The San Juan Islands

Back in early May the hubs and I took a little weekend trip to the San Juan Islands. To give you a little info about this area it is in northern Washington and located directly across from Victoria, B.C. You have to take a Ferry from Anacortes, WA and when you arrive in Friday Harbor you literally feel like you have stepped back in time.



You can hop islands with free ferry trips but we just stayed on San Juan Island this time. I did want to go to Orcas but the ferry times didn't work out with us and we really wanted to take our time exploring our island this trip. We took our car with us on drove around the entire Island (even getting lost a few times) but as you can see it wasn't tons of ground to cover.

Here are some highlights:

We stayed in Friday Harbor which is a tiny town with no chain restaurants or big stores. There were 3 gas stations on the entire island 2 of them being in Friday Harbor. (They were all Shell stations too. Odd) It was so nice to disconnect from the city life for a few days... and it made me miss that slow easy island/country life that we grew up with. Fun Fact: Shaw Island is home to the Our Lady of the Rock Benedictine monastery and has no stores or eateries on it's 10 mile area.

Friday Harbor

 

The Whale Museum

The museum was really neat and when you arrive you get a Whale Card (that you can find on my Instagram) which has your whale that is a part of the resident pods that live around the islands. I got Muncher. How appropriate.

 

After we finished up at the museum we started driving around the island.

It was all rolling island farm land. Such a weird combo but it was so stinking pretty.

 

Our first stop was Cattle Point. The Cattle Point Lighthouse is a short hike away and I'm obsessed with Lighthouses so we decided it was time to scale some cliffs.We both forgot our tennis shoes (along with jackets, my makeup, and Chad didn't bring any pants - it was 50 degrees the entire time mind you) but that wasn't going to stop us. HA!

You see that high hill/cliff. Yea I climbed up that, in Toms, WITHOUT falling! I am by far the clumsiest person... I was so proud I didn't twist an ankle.

I hope you enjoyed that photo shoot. Chad knows to take 3 pictures at once for 3 different poses so that you have enough choices. Choices people. It's all about choices!  

 

 

Wanna know how Cattle Point got it's name? Back in the old days the ships would come in with cattle and instead of pulling into the harbor to dock the boat they would get close to the shore and push the cattle off of the boat into the water. The shore was so shallow that the cows would safely swim to shore at the lighthouse. Viola! Cattle Point. Sad news is that it was perfectly normal to lose a cow or two to a whale during this process!

Walking back to our car through a field of flowers.

 

Then we went to Roche Harbor where Theodor Roosevelt stayed in the 1900's and we saw his signature in the hotel guestbook inside the Hotel De Haro.

 

Then we checked out the Historic Park full of expensive structures.

The hands of God holding the world.

 

Lastly, we saw the camel, Mona.

 

 

 

Later that night we ended up at a Karaoke bar, met some locals, and had a really good time. The next day we went on a whale watching tour which changed my mind forever about those big beautiful creatures. More on that tomorrow!