We arrived in Friday Harbor from different directions at different times. Paula and Roger got the ferry across from Sidney, Vancouver Island, and after a couple of hours sitting in the car park, we all arrived on a ferry from Anacortes. We both arrived late Friday evening so the fun didn’t begin until Saturday morning.
After coffee and muffins at a local Friday Harbor coffee shop we set off on our island tour. We were going to take the same route as we took with Grandad but with a few minor tweaks. The first change to the tour was that we went down to Cattle Point, which is a bit further beyond the American Camp – from the pig wars.
There was a lovely beach down at Cattle Point and it was well worth the mountain goat climbing to get down to it. I could have happily spent the day there listening to the seals barking in the sea – I never realized how noisy they were – hunting wildlife in the rock pools and paddling in the chilly but crystal clear water. All with the beautiful Mount Baker in the background.
After spending some time on the beach we started working our way back towards the American Camp, with only a minor stop to take a few pictures:
Next stop was American Camp which was slightly more appealing in the sunshine compared to last time we were here. While walking back through the camp to the car park I got quite excited because I thought I saw two eagles sitting in a tree. As it turns out they were crows. Very big crows – so an easy mistake to make!
I did get a picture of an eagles nest by the car park though. It was deserted in 2009 but it’s still in pretty good shape:
After leaving the camp we headed towards Lime Kiln Point – the best onshore whale watching place in the world. I may have exaggerated that slightly but I was confident of seeing whales. Before we even got there though there was Turkey vulture excitement to deal with. As we drove along one of the island roads we came across some big old birds sitting in the road. As we slowed we saw many more, a good dozen or more, flooping about in the trees. Without any consideration of the traffic on the road (luckily there wasn’t any) I stopped the car and we went to investigate. There were loads of these things squawking and flying around in the trees. After snapping a few pictures I looked for the reason why they were all here and found it by the side of the road. In the ditch was a great lump of meat. I’m not sure what – there was no fur or feathers – but based on the size I would suspect it was a deer. I almost took a photo but I figured that may be slightly tasteless and decided against it!
Once I had got over the excitement of that – and it took a while – we continued on to Lime Kiln Park. Although it was a lovely sunny spot there was nothing. Last year with Grandad we got to see a seal but this year there was nothing except seaweed and kayaks, which is ok, but it’s not exactly a whale!
Once we had accepted that it wasn’t a whale day it was back in the car and off to Roche Harbor. A quick spot of lunch was followed by a walk around the marina lusting after the lovely boats:
Next stop was English Camp which is so much better than American camp, with formal gardens and everything!
Once Harry and Toby had marched around the parade ground a few times and decided where the pig got shot it was up the hill to the car and home to the hotel in Friday Harbor.
A spot of shopping followed before a swim in the pool and then a lovely dinner. What an exciting day it had been. We really should go to the San Juans more often – they are absolutely beautiful and the weather always seems to be good when we go!