Travelogues

Seattle and the San Juan Islands

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But the best part of our trip was when we got back to Seattle. We tried to do the tourist thing and see the Space Needle, but Seattle bored us. The only place we really enjoyed was the Funhouse. There is a basketball court in the back and basketball+beer is always a good time for all. At night, the little dive bar transforms into a music venue.

I had also planned a little jaunt up north to the San Juan Islands. This group of islands is in Puget sound between the Anacortes peninsula and Vancouver Island. There are three main islands and we spend most of our time on the largest, San Juan Island in the main city of Friday Harbor.

Ferries run all day from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. There are both direct ferries and those that run to all of the Islands. The direct ferry costs $11 per person and takes about 45 minutes. Parking overnight in the ferry lot is $20. It would have been cheaper to take the rental car over to the island, but then we would have had to wait another 3 hours to book a spot on the next ferry. We decided to walk on.

The "Juniper Lane Guest House" (www.juniperlaneguesthouse.com) was supposed to be in talking distance from the Friday Harbor ferry port. About 1/2 a mile into our walk, I decided I was going to try hitchhiking. I had no idea what I'm doing, so I just stick out a thumb. The next thing I know a truck pulls up with a woman and a dog. We load up our luggage and bodies in the back and ride the mile to the Guest House.

Juniper greets us. She's a young woman with lots of style. The guest houses are decorated to reflect her eccentric tastes. It was more suited to young travelers like us than the other gaudy, frilly bed and breakfasts I had browsed online. In the kitchen, there is a map with pins marking the locations all the guests have travelled from. Our group adds San Diego, Ca and Qingtao, China. Our bunks are decorated with purple quilts and I pick a bed up at the top. Our host hooks us up with Crystal Seas Kayaking to book a kayak trip for the next day and we call Island Dive and Watersports to book a boat dive.

Crystal seas has no more tours for the day so Garth decides we should rent some bikes and cycle around the western side of the island. This part of the island is well known for viewing Orcas in the channel between San Juan and Vancouver Islands. We cycle the hilly roads until we're red in the face, finally arriving at the scenic west coast. There were no orcas to see, but the views from Lime Kiln State Park were beautiful. There were several tidepools with interesting creatures, and lots of old lava rocks to climb.

At the end of our exhausting ride back, we stumbled into the Front Street Ale House serving local beers from the San Juan Brewery (1 Front St, Friday Harbor, WA 98250 (360)378-2337). The jalepeno fish and chips hit the spot and we tried a range of the local brews. Dessert was a mountainous carrot cake! Our waiter, Van Dyke, was a Michigan Dutch just like Lora! He took our numbers and promised to give us a local tour.

We biked home in the pitch blackness, howling at the slivered moon. The bed at Juniper was a great end to an adventurous day. The next morning we were up at 8am to join up with out boat dive.

Lora and I had to battle somewhat with the employees at Island Dive and Watersports to get the price advertised on the internet. Finally the owner agreed that it would be false advertising to charge us a different price. We boarded the boat to one of the nearby islands and began our descent into the cold water. I expected the shock to be much worse, but I actually felt very comfortable in the 52 degree water. Sticking my face in at the surface I could see interesting anemones and sea cucumbers and sea stars all over the wall. The visibility was nice.

We began our descent but when I signalled OK to Lora, she shook her head and began to ascend. Something was wrong. When she got to the surface she said her throat hurt and felt dry. She also began coughing. We waited for a bit, but she wasn't getting any better. In the end, she returned to the boat and I continued my dive with an assistant.

There were countless sea cucumbers on this dive! There weren't many fish, but plenty of invertibrates. The starfish were huge with multiple arms. One had a span of about 3.5 feet. I was majorly overweighted for the cold water and the other diver kept swimming ahead. I was fighting to keep up and got exhausted halfway through the dive and had to bail to the surface.

When I returned to the ship, Lora was coughing up a clear fluid. Her lips were also starting to look a little blue at the bottom middle. I didn't want her to panic, so I didn't tell her, just telling her to breathe slowly. I stayed as long as I could at the surface, but she told me to go ahead and do my second dive.

The second dive was absolutely incredible. Forests of white anemones covered the rocks. I swam through them letting them brush over my body. A large fish swam out and startled me. It was almost as long as I was! The wall was rich with life. At one point I spotted a white shape moving into a hole. Hoping it was a giant octopus, I followed it, and discovered a huge wolf eel!


We hung out with David Van Dyke again and he showed us some cool mud flats. We tried to dig up clams but didn't succeed. I also spotted a bald eagle.

To make up for the diving disaster, I promised Lora a sunset Kayak tour. We were supposed to see Orcas but they had decided not to indulge us again. The water was glassy and gorgeous and the views of Vancouver Island were stunning.

posted by Patricia @ 4:13 PM