Northwest Newsletter: October 8th was our 25th Wedding Anniversary!

Friday Oct. 4th, Lorelei and I packed up the car and headed north to the San Juan Islands! Lorelei wanted to take the boat along. The boat would add about $500 to the trip between the extra fuel for the tow rig plus the ferry trip to the islands costing four times what it costs for the car. Also with the weather being iffy I thought maybe we wouldn't use the boat much so I talked her out of it........ok first mistake of the trip!

Adam and Pam came from Portland to stay with Cody. What a blessing to know that Cody, the house and the animals were taken care of. Thank you Adam and Pam!

On our way up we stopped and had lunch with Jon and Corina in Seattle. Jon has moved into a small (2) bedroom apartment with (3) roommates for his senior year @ SPU. It was our first chance to see the new digs. We had a great time although it was short. We had to make the 3:45 ferry in Anacortes which was about 2 hrs. away.

So we hit the road about 12:30 heading north. We make great time and we are blasting through Anacortes about 2:15. The ferry website says in the off season you need to be at the ferry landing an hour before departure.....great.....we have plenty of time. We go by a street with a yard sale sign and an arrow.....I don't even need to look at Lorelei to know what she's thinking, so as I opened my mouth to say do you....she says "sure". I say "we have plenty of time" This was mistake #2 for me. So we turn around and Lorelei peruses the goods and then strikes up a conversation with the sellers. She buys a little trinket for Cody for 10 cents and we are back on the road with our treasure.

We weren't at the sale for more than 5 minutes. As we approach the ferry landing this is what we see......

The guy at the ticket booth says "you're on the 6:20" I say "WHAT". We pull forward and the nice lady in the staging area says we have a shot at making the 3:45. We are relieved and get in line being #22 on standby.
At last the boarding begins and the "standby" people begin to board the ferry as room allows. Numbers 1-10 get motioned on board. The lady with the walkie talkie gets the nod to send 10-16. We are getting exited. The car in front of us gets motioned on down......we're next! Then the voice comes over the radio that the ferry is full. NOOOOOO! If we hadn't stopped at the yard sale we would be on the way. Below is where you DON'T want to be. First in line for a ferry that doesn't arrive for 3 hours!

So.....we went into the ferry terminal and purchased some food that was........well..... it was ferry terminal food. We hiked around and made the best of it. It really wasn't bad. After all we were on vacation and really didn't have anywhere we had to be. And then we waited some more.....was the 6:20 on time??? Uh...NO.

I think we finally got underway about 7:00 p.m. It was a chilly, dark ferry ride but we were glad to be getting close to our destination. I told Lorelei to push the throttles forward!

On landing on Orcas we still had a ways to travel. Our house was on the far side of the island. This is on an island where the top speed limit is 45 and there are many stretches that are 35 and even 25. First we have to stop in Eastsound and pick up the keys. They tape the keys and instructions for finding your house on the door of the real-estate office. I told Lorelei to open the other envelopes and see if those people had a nicer rental than ours.

Our house wasn't the greatest as far as furnishings go, but you couldn't beat the view!

The next (4) days we spent island hopping, shopping, eating, fishing and just having a blast!

Saturday we traveled to Lopez Island (The Friendly Island).

Below, Lorelei @ Spencer Spit state park.

Agate Beach. It was hard to drag Lorelei away from here.

So, Lopez is "The Friendly Island" and supposedly, everyone waives to each other. I wasn't sure about the whole thing.

An Americana @ Lopez Village coffee house.

A couple of shots of the marina on Lopez.

Sunday we booked a "Dinner Cruise" with a very nice couple who charter out their boat and cook you a dinner while on board. This was really a fun time. We boarded the boat about 3:00 p.m. Our cruise ended after dark at 8:00 p.m.

Monday we fished and stayed on Orcas.

We also met some new friends...

Tuesday the 8th (Anniversary Day), we traveled to San Juan Island to visit Roche Harbor. Us on the ferry.

Roche Harbor

Back at Friday Harbor Lorelei says....hey this tire looks low.....Ugh....yep it's low alright and look at that nail! Luckily I thought of throwing in the portable compressor for our trip.