Orcas, Alpacas and Chinese people

We decided to spend all day Saturday on the San Juan Island. There is a shuttle that will take you all over the island and the lady at the bookshop mentioned the farmer's market... we LOVE those -- so we were sold... and we DIDN'T bring the bikes (my body is still complaining)

After a bit of a lie in we had a delicious breakfast and left to catch the ferry. A little after we left the park we passed 3 hitch-hikers one of them with an adorable smile. We don't pick up scraggly ruffian strangers, although we thought about it. A few miles later we mentioned them again. Now, I'm not sure if it was his smile, or reading the scriptures that made us feel all Christian, but we decided to turn around and go get them. We were feeling pretty good, until we got back to the park and we hadn't passed them. At least we tried to do the right thing...

About 500 yards later was a single girl with her thumb in the air. So we tossed her in the back of the van with the deflated air mattress and scads of unorganized food (including a watermelon that kept rolling around). Turns out she's from Eugene but is living here now, working for the summer or something. Guess she's saving up her $$ for a car?

Anyway, after the delay, we were a little pressed for time and by the time we parked the car and ran down the hill, we could see that the ferry was about to pull out -- we were sooooooo bummed, we needed only 2 more minutes and the next ferry didn't leave for another 4 hrs. THANKFULLY there were 2 ladies closer to the ferry that started running, so they waited and then WE started running. *phew* we barely made it, BUT WE MADE IT!!!!
View from the ferry--


We got to Friday Harbour in time to check out the market for about 30 min. before our shuttle left to take us exploring. We found the most delicious goat cheese and this other guy was selling mustard sauces in about 8 varieties. We bought the dill caper mustard sauce. YUM! You could tell the locals, they all had their baskets filled with market goodies and chatted with the different vendors about how things were going. I got some great ideas for Cannon Beach's own farmers market. I hope I can get a booth.

We made our way back to the dock and found the blue shuttle with the crazy driver. He kept a running commentary about the island and it's locals. He was a bit pessimistic talking about the people who buy houses they don't need and the "dream houses" that satisfy for a year before they are sold again to someone with a different dream. He mentioned more than 5 times the fact that the islanders don't do things the way things are done everywhere else. He seemed so intent on being different. Interesting. C and I saw some standing stones and asked him what they are. "Well they're stones that someone stood up." Enlightening, don't you think? Only someone that lives on San Juan Island would think to stand stones on their end arranged in a circle in an open field?

We passed the lavender farm, no purple... the spring was too wet.




Our next stop was Lime Kiln State Park, aka "whale watch park" We had an hour here and took our lunch on the rocks near the water at the lookout.


A younger girl with great eyesight saw the whale several times before C and I did. It was beautiful. I didn't have binoculars or even my glasses, but I was able to see the Orca whale that swam by. We saw it spout and jump and roll. SO COOL! There was a pod headed our way. Unfortunately, we had to catch the shuttle if we wanted to make it to see the Alpacas and still have a ride back to the harbour in time to catch the ferry. So, we only saw the lone whale and not the whole family, but it was GREAT!!!


The alpacas were SO CUTE!!! Their little faces have so much character. The littlest one was only 4 days old. While we were fawning over their cuteness, a lady came out to feed them apple slices for a snack and wet their legs. They LOVED that. The ladies and babies were first and they were so polite they took turns and everything. The gents were in a different area and loved the water as much as the girls did.










Our last stop was Roache Harbour. We saw a marina and the old lime kilns and a wedding. Not much else was there, but it was charming in it's own right. Before we knew it, we had to go back to Friday Harbour. We had a bit of time to kill and found the storefront for the lavender farm. Household products and goodies all with lavender. We bought ourselves some almond lemon lavender cookies and lavender lemonade. We browsed a GREAT used bookstore called Serendipity. I found a collector's copy of Jane Eyre and C and I each closed our eyes and picked a book off the shelf. Just in case it became our new favorite book. ummm... i got one called The Fat Man, I read it and it is not my new favorite book.





We had a great day on the Island and finished the day relaxing at camp. Oh, I just realized that I didn't tell you about the Chinese people. Our interesting guide for the 1st leg of our journey told us all about the days when the San Juan Islands were used to smuggle things from Canadia into America. Things such as booze, wool and Chinese people who were used as slave labor to build THE railroad. There you have it... our day of Orcas, Alpacas and Chinese people.