ORCAS ISLAND July 17th

Michelle and I were up and out the door by 3:45 a.m. and on our way to Vancouver to load in Rod’s car at Judy’s. Judy wasn’t able to go to San Juan Islands for 2 days as previously planned, since she was just out of the hospital. But Michelle still went and was also going on with us for 2 days in Vancouver, BC, as she had never been. We’ll put her on the train back to Vancouver, WA, on Sunday at 6:30 a.m.

We were loaded and off by 4:15 a.m. to make sure we were at the Anacortes ferry to Orcas Island by 12:30 p.m.  We had to pass Seattle and during rush hour traffic. Nonetheless, we were almost 4 hours EARLY at the ferry, for which Susan took abuse!!! I always have to be early, way early!! Rod is the same way. We had some fruit, walked around the waterside, and as it turned out, there was an unexpected 10:20 a.m. ferry!! We loaded back in the car and were off.

It was a scenic ride past all kinds of islands (there are 700+ of them, many just uninhabited rocks!! We could see peaks at Baker mountain in the Cascades on the way. We arrived with an extra couple of hours to spend on Orcas and drove off. We were going to spend the night at the Orcas Hotel right at the ferry landing so we figured we could explore there later that night. We headed to the far side of the horseshoe shaped island to the highest point, Mt. Constitution, in Moran State Park. We also passed right through Eastsound (little town) to explore at dinnertime. The road up the mountain was narrow with tons of switchbacks!! We finally arrived at 2400+ ft on the top and took in the view of Rosario Strait, Hono Strait and many of the islands. It was smoggy in the distance so we didn’t get a very good view of the Olympic mountains to the south. Back down at the bottom we stopped by a lakeside where kids were swimming to have a picnic lunch from our cooler.

Next stop was Roasrio Resort, which had originally been a private home, converted to this GORGEOUS setting on Cascade Bay. I told my cohorts if I ever married again, this would be the setting!! There were a couple of treelined grassy terraces overlooking the bay. The original house held the dining room and party rooms and a museum, with a lot of old photos of the original house and family. It was just lovely!!

Next stop was the little tourist shop town of Eastsound. I headed to the water to Madrona restaurant/bar for a beer while the others shopped. Michelle found a shop nearby where she was buying a Chihully-like glass sculpture for her garden. I ended up buying a glass mushroom solar light for my garden.

We ended up in the evening at our lovely Orcas Hotel room which was a hotel at the turn of the 20^th century, with lots of photos. It had a feel of the early 1900s (like the carpet, choice of wallpaper, etc.) but all modernized. We had a porch deck on the second story overlooking the ferry landing where we sat and drank wine Betty had bought at the IGA in Eastsound. The view was spectacular! We crossed the street to a little restaurant where I had delicious salmon for dinner. The Chinese woman who ran the place was from near Xian in Western China. We lost our appetite a bit while waiting by reading some ugly literature posted inside the restaurant – one that poked ugly jokes at Obama and the other a long tirade against the takover of Europe by Moslems and how we should all be concerned!! Almost made we want to leave without eating!!

Our room on the second floor was comfy for the 4 of us, with a nice library, take-a-book, outside our door. I got a hardcover book about Ciina history someone had left. Had a great night’s sleep!