When you arrive at the Ferry Terminal NW of Anacortes you see Mount Baker very well.
This is what the ferry looks like inside.
And this is what the ferry looks like outside.
You can still see Mount Baker.
Upon arrival, we drove to Obstruction Point, hiked a half a mile, and ate lunch.
This is the view from there.
We took some time out to admire the scenery.
Heading to our hotel, we saw the first of many many deer.
This was the view from our hotel room.
It looked on to Cascade Harbor and Rosario.
That night, we ate out and then walked through an indian preserve.
They had some Madrona trees there.
Madrona trees have weird bark.
On the coast of the preserve, there were starfish.
Some were even purple!
There's Audrey on the rocks.
Let's see what she found.
It's a tiny crab! There were many of them in the water.
This is the view over the sound.
August 21, 2003 - Discovering Orcas Island
And here's the aforementioned scenery:
The next day, we went out for some exercise.
Here is the kayak that we rented for two hours.
Time out on salt water brings out the Viking in all of us.
Later, we decided to take a seven mile hike.
We walked up to Mount Constitution.
It is the highest mountain on the San Juan Islands.
The scenery was nice along the trail and at the top. (See more below)
Here is a panoramic shot from near the top of the mountain.
At the top of Mount Constitution is a watch tower. Here is a view from its window.
On our way back down the mountain, the trail was majorly steep.
Some flowers from the trail.
At the bottom of the hill were Twin Lakes.
August 22, 2003 - More Orcas Island
On this trail, there were many waterfalls.
That night, we drove up Mount Constitution hoping to have a nice sunset. Unfortunately the antennas were in the way. It was still a nice evening.
We drove around the NW part of the island on Friday. These are cottages you can rent at Westlake.
In that area, there were a couple pottery places. Here is the prettier one.
They had cute animals out front.
Afterwards we drove by a property that had many mobiles.
Imagine the different layers of this spinning in opposite directions.
I really like mobiles.
This one was really neat.
Later on Friday, we went for a bike ride.
We got off our bikes and went for a walk on a trail.
We saw about 10 eagles when we were on the island.
August 23, 2003 - Leaving Orcas Island
After camping the last night, we ate here in the morning.
Then we went to the west of the island to Deer Harbor,
Where all the big boats dock.
After a looong ferry wait, when we got home, anniversary flowers from my parents had arrived!
Lastly, here is a Black and Blue - berry tart I made on Aug 28th.