My mom decided at the last minute to go to her high school reunion on Orcas Island. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to visit the family and show the the island off to the kids. Of course, I said yes!! First we stopped in Mt. Vernon, Washington to visit with my grandpa. Mt Vernon is about one hour north of Seattle and has some pretty countryside. Then we went to my aunt's house in Ferndale, Washington which is about 45 minutes north of Mt. Vernon. We stayed there for a few days and visited with all the family that lives in the area. It was great fun seeing everyone and we got to meet a new member of the family, Audrey, who Owen just fell in love with. He spent most of the time that she was around holding her and entertaining her.
We got to be there for my uncles birthday party, which was great! We got to go to Birch Bay, which is a little north of Ferndale. When the tide is out you can walk really far out in the bay. We got there when it was just starting to come back in and the kids loved it because it gets little islands of sand that you can play on but you have to be fast because when the tide comes in they disappear fast. Here is a picture of the kids trying to build a fort against the tide on one of the sand islands.
I think Paige is winning!
Then we were off to Orcas Island!
Orcas is part of the San Juan Islands, off the coast of northern Washington. All of the islands are beautiful but Orcas probably is the best place to stay if you want to visit any of the islands. It has an abundance of small hotels, resorts, and vacation rentals. Check out www.orcasislandchamber.com to get a list of all the lodging on and around the island. Here are some of the things that we did. Visit the beach......
The beach was great there are lots of sea creatures for the kids to explore and shells to find. Some of the driftwood is amazing.... The weather is usually warm at about 70-75 degrees, when we were there it was in the 60's but it was still nice especially as when we left home it was in the upper 90's. You have to take a ferry from Anacortes to get to the island, but even that is an adventure. If you have never been in the pacific northwest, or even if you have, the scenery is awesome! I wish I had Danny's good camera with me. I spent the whole trip smiling at all the greenery! Here is a picture of the ferry boat coming in to Orcas at night. This was taken from the deck of the house my mom rented for us.
Here is one of the dock during the day!
The kids, (and me!) loved staying right at the ferry dock! You would be amazed at how peaceful it was, you would think that it would be noisy but the ferries are really quiet. My favorite time to be on the deck was at night when the late ferries were coming in. I don't know if you can tell in the picture but when the water is calm you get to see a beautiful reflection on the water of the ferry lights.
We also went whale watching and let me tell you, it is worth the price! We saw two different pods of whales on our trip and lost count of how many times we saw them. The naturalists on the boat have a binder showing most of the whales, which ones they are and how old they are. There are many whales in each pod and the babies stay with their moms for life, which is really cool. I guess a pod would be like one big family. We also saw harbor seals, bald eagles and of course lots of seagulls.
I didn't get very may good pictures of the whales, I am not very quick with the camera! After a while I just gave up and enjoyed the view. Orca whales are my favorite! We saw many of them right off the side of the boat. The boat can only get so close and then they shut the engine off and of course some of the whales get really close, which the boat captain can't help of course. Sometimes if it is calm water they stick a microphone in the water to listen to the sounds, the whales sound really cool!! We even got to see three of them breach (jump), which they say is unusual.
We also got to visit with my grandparents who live on the island. They have lived there for as long as I remember. The boys loved going out to grandpa's backyard to check out all the stuff he has. They even got to go for a ride in his dump truck!
On our way back from Orcas we stopped again at my other grandparents house and visited with them. Owen likes to talk fishing and logging with him, grandpa even gave each of the boys a baggie of fishing lures to take home, which included some of the flies he used to tie himself.
Here is Owen with Great Grandpa!
And Walker with Great Grandpa! Walker Michael is named after him. His name is Michael Walker!
Lets just say that if you ever want to vacation in the pacific northwest Orcas Island is a great family destination! I can't even list all the things there is to do...
hiking Mt. Constitution
whale watching
fishing
go to the beach
shop for pottery (one of my favorites)
all kinds of boating
swimming
etc.
Really, you should go!!!!!!
