Northwest Newsletter: Vacation 2010 San Juan Islands Washington State

Vacation 2010! After missing the last two years at our favorite vacation spot, we decided to head for the San Juan Islands in Northern Washington State. The trip started out a little rough. When we got up to finish loading the truck, the dome lights were flashing inside the vehicle. Uh oh….I know we didn’t have the doors open much the day before and I knew that it had been almost 6 years since we replaced the battery. It was on my list to do before winter.

Well now we had a problem. I knew we couldn’t go the entire trip worrying about the battery so we stopped on the way and got a new one. Once we got to the ferry and got in line, Jon and I pulled out the tools and changed it out.

Once we got to the rental house, we were unloading all the stuff and we seemed to be missing a bag of food? Very curious…..well it so happened there was too much food to fit into the ice chest and other usual containers so, some was put into a bag that looked just like a garbage bag. Yep, you guessed it. Someone, who shall remain nameless grabbed two bags of trash that needed to go out, when in reality there was only one bag of trash and one bag of food!

The weather was awesome, in the 60’s and 70’s every day with just a sprinkle of rain one day. We hiked and biked and drove all around Orcas Island. In fact on an Island that is no more than 20 miles across we logged over 200 miles on the truck.

The next problem came when we launched the boat for a day on the water to crab and fish. The little outboard started acting up again and seemed it was again starving for fuel. Bummer, we made the best of it and were able to motor around once I learned the trick to keeping the motor running. But the wind was blowing and the ocean was kicking up and the crabbing wasn’t very good so we chose to call it a day and put the boat back on the trailer.

We had a wonderful week and took lots of pictures, ate way too much and just goofed off! One day I took Cody and Lorelei on a hike to Turtle Back Mountain. I thought by looking on the map it was a mile or so up to the top and I wanted to find some vistas to photograph. So Cody and Lorelei willingly followed with no water or food thinking it would be a short hike…….well that’s the last time they will listen to me! It was just a little farther than I thought. We started the hike around 10:00 am and we got back to the truck at 2:00 p.m.! Oops……. We were tired and hungry and thirsty….so we headed into town for a late lunch.

We also had fun getting off the island. We convinced Lorelei that if we got up early and packed everything up we could make the 12:00 noon ferry. Jon and I surmised that if we got to the ferry landing by 10:30 a.m . we should have no trouble even though the pamphlet put out by the Washington State Ferry system says to get there 2 hours ahead of time. They always tell you that but hey, we know better right…. Well…….we pulled up at 10:35 to a LINE of vehicles and as we came up to the lady in charge she says “pull forward there for the 2:30 ferry” AHHHHH……so here it is that we are in line for the ferry that leaves in 4 HOURS.

So we sat and talked, we walked around, we ate lunch, we walked around and then we got on the ferry. We pulled into our house at 9:30 p.m. The truck had actually been driven 317 miles and it took 11 hours to do it. As we sat in line we heard that it wasn’t long before the 2:30 was full and they were starting to line cars up for the 5:00 ferry. Wow, I am glad we didn’t have to wait for that one.

Ok so the things my family learned on vacation.

1: Don’t rely on me to properly maintain the vehicle.

2: Don’t rely on me to properly maintain the outboard motor.

3: Don’t follow me on a hike.

4: Don’t listen to me when it’s time to calculate the ferry schedule.

Plus....I no longer have to take out the trash!