When we decided to go to the San Juan Islands for a long weekend I hadn’t realized just how stressful it would be. Of all the hundreds of islands that make up the San Juans, we selected San Juan Island as our destination of preference and booked a nice hotel in Friday Harbor. It sounded like a good base for the weekend and as it turned out it was. The hotel was only a couple of blocks away from where the ferry docked and surrounded by restaurants. It was the ferry that caused me the stress though. There are only about 6 ferries a day that go from Anacortes to Friday Harbor and you can’t book them, it’s a first come first served system. And there are no alternatives to getting on the island if you miss the ferry. The first come first served model was fine apart from they recommend you turn up a couple of hours early on a Friday and warn that you may have to wait for the following ferry as it is the equivalent of the ferry rush hour. So, the hotel was booked but would we manage to get there?
The morning started with Toby going to pre-school for an hour or so and Harry being struck down, very conveniently, by a temperature. He was fine really, we just needed him to throw a sickie and he was happy to oblige! We collected Toby at 11 with Harry hiding on the floor of the car so that no-one saw him. I was clearly feeling the stress as we pulled out of the school car park. For some reason I forgot we were in America and set-off down the wrong side of the road! Fortunately the sight of a bus coming towards us and Tracy telling me I was on the wrong side of the road bought me to my senses and I swerved across into the correct position! Not sure what that was all about but I recovered quickly and only made the same mistake once more across the remainder of the weekend! Oops!
The journey up to Anacortes passed with lots of excitement. Grandad pointed out every RV we went past. And 5th wheeler. And caravan. And just when we thought he couldn’t get any more excited the freeway went through an area that had lots of roadside sites selling RVs, caravans and boats! In the space of 10 miles I think he probably spent close to $1 million in his head! We also had our usual game of i-spy with Toby and I once again on the same finely tuned wavelength! No matter what he spied – I guessed it! Great teamwork!
We arrived at Anacortes ferry terminal about 2.5 hours before the ferry was due to set sail and to my considerable relief the queue was pretty small – probably because no-one else was stupid enough to turn up so early! Still, although we had two hours of sitting in the car waiting ahead, I felt much better about everything because at least we would make it to the island! For the next couple of hours we ate some very expensive, limp sandwiches, got shouted at by a woman trying to load a ferry (I think she thought we were foot passengers about to miss a ferry), taking photos of Mount Baker, sitting in the car passing comment and judgement on anyone and everyone who happened to walk past (and there were some sights) and listening to two boys playing on their DS’s.
Surprisingly enough the time passed quite quickly and before we knew it we were being loaded onto the ferry. Once on we strolled around the deck taking photos and admiring the beautiful islands and some quite stunning views. I was also hoping to see a pod of orcas swim by, leap out the water and allow me to take photos but unfortunately this didn’t materialize. On the plus side though, Mount Baker was out and looked quite amazing.
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It takes about 50 minutes to get Friday Harbor and once we disembarked we went straight to the hotel. After making sure we had a better room than Grandad we unpacked and set off to explore and find somewhere to eat – we were ravenous afterall! After a little stroll round the picturesque town we settled on Downriggers as the lucky recipients of our custom. The boys were particularly excited about this restaurant as the table cloth was paper and they were allowed to draw all over it! I think the excitement may have been a little too much for Toby who, without taking a bite out of his burger, declared that he felt sick. Time was spent sitting outside with him taking deep breaths of fresh air followed by leaning over a toilet thinking he was about to be sick! As it turned out Tracy took him back to the hotel and he was absolutely fine within 10 minutes of leaving the restaurant! Despite the fun and games, my meal was probably the best I have had since moving to the US – it was yumtastic! Tracy and I shared Angels on Horseback to start while Grandad worked his way through the largest set of onion rings I have ever seen. The menu said they were world famous and I think I can see why! The corn crusted aslaskan halibut which followed was brilliant – even if a little cool after spending time outside with Toby!
After a nice sleep, the Saturday morning tradition of drama continued although it was more despair this week rather than drama. Toby, with a perfect sense of timing decided it would be a great idea to wet the (sofa) bed. Brilliant! Time for bed stripping and hoping that the sofa dried out across the day! Maybe next week we will have a normal Saturday morning. After cleaning up and then having breakfast we set off on our tour of the island. It’s not a huge island by any stretch of the imagination but we took all day enjoying the sights and the fresh air before returning to Friday Harbor to have a lie down and then go out for something to eat (we were ravenous!). Toby also spent the day telling us his new favorite joke:
Why did Grandad cross the road?
To get to Macy’s.
On Saturday night we went to the Friday Harbor Pub – the Cask & Schooner. What Tracy had initially thought was the local drunk actually turned out to be the owner of the pub and like everyone else in America they too had been to the UK. Considering hardly any Americans have passports they all seem to have been to England! As it turned out this chap actually had – he used to work at Elstree Studios on the Harry Potter movies but now he had returned to the San Juans to run his own pub and to create his own version of mushy peas! He was very pleased with his peas and bought us out a sample. I’m not a great lover of mushy peas but these were very good, as was the sticky toffee pudding which he bought out for us at the end. We also had some of their pumpkin ice-cream which was very good. So, despite only going out for a small bite to eat we returned to our beds completed stuffed! The joys of America!
On Sunday morning we packed up and parked the car in the ferry car park. We were in the queue and saved myself from getting more ferry related stress! After popping back to the hotel to have breakfast we then hit the shops again! After stocking up on a couple more items we got back into the car and waited to board. While we waited Tracy nosed her way into one of the locals leaving do! He was leaving the San Juans for good and going to live in Hawaii. We wanted to get more info but she wouldn’t go over and ask more questions!
On the ferry we stood at the back enjoying the views while the boys entertained themselves by smacking Grandads butt! He punished them by trying to kiss them at which point they ran away and went over the other side of the boat. They hate kisses!
Once back on land we drove back across onto Whidbey Island via Deception Pass. We stopped to take a few photos of the Pass and an eagle that happened to just be waiting for us in the trees.
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Then we drove down to Langley with the children spending the hour or so that it took moaning about how hungry they were! By the time we made it to Langley they were three times ravenous. Evil parents! We went straight up to our usual bistro and tucked into a variety of lovely pork belly, burgers, croque monsieurs, chocolate truffles, chocolate cake and ice-cream.
After lunch, and a bit more shopping, we went to the ferry and made our way back to mainland USA. A short drive followed and then we were back home in time for Strictly Come Dancing. And that, with a bottle of San Juan wine was the end of a lovely weekend. Very stressful but lovely! We will be going back and I will get that Orca photo!
