A San Juan Weekend...

Hola chicos and chicas!!

Clay and I had a WONDERFUL getaway weekend visiting the nearby San Juan islands. I'm not gonna lie to you - things started off a little rocky - but the weekend was redeemed without a doubt.

It starts with a drive 1.5 hours north of Seattle to a small town where the ferry comes and whisks you away on a beautiful 1.5 hour ferry ride to the islands (there are no bridges to the islands or in between them, so you can only get there by boat or plane). Our first stop was Orcas Island where we took a quick drive around the island in hopes of seeing the islands from the highest lookout tower which is on Orcas. Alas our weekend is foreshadowed upon a 25 minute drive that ended in a very small, yet very drive-ending sign that said "closed for the season". DOH! Ok, fine. We can continue on. If we hurry we can even catch the very next ferry and have virtually no time pass at all....

So quickly Clay drives back around the mountain up around the horseshoe-shaped island so quickly that I start to get one of my typical road-trip-induced, sun-shining-rapidly-in-and-out-of-trees, whiplash around the rural, mountain switchbacks until we arrive (early) to catch the next ferry. Whew. We made it. We saw the 'downtown' of the tiny island, we drove through the state park, know where to go when the observation tower opens up, and found a quaint little campground equipped with paddle boats, canoes, kayaks, fire pits, and cute bath houses...

Alright Captain Jeeves - on to Friday Harbor! And make it quick! (but not toooo quick!!).

A short yet scenic trip from Orcas got us to Friday Harbor where excitement turned into a moment of panic as we pulled into the dock... Anyone notice anything wrong with this pic? This is the Clay (in uniform, of course!) standing next to the freshcape and the dock is right behind him..... Ok did we get into the wrong lane? Are we actually in line to go to another island?? Because I KNOW they don't expect us to BACK OUT of the ferry!?!? Our fear grew with each inch we got closer to the dock convincing us that the ferry wasn't going to turn around... Uh oh - we see some cars pointed the other direction. We need to be in THAT lane! Uhhhhh we're Southerners - we don't have none of them ferry things down there! HELP! So Clay got the nerve to ask one of the many ferry employees standing around waiting to secure us and they chuckled a little at the silly Georgians and assured us we would all turn around inside the ferry. Phew! Yeah...we knew that all along...we're just testing you.......

So we venture up onto the island and are immediately greeted with an adorable little town with lots of restaurants, shops, and bed and breakfasts. I (of course) had done plenty of shopping around online and found the cutest B&B to stay at with the best deal and I was even more impressed in person!! Neither of us have stayed in a B&B before but we decided to finally brave the lack of anonymity that a large hotel provides and even choose a room (the cheapest of course) that had a shared bathroom down the hall. Gutsy, eh?? Well when we got there the owners gave us a free upgrade since it was so empty and we got a larger room w/our own bathroom (score!). All of the rooms that weren't filled (95% of them) were left open so we dropped of our stuff and ventured through the 3 floors of rooms peeking into each (they were all adorable!!!) and we even checked out the 2 shared bathrooms (all very roomy and clean and nice). We also looked at the cute sitting areas scattered throughout, the business center and tiny library for anyone to use, and the several shared decks - I'm in love with this place! So check it out if you're ever on San Juan Island: Bird Rock Hotel.

Ok so what to do now? Well eat or shop? Eat it is. A few recommendations from the owners and we were off for a great dinner followed by drinks at a bar where we were entertained by the locals and had a Washington first. I can't believe it took almost a year for it to happen, but it did. In all of it's glory. One of the locals was being super friendly and talkative - ok a bit TOO talkative. I should have picked up on that when he showed us his certified marijuana patient card, his certified marijuana growers card, and his Oregon NORML card (all laminated of course) - but this peach is a bit too naive I guess. After not picking up on the hints he became more direct - I told him no, I don't do that, and he asked a few more times and then finally said "I've got a pound in my car right now!". Uh, no thanks man! Shortly there after we dashed out just in time as he spilled his 6th tequila shot on the bar. Once we had escaped and were safely out of sight, Clay said "I got some weird vibes from that guy". "Nah," I say "he was just trying to sell us weed." Ahhhhh - I guess we're officially Washingtonians now, eh?

Ok our next day will be a new post.... I gotta go find a guy.......... Just kidding!