is also a private-for-hire boat that will drive right up to your private beach and/or boat launch, drop their front hull (that transforms into a ramp), and let you drive your car right on board to be transported to the location of your choice.  A water taxi for you and your car!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of one of the many private home-on-an-isolated- beach scenarios that I saw.  Such a different way of life!

Will said he wanted to own this little island.

Will and I on the Ferry

The ferry makes stops at other islands as well.  We pulled into Lopez Island first.  The dock workers have set up a target on the right side docking pier.  It is jokingly referred to as the WSF retirement fund.  Passengers toss coins to pass the time while waiting for the loading and unloading to complete and for the ferry to make sail once again.

Once we finally arrived on Orcas Island, we followed Mom and Dad's car as they lead us across the island to the West Beach Resort.  The island's inland was as stunningly beautiful as the coast.  Everything about the island felt like stepping back in time.  Actually, I felt like I had wandered into an Anne of Green Gables movie set, since the buildings and scenery seemed correct, but the people were all dressed in modern clothes.

Once at the resort, we settled in and it wasn't long before Will had us convinced to rent a canoe.  He and Bill were first out on the water in it.

At first, Bill was in the bow and Will at the stern, but they quickly realized it would work best with the heavier person in the stern.  Once they had that sorted out, they were off to explore.

While the boys were paddling around the bay, I walked down the dock for a photo op.  The photo below is of the cabins lining the beach.  On the left you can see the boat launch.  Our cabin is the first cabin you can see on the beach to the right of the boat launch.  Between us and the launch is a large fire pit.  Every night the owners of the resort built a fire at sunset in the community fire pit.  You can't see it, but behind our cabin there was a hot tub.  Also a fun place to be at sunset!

At some point, the boys brought back the canoe and Helena and I took it out for half an hour.  It was fun to watch Helena trying to pick up a jelly fish with her paddle.  She was unsuccessful, of course.  There was no swimming on this trip.  Will probably would have, but Helena had no desire.  The water was very cold!

There were several families of geese that came begging along the shore every evening.  They were quite bold and I had to wonder how many generations had been taught that this beach was a good spot for dinner?

In the quiet of the late afternoon the kids and I just played with rocks on the beach...

We collected pebbles on the beach and I had some fun stacking them.  They are actually quite small, but the photo perspective is what made this shot so fun.  You can tell from the lighting that the sun is preparing to set.

Unplugged time....

 

As the sun was setting, Helena did a yoga pose to create a cool silhouette.  Will thought he'd try it, too, with less aesthetic results.

Sunset lasts a LONG TIME this far north!

Such a beautiful, peaceful place!

As the sun finally sets completely, the evening star (Venus, actually) glowed above a tranquil and shimmering sea.