Paco & Michelle

The third day began at the Kirk House, with breakfast at the place. We remembered that last year it was fairly yummy although this time around it seemed to be more on the exotic side. The breakfast parfait was still good — although not everybody got granola, in which case it just plain sucked (plain yogurt just plain sucks, I don’t know if anyone would care to disagree?).

We hit the road and made our way to the English Camp. Driving anywhere in the island is akin to perusing through a set of really cool postcards, and the drive to the camp was no exception. As we got close to the parking area we encountered deer grazing on grass by the camp site. Last year we visited the American Camp, which is the larger of the two. The English counterpart didn’t have all the historical markers the American camp has. While the American camp was full of how life hard was and how the soldiers and staff there had a miserable time, the British camp was all about trees and gardens.We walked about a bit and and saw most of it, but cut the trip short and got back on the road.

We made our way back to Lime Kiln Point Park. We had stopped there last year and actually got to see several killer whales from the coast. We didn’t expect to see any that day, and we didn’t. It was still a nice stop — we walked down a trail and visited the Lime Kiln lighthouse. We would later drive down the coast and got close to the other lighthouse on the island, but just like last year we couldn’t find out how to get to it. We spent some time catching the breeze on the rocks by the beach, and made our way back to town. We took the long way around on a less-traveled road and spotted some more deer and foxes.

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Approaching the English camp and getting greeted by one of the natives:

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On the second day our body clocks were still tuned in to Central time so we took an early stroll in downtown Anacortes. We found our way to the Calico Cupboard Café, where we had eaten breakfast once last year during our overnight stay in the town. We remembered the awesome hot cakes they served, but forgot about their incredibly slow pace. It took a while to get our orders placed and delivered, but it was worth it once breakfast was served. Last year I got the Breakfast Sampler, which is served with only one flapjack, so this year we opted for the tall stack of hot cakes. I uploaded a Blackberry shot and a comment about this plate when I was first served it, which led my friend Tommy to comment: “That’s one of the most beautiful sentences you’ve ever crafted: ‘The sausage is as big as the flapjacks.’ ” And well, you can see for yourself.

We strolled downtown to walk off breakfast — which neither of us could finish — and noted what had changed since last year. Not much really, although it seemed as if a couple of shops had closed and maybe a couple more had opened. Traffic was slow but we weren’t in a hurry.

We checked out of the Fidalgo Country Inn and started thinking about heading to the ferry that would take us to Anacortes. We had some pizza at Village Pizza and made our way to the ferry dock entrance, where you have to park to get a place to load into the vessel. More than an hour later we boarded the ferry, and almost an hour later we were in Friday Harbor.

We checked in at the Kirk House, the same Bed and Breakfast where we stayed last year, and then made our way to the San Juan Island’s Museum of Art and Sculpture Park, where local artists display their pieces on what is basically a big yard. On the way over we stopped on the highway to watch a group of bald eagles competing with crows and a fox over some food. Or maybe the eagles were hunting the fox. Other motorists had stopped and in the end we couldn’t decide what the scene was. We continued to the park and got there in a few minutes. Last year we didn’t see all of the sculptures, so we thought we’d take a stroll to see what we missed. We found something new: mosquitos, which cut our visit short. We also spotted yet another fox carrying what might have been dinner.

We made our way back to Friday Harbor and to the Kirk House

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A single bald eagle takes flight across a highway on San Juan Island:

A few Eagles criss-crossed over a highway on San Juan Island, competing with crows and a fox on the ground for food:

One of many foxes we saw on San Juan Island. This one was running across the Museum of Art and Sculpture Park, apparently carrying lunch:

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We flew into Sea-Tac, picked up our rental car and drove north, bound for Anacortes. We’d been up since early in the morning, so we stopped in Everett and found a Dairy Queen to eat lunch (no Belt-Busters or Hunger-Busters outside of Texas). When we told the Bed and Breakfast keeper in Anacortes that we ate at Dairy Queen she commented, “Hmmmm… Dairy Queen…” We’re so used to the ubiquitous fast food joints that we not only take them for granted, we really look down on them; not so in San Juan Island, where they still have to make a special Ferry trip to find such delicacies.

We continued our trip northward and stopped at LaConner and looked around the historic downtown area. Very charming and picturesque. This would be our first taste of the cool Pacific breeze that kept us wearing jackets in the middle of June and that would provide us with “happy thoughts” once we returned to the hellish Texas heat. That first night in Anacortes we stayed at the Fidalgo Country Inn.

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Day 6 of our vacation in the Pacific Northwest. We weren’t exactly in Seattle, it was more like in between Seattle and Tacoma, by the airport, in a city called Seatac, which probably sprang out of the airport. We drove to the city and learned to appreciate the kinder, gentler traffic jams we have back home (think Houston traffic) and made our way to Pike Place Market. You could spend days exploring it, but we only had one, and we probably walked at least a couple of miles from end to end to end over level and level. Maybe not that much, but then again, maybe more.

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Day 5 of our vacation in the Pacific Northwest. Five days sure do go by quickly when you’re having fun… It was time to pack up and say good-bye to the small town of Friday Harbor, its fresh air and cool summer weather, and head back to the ferry and the mainland. During the whole five days we used less than a tank of gas, since you can basically walk anywhere you want to in the island, and it’s less than 15 miles to anywhere else you may want to go.
We parked the car in line at the ferry and ate our last meal in the island. From there we were back in Anacortes and traveled back to Seattle.

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