25th Wedding Anniversary Trip - Part 1

On May 26th, 1984 two young kids, David and Dawn, got married in a small church in McClure, PA. Twenty five years later we are not only still together, but we love each other a whole lot more than we did back then. Working, raising children, homeschooling, church activities, etc. makes for a busy and hectic life with not a lot of time for just the two of us to spend together. So to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary we decided to be a little selfish and spoil ourselves. Dawn wanted to “kayak with whales” and we wanted to “get away” so we went as far as we could go away from Florida and still remain within the contiguous 48 states. We went to Washington State from May 14th until May 23rd, 2009. We had a great time and this summary is intended to convey some of the things we did and saw. Grandma Rigel came to stay with the kids for the ten days that we were gone. They had their own excitement, but we will get to that later.

San Juan Islands

Our first stop in Washington State was the San Juan Islands. This group of islands is between the Washington mainland and Canada. We took an hour ferry ride from the town of Anacortes to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island (San Juan Island – singular - is one of several islands that make up the San Juan Islands – plural.) We stayed in a small cabin on Mitchell Bay on the west side of the island. The island is about 13 miles long (NNW to SSE) and at most about 6 miles wide. We spent time at Lime Kiln State Park (also referred to as “Whale Watching Park”). While there we checked out the lighthouse, explored interesting tide pools, collected smooth rocks on the Beach in Deadman’s Cove, and saw the old lime kilns used about 100 years ago for turning limestone into lime for cement. We saw a lot of small sea creatures, birds, and a harbor seal. We also saw a lot of new wild flowers. We had a great time exploring very different ecosystems from what we are familiar with.

Lime Kiln Lighthouse on San Juan Island

A seal with personality (says Dawn) at Lime Kiln State Park

Us on the rocks exploring tide pools at Lime Kiln State Park

Green sea anemones in a tide pool on San Juan Island

One evening at about sunset we did get to see Orca whales (i.e., “killer whales”). We saw several fairly far off-shore heading north. We also got to hear them “talking” through a hydrophone (an underwater microphone) that a whale-watcher volunteer had set up. Then, in a very uncharacteristic manner they turned around and headed south RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! We were sitting on the rocks below the lighthouse and they passed by maybe 10 yards away. It was very cool! Even the whale watching volunteer was excited and said “you don’t know how special that was”. I didn’t get good pictures of them passing by because it was getting dark.

A blurry photo of an Orca whale passing by in front of us

One day we went on a kayaking adventure from the town of Roche Harbor on the northwest end of the island. We paddled about 6 miles (round trip) and saw several bald eagles, other birds, many seals, deer, crabs, sea stars, etc. We also parked in a bull kelp bed and even got to eat some of it. It wasn’t bad. Our guide just graduated from college with a geology degree. She knew a lot about the area. We learned a lot and we had a great time.

Dawn checking out the bull kelp while kayaking (the dark areas are "seeds")

A blood star that our guide found while kayaking

We went on several hikes on the island. We hiked up 290 foot Mt. Finlayson (more of a hill than a “mount”) in the English Camp portion of the San Juan Island National Historic Park. We hiked about a 2 mile loop to the top of the hill, along the hilltop, down to the beach, back along the rocky beach, and then up a steep sandy slope back to the car. On our way driving through the park we saw a silver fox (a variant of the red fox) walking along the road with two furry animals in its mouth (bunnies we think). Another day we hiked to the top of 650 foot Young Hill on the north-west side of the island. From the top of this hill we could see various other islands, Vancouver Island, Canada, and our cabin (with the telephoto lens).

The fox we saw along the road in San Juan Island National Historic Park

(Note the two rodents in its mouth)

Wild poppies seen on our hike at the southeastern end of the island

Climbing back up the steep slope on our hike at the Historic Park

Dawn admiring the view from Young Hill - Looking west toward Canada

Another day we went on a “whale watching cruise”. It was a good thing we saw the whales the day before at Lime Kiln State Park or we would have been disappointed by the cruise. We did not see any whales on the cruise, but we did see many seals, many harbor porpoise, a Steller sea lion, bald eagles, and other birds. And we had a nice boat ride. There were two “naturalists” onboard so we learned a lot of information from them.

A bald eagle seen on our "whale watching cruise"

A Steller sea lion seen on our "whale watching cruise"

Our cabin on Mitchell Bay was rustic, but very nice. It was perfect for us. We either cooked our own meals or snacked on the run from goodies we picked up at a Trader Joe’s. The cabin owners also have a B&B and were very accommodating, helpful and nice. The cabin smelled of peppermint because someone told them that peppermint would chase away the river otter that was eating his fish underneath the cabin. It must have worked because we didn’t see the otter (but we wanted to).

The exterior of our rustic cabin on Mitchell Bay on San Juan Island

The interior of our cabin on San Juan Island

When we left the San Juan Islands we took another ferry ride back to Anacortes then drove to Keystone on the south end of Whidbey Island. From here we took a shorter 30 minute ferry ride across to Port Townsend on the Olympic peninsula. We stopped at the Admiralty Head Lighthouse on the Keystone side (east) and at the Point Wilson Lighthouse on the Port Townsend (west) side. There was also an old gun battery on the Keystone side at Fort Casey State Park. I quickly checked that out while Dawn stayed in the car (I have learned that usually big guns are a “guy thing”).