As promised in my post yesterday, here's a short and sweet synopsis of what we did on our last full day on San Juan Island. Mainly we drove around. I had woken up at 2:30 am (couldn't shut my brain off) so I got up and wrote, addressed, stamped and sealed our Christmas cards. Kathleen got up at a normal time and we had breakfast. When we were done with breakfast (see I told you this was short and sweet) we went out to see the rest of the island we hadn't seen yesterday.
Many of our drives and my walks/hikes are just about finding things to take pictures of so we headed out to find some subjects. First stop, an old resort named Roche Harbor. It's on the far side of the island from Friday Harbor but it only took about 20 minutes to get there. Has an old photogenic hotel and a nice marina but nothing photographically that made me jump for joy.
Then it was off to English Camp. This is a national historic park that has two locations, this and American Camp at the opposite end of the island. We have been there before but it is a really pretty place and this was the first time we had ever been there when we were totally alone. Above are pics of Roche Harbor and below one of English Camp.
There was only one other place I wanted to see (plus I was scouting for a place to take an afternoon hike) and that was American Camp, the other half of the National Historic Park. It is at the completely other end of the island and is almost a different ecosystem. Where most of the island is heavily wooded, the American Camp section is pretty much a wind-swept plain and nothing but grass. Sadly, when we got to the park, it was closed. They were doing some kind of construction.
Since we had driven all that way, we decided to continue on to the very southern tip of the island, a place I had never driven down to before. We always used to stop at American Camp and then head back. We are very glad we did as the views were amazing.
But even better than the views were the three wildlife shots I was able to get. First, after I took the panoramic photo above, we drove all the way to the end of the island where there was a turn around and found ourselves surrounded on two sides by deer. As if that wasn't enough as we drove back (not more than three minutes later) we saw what we thought was a dog running through a field. But it was an interesting dog. And as it got closer we could see that it was not a dog at all but a fox. Strangely enough, the fox came right at our car (we think someone in a red car must be feeding it), nonchalantly walked in front of the car and then calmly crossed the road. All the way it was as if he was posing for pictures. Kathleen identified it as a red fox.
Once we left our foxy friend behind and headed into some trees, we saw what we thought was a hawk fly down and land on the side of a tree. I slowed down as we passed the bird and it wasn't a hawk (we see hawks in the NW all the time) but an owl. Kathleen later identified it as a Barred Owl. As you can see from the photo, if the owl had not flown in just as we were passing, we never would have seen it because it blends in so well with the tree. In my opinion, the owl is one of the best animal pics I have taken.
The next morning (yesterday) we had a 10:30 am ferry to catch back to Anacortes and we struck gold. If you remember, I mentioned yesterday that on our way to the island we had been stuck on the car deck between two large trucks so we could see nothing. This time we got the very front of the boat so we had a totally clear view of everything on our way back. I have two photos from that morning I want to share. The first I took while waiting for the ferry. The sun was so perfect over the marina, I couldn't pass it up. The second I took through the windshield of our car of another ferry approaching us (it was too damn cold to get out of the car) but it came out just fine for me.
Yes, it’s true! Kathleen and I are currently sitting in the living room of an AirBnB just outside Langley, Washington on Whidbey Island. We decided to do a four day weekday getaway (Monday—Thursday) while the roof is being replaced on our townhouse. The place we are staying (click here to see it) is incredibly secluded and the silence is almost deafening in itself. Nature is everywhere. A deer and her fawn were just off our deck this morning. Rabbits run amok…and there are so many different colors of bunnies. Never seen so many in one place and they are truly not afraid of humans. Here’s a quick montage of all the bunny pics I took yesterday (there were actually a lot more but I spared you).
So many!
The police bunny
The one in the middle thinks he’s a meerkat.
Kind of a calico? Or Kathleen says, maybe a tortoise-shell?
And not a single one seemed at all phased by me being within three feet of them.
But they come in all shapes and sizes
Enough about bunnies. It was so wonderful to do some things on this trip. For instance, this place is less than 90 minutes from our house…if we take a ferry. But we were in no hurry coming up and will be in no hurry going back, so we drove around. That means going north for about 90 minutes and then going onto Whidbey Island at the north end by crossing the Deception Pass bridge. We opted to do that since we couldn’t get into the AirBnB until around 3:00 pm anyway and they started on our roof at 8:30 am. And not only did we drive north first, but we also did not take a freeway to get there. Instead of the usual drive on Interstate 5, we took Washington Highway 9 pretty much all the way up. It is a beautiful drive but almost an hour longer.
Then another wonderful thing we did…ate at a restaurant. Yes, we have been doing a lot of takeout since this started but we realized (while having lunch) that we had not been IN a restaurant since we had lunch with our friends Bob and Judy, on March 2 in Florida. And even worse (for us restaurant snobs ?), we went to Cracker Barrel for that lunch ?. Monday we went out of our way (by about 10 miles) to visit Anacortes which is the gateway (ferry departure point) for Washington’s amazing San Juan Islands. We haven’t been to Anacortes for quite a while but the last time we were there, we had lunch at an outstanding deli that just happened to be open last Monday so in we went. Everyone was wearing a mask (made us feel much safer) and they had a bunch of outdoor seating that was completely social-distanced. We wore our masks to place our order inside (where everyone stayed six feet apart) and then took them off at our outdoor table. But they went right back on whenever the server brought our drinks or food. Even with masking up, it was quite liberating to be able to eat out again.
We even did it again last night for dinner, here in Langley. Found a place where you again; ordered at a counter, sat outside, every table was six feet or more apart and they brought you your food—fully masked. Again, a liberating experience. Of course now we will head home tomorrow and not eat out again for a few weeks I am sure. Maybe on our next planned trip to the Washington coast with the grandkids (and their parents) in August.
As I love to do when we travel, I took an early morning photo walk around Langley. They are doing their best to survive this pandemic as they are a town mostly supported by tourism and as we all know, that’s not happening this year. They are doing it right with the entire downtown posted as a “Mask Zone.” No one is allowed anywhere downtown without one…except me at 5:30 am when no one else was around. I did this walk yesterday (Tuesday) and I am so glad I did. I got some beautiful sunrise light then while today it is overcast and gray. A true lesson in how your light totally effects your photography. Since most of you can’t travel, I will share my walk with you below. There are captions on most of the pics. And FYI: I took four times as many photos as I will post. These are just my favorites.Make sure to run them as a slide show (Click the first one, then use your arrows keys or swipe to advance) for maximum effect.
Was lucky enough to get some amazing sunrise shots
And some without the sun but with some great shadows.
This is the town’s very cool, old fashioned movie theater, The Clyde. Been closed for the duration.
Bunny breakfast
This guy was almost blue
Loved this sign. Saw it three times in store windows. Great sentiment.
Colors!
Neon! I love me some neon. Wish it had been darker. May have to go back.
Down First Street into downtown in the distance.
The Inn at Langley where we spent our 10th anniversary in 2009.
Obligatory summer flower photo.
And happy to see this…especially done so colorfully.
Pretty sure that’s about it for this trip unless something else amazing happens (like we see a bear or an elk). Promise to be back soon with more fun stuff on your favorite travel blog (when you can’t travel ??).
The journey is part of the experience — an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca. —Anthony Bourdain
