Travel

-Tuesday July 3rd Afternoon-
After relaxing for a bit and changing into dry clothes we headed into Friday Harbor for lunch. We first entered an open air place right across from the ferry landing and sat down waiting to be acknowledged. After a bit and not getting a visit, we asked someone who looked like they worked there what the deal was. They said they weren’t open yet, but we could wait where we sat for about 20 more minutes if we wanted. We didn’t want.

Wandered around town for a while looking for other options, but finding the same sort of not yet open vibe nearly everywhere except for the few places that were serving breakfast. When a half an hour passed we returned to our original place. Donna wanted some Dungeness crab and what I really wanted came from a a different part of the restaurant. They could bring it out to me, but it had to be rung up on a separate bill. Sounded like too much effort to me, so I opted for the Fish & Chips (turned out later this was a lucky thing.)

We were served our lunches on paper plates and given a plastic fork for our utensils. For my fish and chips that wasn’t an issue, but to get the most out a crab you need a couple of extra items. When our server asked if there was anything else we needed I asked for some malt vinegar for my chips and Donna asked for a nut cracker or hammer and a seafood pick. My wish was granted, but the server told Donna that they didn’t have those utensils.

The top of the crab had already been separated and each leg segment had a saw cut in it already making for easy access to most of the meat, but there were a few knuckles and other places that refused to grant access to the succulent crab. For this we had to use the bottom of the Malt Vinegar bottle as a hammer. Good thing they make them out of sturdy glass…

And when they say Market Price on the menu, they mean YIKES! Our lunch with two soft drinks and tip came to $56.

-Tuesday July 3rd Morning-
The Day dawns cloudy and misty, but undaunted we set set off for the south end of the island to do a geocache or two. We drove as far as we could on that end of island and were going to go find Cape Cache work our way back to Friday Harbor. As we drove it was sprinkling lightly, but when we parked to caching it started to come down heavier than we wanted to endure just to find an ammo can.

We turned around and drove about a mile back and the rain eased back to its previous drizzle level so we stopped, thinking of walking on a trail along the coast to the Cattle Point Light. Drizzle, wind and mid fifties temps sent us back to the car after about 100 yards of trail. As we drove up the hill away from Cattle Point I pulled over and took a couple photos of the light.

Next stop was the American Camp of the San Juan Island National Historical Park. By now it had stopped misting so we headed out for hike on the park’s trails. We visited Grandma’s Cove and then promptly missed our turn for the trail to South Beach ending up at the site of the actual American Camp. We did still manage to get a couple miles of walking in anyway.

We never did make it back to the British Camp on the north part of the Island that we briefly poked our head into last night. The reason for these two camps had to do with the wording of an 1846 treaty between the US and England setting the boundaries between the two counties and in 1859 brought them to the brink of war once again over the killing of a pig.

Because we are already planning a week’s visit next year and would like a quieter place to stay, right after leaving the park’s borders we see a sign for the Olympic Lights B & B. We wanted something a little further from the road, well this one certainly fits that requirement, it is behind a gate and is about a 1/4 mile down a private one-lane road. We invite ourselves inside and met the inn keepers and like what we see, so this might be the place for 2013.

After leaving the B & B, Donna realized we were only a few hundred feet from a geocache. The rain had quit, so we thought, “What the heck.”I parked the car and we bushwacked into the wet weeds. As we wandered deeper into the woods I realized that even though the rain had quit we were not to be spared getting soaked. Once at ground zero we made short work of finding the container and signing the log. By the time we got back to the car after wading through the knee high weeds our jeans were soaked all the way up to the pockets. So we headed back to the guest house to take a break and change into some dry clothes.

-Monday July 2nd-
We love Bed & Breakfasts when we travel and try to make them account for at least 40% of our overnight stays. A lot of times they work out to be about the same cost as a nice hotel room.

One of the downsides to B & B’s is that you never know what you are going to get. I imagine it is a little like internet dating, it is pretty easy to enhance your perceived positives and downplay or outright omit your weaknesses. That said, we have only been really disappointed twice, once in Arkansas and once in New Mexico.

A big positive for almost everyone, but is very often another downside for us, is the breakfast. At these types of lodgings, breakfast is usually served late, a lot of times it won’t start until 9:00AM. We are early risers so as to jam as much fun as we can into each day of vacation (we can rest at work.) Plus breakfast is typically something fancy and very rich, not our usual bagel, grits or cold cereal repast. We always wished we could find a B & B without the second B, that way we could eat what we wanted and when we wanted and now that we also have to tack on Donna’s new dietary restrictions, finding that sort of place would be awesome. Enter the Juniper Lane Guest House in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

On the internet it looks perfect, B & B style rooms, nice price, free WiFi, a casual common area, cool concept and with access to a full kitchen all day. The inn is far enough from the town, but not too far to be inconvenient for shopping or dining and the innkeeper is friendly, inviting and has a very laid back west-coast vibe. We managed to have both breakfasts and one lunch in the house’s kitchen.

The only negative about the Juniper Lane Guest House was because the summer weather on the island is such that it begs to have the windows in the room flung wide open, meaning you hear any traffic that passes by right out front on one of the island’s main north-south routes. And as it turns out, there is quite a bit of traffic on that road until late at night.

Move this building about 50 yards further off the road and it would probably be in the top 5 places we have ever stayed at.

-Monday July 2nd Morning-
Today was a travel day. Brother Scott and family were headed back to Snohomish while Donna and I were headed to the San Juan Islands.

We drove the 141 kilometers from Colquitlam, BC to Anacortes, WA and got in line for the 2 o’clock ferry to Friday Harbor. We were towards the end of lane 6 and we waited while they were loaded lanes 1, 2 & 3 (4 and 5 were empty.) Watching all those cars drive on we were kind of worried we wouldn’t get on board and have to wait until 4:45 for the next ferry. Donna got out of the car to go ask the ticket seller lady if we would get on the current ferry. She asked Donna if we got a ticket of a number, “A ticket,” replied Donna. “You’re getting on this ferry,” came the reply. See, fortunately for us, the M/V Yakima holds up to 114 cars.

Because we had a late start (about 10:00AM, which seems to be the typical Northwest start time, both American and Canadian) we planned on eating on the ferry. Definitely not haute cuisine, but it would have to do. I opted for a sausage dog and Donna was in a quandary as what to get until she spotted soup pots on the other side of the serving line. She noticed they had one of her favorites, split pea soup, and asked me to pass her a small paper bowl that was located on my side of the line. I lobbed one to her, but it bounced right off her hand and landed smack inside the middle of the clam chowder tureen. Ooops.

Donna snatched the bowl out quickly, but the cashier sprang into action, she commanded the woman next to Donna to close the lid on the Clam Chowder and shouted to the kitchen, “We need another Clam Chowder on the line!” all the while giving Donna and I a withering look. Fortunately she only charged us for the single cup of soup and not a whole pot of the stuff.

-Sunday July 1st Afternoon-
After our walk to the parks with kids and visiting the local Colqitlam Canada Day festival, we headed into downtown Vancouver to see that city’s parade. A dozen of us took the train, I don’t know what the total was, but it couldn’t have been too bad as an adult fare was less than $2.50 one way. The thing that was very intriguing was there were no turnstiles* and no conductors. I asked our host, “Why’d we buy tickets?” Her reply was, “Just in case a random Traffic Mountie asked for them.” Another fine example of the Canadian’s inherent politeness.

*They are working on installing turnstiles and they should be in place sometime next year.

First stop was to pose in front of the Olympic Flame from the 2010 Winter Games. As you can sort of tell, this is ground zero for the festivities even though the parade route is a couple of blocks over.

We made it over to a corner that was lightly populated near the end of the parade route that had some nice steps for viewing over the folks that would be lining the curb. We hadn’t planned our timing very well as we neglected to get dinner before heading downtown, so our choices were limited, but as it turned out their was a famous Canadian hamburger chain restaurant just a couple blocks away. We left the bulk of the group behind to keep claim on our spot and four of us headed to McDonalds.

We were not the only ones who were grabbing a bite to eat before the parade as the line was nearly to the door. I didn’t think we’d get anything to eat in time to see the parade, but apparently this wasn’t their first attempt at handling a huge crowd in a hurry as we made it out the door in about ten minutes. There was another line inside that was a little shorter, but a lot slower, the line to use the Ladies Room.

We got back to our corner with time enough to finish most of fast food before the parade, but it was no longer sparsely populated. It was jammed with seemingly more people than live in our fair city of Aiken. The parade included everything from a Scottish Pipe Band to a Chinese Dragon to Imperial Stormtroopers and after watching nearly the whole thing (or as much as we could handle), we headed for the train for the ride back to Colquitlam.

By the time we got back to the house, no one really wanted to head back to the park we were at earlier in the day to see the fireworks, so we sat on the back deck drinking wine and telling tales. Turned out it was a good thing that we didn’t go, as they cancelled the show because some knuckleheads jumped the fence surrounding the fireworks.