Summer Vacation

The day school let out we headed out of town. I think we set a new family record by being on the road within an hour of the school doors closing.  We were well stocked with books and DVDs for the long drive.  When we stopped for a break near Redding it was 109 degrees at 7:00 pm.  I really appreciate our cool summers.  We thought we would just see how far we could get and travel a bit while the kids slept.  We started looking online for a place to stay as we got close to Eugene, Oregon.  Before we could get anything we were in town.  We stopped at a descent looking place near the University and learned that the town was full due to the NCAA track and field championships.  What luck.  After driving around town a bit and seeing a few vacancy signs at rather shady motels, we headed up the road and ended up in Albany, just outside Corvallis.  Due to our late night we stayed in Albany until lunchtime and I'm glad we did.  We found my new favorite restaurant, Novak's Hungarian Restaurant.  Too bad it is over 600 miles away.  The cabbage rolls are to die for.  Not to mention the brownies and chocolate swirl meringues we took for the road.  Luckily they sell recipes.  One day I may try my hand at those cabbage rolls.

 

We spent the next night with friends in Seattle.  We usually see them then they come down to visit his mom, who lives near us.  We finally made it up to see them.  They have three cute daughters.  My Girl was is little girl heaven.  Buddy Boy was in i-pad heaven.  They have three so my boy got his fix of Puzzle Craft and other games.

 

Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting in Seattle.  At the times we could go and still make our ferry, we had the option of Samoan, Korean, and Sign Language.  We went with the sign language.  It was interesting to see how everything worked with the hymns and the translators.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone singing and signing the hymns together.

 

Later that afternoon we headed to Anacortes to catch the ferry to Friday Harbor.  The scenery on the ride is breathtakingly beautiful.  The water, the lush green islands, the eagles...

 

Tossing rocks in Anacortes while waiting for the ferry to Friday Harbor

On the ferry

 

 

Once on San Juan island we headed out of town to Cattle Point to Aunt J.'s house.  She has lived there for years, but has recently moved to the Seattle area.  I've heard about how beautiful a place the island is and now I get to see for myself.  One of the things I really enjoyed was seeing all of the wildlife.  Some of it isn't so wild it seems.  Each morning and evening the foxes and deer come through the yard, moving between the forest and the open prairie.  The few houses in between don't seem to bother them a bit.  While on the island we saw deer, foxes, bald eagles, golden eagles, osprey nesting, a leopard seal, lots of sea birds and song birds.  Buddy boy made a pet of a caterpiller for an afternoon, and also found a snake skin.  I guess that counts as wildlife.  It used to be alive.  We didn't see any orcas, in spite of the many whale watching tours available. 

On our first morning there I woke up thinking it must be 7:30 or 8:00.  It was 5:30.  I took a few pictures of the deer and the sunrise and went back to bed, glad to have seen it and glad for more time to sleep.

The view from the front windows.  Spectacular.

 

We spent a lot of time going on little walks.  And occasionally pretending to be sleeping seals.

 

 

The one historical event of note that occurred on the island was the Pig War.  The gist of it was that an American shot a British pig.  There was a 12 year standoff and a border dispute arbitrated by Kaiser Wilhem I of Germany.  The only casualty of the war was the pig.

 

We went to English Camp and saw some of the buildings that have been restored.  It was a beautiful windy day so we flew kites on what was once the military parade grounds.  The best part of the kite flying was the eagles that came to check out the strange orange clown fish that had invaded their territory.  They were clearly curious, but kept their distance.  I was just waiting for one of them to take out our kite.  It would have been worth it for the story alone.

 

English camp is still a little bit foreign.  You pick up Canadian cell phone service on that side of the island.

 

Along the beaches there is a lot of drift wood.  Some of it has fallen off logging barges and other pieces are naturally down trees.  It is a lot of fun to see what people have built with all of these logs.  We did a little building and added a room or two.  My girls was especially fond of decorating the buildings with her favorite rocks and shells.

 

The snake skin

Along the beaches at American Camp we found this amazing octagonal structure.  Someone had put a lot of time and effort in to this one.  You could see the piles of logs they had sorted by length and size.  We had a lot of fun with it and added our bit including a couch and doorbell.

Behind Aunt J.'s house there is a bit of forest.  One morning we took a walk through the forest over to the bay on the other side.

This little guy was guarding the path into the woods.  He just kept looking and sniffing, not the least bit afraid. 

After a week of hiking and relaxing, watching boats, and learning about the Pig War and orcas we headed home. (There is a great little whale museum in town.)  We stopped in Seattle to visit Aunt J. and stayed one more night with our friends.  Along the way we stopped at two different Cabella's stores and our new favorite Hungarian restaurant.  This time on the way through town the NCAA tournament was over, but it was graduation weekend.  It's a good thing we kept moving.

This ended up being one of those perfect vacations, relaxing and interesting, beautiful scenery, great weather, good friends, you couldn't ask for more.

Maybe if the stars align we can do it again.