Sep 3, 2012 - San Juan Island, WA

We took a ferry to Friday Harbor, the most populated island in the San Juan Island Chain in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. The town of Friday Harbor is a quaint town with lots of shops. We decided to drive first to Roche Harbor. Roche Harbor was named in honor of Richard Roche, who served in the British Navy. Roche Harbor is now a resort, it was formerly a company town surrounding the Tacoma and Roche Harbor Lime Company, which was incorporated in 1886. Lime production was a major industry and revenue source for a corporation founded by John...

Aug 1, 2011 - Day 62 - Cruising the San Juan Islands

What a great day! We met Jay's cousin Donna & her husband Rico at the San Juan Cruises dock about 8:30 this morning. We enjoyed looking at the Zodiac sailboat parked next to our boat while waiting to board. The weather was cool, but clear as we boarded for our day of sailing to Friday Harbor and back looking for whales. The boat sailed through the many (170+) islands with the Captain giving us the history of the islands that we passed. The morning was a bit cool to sit outside, so we took up residence at table 15 near the door to the back...

Jul 28, 2011 - July 24-26

July 24th Westcott-Garrison Bay - About a 1/2 hour from Friday Harbor, we pulled into an achorage known for dungeness crab. Anchored our boats, hopped in our dinghies (along with our hoop nets) to catch crab. - We pulled out our salmon scraps and set the bait. With hoop nets, you check them every 40 mins or so. So we left & returned to find 3 nice size crab in our net. One was a Rock (a throw away), one a female (illegal to catch) and one male, legal size! Dropped the nets again and kept it up till we had 5 legal crabs - more than enough...

Jul 23, 2011 - Beginnings

July 23, 2011 - Friday Harbor, WA - We provisioned in town and bought our crab bait (lovely salmon fish heads & parts - yuck!) The bait will go inside our hoop nets to lure the crab into the net and "voila!" we will have a nice crab dinner. I hope it's that easy. - Dave will be fishing for salmon as well. And Lee & Nancy know a good place for digging clams - glad I brought some old shoes. I guess the mud is pretty thick. - It is truly beautiful here - the bay & the town are incredible. It's obvious there's a lot of money here. The houses on...

Jun 13, 2011 - The San Juan Islands

Friday morning we got going early and headed to Anacortes where we would catch the ferry to Friday Harbor. On the way we stopped at a donut shop which we had been told was the best donuts in town. It was! We took the donuts to go and saved them until we got in the Que waiting to be loaded on the ferry.The ride was an hour an a half and we unloaded to a enormous uphill road. We had reservations at the fairgrounds which was just a short walk to Friday Harbor. This is the first year that the fairgrounds was opened to campers and without a lot...

Aug 8, 2010 - Day on an island

After breakfast this morning we went to Cattle Point to look at tide pools. We went to a cluster of rocks, across an expanse of seaweed covered rocks and found them. In the pools we passed, hermit crabs scuttled over stones, limpets hung onto the rocks, snails moved slowly and sculpins swam over the sand. Some pools were obscured by bright green sea grass while others sported sea anemones, open or closed. We saw one bright orange starfish on the rocks, but it was gone by the time we got back. We saw a lighthouse on the bluff, then went back...

Aug 7, 2010 - Rain, swimming and whales

After waking up at two in the morning to take meds for cramps, I wasn't too thrilled to hear the rooster crowing at eight. He's a very strange rooster, not only does he crow later than normal, he also has a very strange accent. Apparently, he grew up listening to both the roosters on the other farm and to the quail, which live in the high grass on the other side of the house and so his call sounds like squadoo!. Emily and I collected eggs from the chickens, which turned into breakfast. After our pie a la mode, eggs, and hash browns we sat...

Aug 6, 2010 - Friday Harbor

Today we got up to see a bear walking up the hill a couple sites down, we thought he was going for the people's breakfast who had it spread all over. It didn't, but walked up through the yurts, I don't think the other people even saw the black bear. Dad had gone for an early bike and saw the bear when he came back. We drove past some signs for the Olympics and through Vancouver. It was a bustling hive of activity, with people shopping, making deliveries, winding their cars through town, going to work, or riding the trollies which were...

Jul 8, 2009 - San Quan Islands, Friday Harbor

We were up at 6:00, left for Anacortes at 7:00, we had to be in line for ferry by 8:00 AM. The ride on the ferry is so smooth, you just glide over the water. It took about an hour to get to Friday Harbor. The day was great. We had lunch at the Harbor a little cafe called LIME KILN CAFE. We had fresh Alaskan Pollock fish & chips. The fish was delicious. And we had one of their world famous donuts. I don't know what was famous about it. We looked at (from the pier) boats in the 3 to 4 million dollars. Boy they were something just from the...

Apr 10, 2009 - San Juan Island

We woke up early this morning and mobilized soon after coffee, because today we had to move to another site. We had really enjoyed site #12, because we had a beautiful view of Fidalgo Bay. Today we had to move to site #45. It was just across the road, but we still had to pack things away. We needed to get this done early to ensure we'd make the 9:35 a.m. ferry to San Juan Island. We decided to secure everything on the inside, then push in both beds, then hook up and move, without popping down. We've never done this before, but figured it...

Mar 4, 2009 - Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

Well after 4 days in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island we will move along. Think we will head over to Orcas Island. Winds are to kick up to 25 kts and the weather should be turning with a chance of snow this weekend so we must make our break. Mike and I have both been quite sick here and are beginning to get a negative association of Friday Harbor(no fault of theirs). Guess the flu shots just weren't the right formulation or we picked up a Canadian strain. We have had some good times here; lunch at Dos Diablos, dinner at Downrigger's,...

Aug 7, 2008 - Sea Kayaking and Whale watching on San Juan Island

August 7, 2008 This is our only full day at Friday Harbor, so we want to make it a good one. The day before we signed up for a sea kayak tour at 12:00, then we were going whale watching at 4:30. Both events went out of Snug Harbor, which is on the other side of the island. On that same side of the island was Roche Harbor, which we discovered was a really fancy anchorage for many sailboats and power boats. We heard that some people called it "Snob Harbor" but we found it friendly and accommodating. We had gotten out early enough to find...