September 2, 2016 - Anacortes, WA

Apparently it rained all night while we slept. The sky was very dark and cloudy when we got up.  We had to hurry and get dressed to go to Salish Sea School for the Deaf.

Erwin’s niece, Cathy, asked us if we could do her a favor by giving our presentations on our backgrounds, skills, travel stories to deaf students and we gladly obliged.  

There were 7 students with 2 students absent today.  Edith started with her presentation first. She told the students about photography and showed them some pictures taken during the trip.  The students asked lots of questions.  They wanted to know how long our Lil’ Home was and if there was a kitchen, a bathroom and a bed.  They were hoping we could bring LH to show them, but there was no way we could do that.  Then Erwin explained about woodburning, showed them his works.  He also set up woodburning and showed the students how to burn watercolor paper.  One student mentioned that the burn smelled like a toasted marshmallow. 

Photos taken by Cathy

Erwin showing his woodworking stuff

Edith telling students about photography

 

Both of us enjoyed telling our stories to the students and few of them commented that they would love to be able to travel like us someday.

We stopped at Safeway to buy groceries. We were getting low on fresh vegetables, poultry ad a case of water. 

When we got back to the RV park lots of RVs had already left.  During our lunch more RVs checked in, but we did not know if the RV park was going to be full for this weekend.

Edith spent the afternoon reorganizing pictures taken during the month of August, also edited August 13 travel blog.  While she was at it Erwin decided to play Pai Gow Poker at the casino. He started with $80 and ended up with $350.  With his first hand he got straight flush and was paid handsomely.

More and more RVs showed up late in the afternoon. Almost all of them were from British Columbia, Canada.  Some RVs had to be turned away; however, there is an overflow parking next to the RV park.  It is free, but has no hookups.

After supper we drove to Mount Vernon, WA to meet local deaf people at Whibey Coffee Shop, but when we got to the parking lot they were already leaving the coffee shop.  However, they stopped to make acquaintance with us and talked a while.  Some of them had already knew about us through Erwin’s two nieces.  After they all left for home we stopped at Starbucks to get drinks, then headed back to the RV Park.

On way back the clouds were of different shapes and colors.  Some so dramatic, there was even a short rainbow.  Edith did not bring her DSLR camera, but took some with an old IPhone.

Erwin wanted to play Pai Gow Poker again, but Edith wanted to work on the blog.  About an hour later he came back breaking even.  

We have so much to do to get things organized for tomorrow morning when we check out of the RV Park.

September 1, 2016 - Anacortes, WA

Erwin was up at 9 am to turn the hot water on then went back to bed until 10 am. Edith was still asleep until after 10:30 am.  She commented to Erwin that she was really very tired and her right knee was aching a bit. That was from the impact on landings during zip lining yesterday

The wind was strong this morning and the sky was filled with dark clouds.

More RVs arrived this morning and the campground is starting to fill up.  

We decided to stay put for rest of the day, but Erwin had to go to Anacortes town center to do the laundry. While he was away Edith edited some pictures, worked on the blog a bit.

Late in the afternoon we went over to Cathy and Bob’s place to meet Bob. Bob got his boat readied for crab potting. Cathy bought fish heads from the market, which will be used as bait to lure Dungeness crabs in the pot.  After checking to be sure everything is in the boat we followed Bob in his vehicle with the boat to Cornet Bay that is in Deception Pass area.    

It started to drizzle some when we got to the boat ramp.  We had windbreakers on.  Bob went to his favorite crabbing spot, threw two pots out.  On way back to the boat ramp we spotted a seal with its head peering out of the water.  Edith did not catch a photo of it.

Cornet Bay Boat Ramp

 Cornet Bay

 Deception Pass Bridge

After crab potting

Bob said we will be back to Cornet Bay Sunday or Monday to pick up crab pots.  Hopefully, each pot will be filled to the rim with crabs.  We shall see.

August 31, 2016 - San Juan Islands & Anacortes, WA

Erwin was the first one up, woke Edith up because he wanted her to see the crack of the dawn.  We got ourselves ready for the trip to San Juan Islands, WA.  We got a bag of extra clothing to take along in case it rains while we are visiting the island.

On our way to the ferry terminal Erwin picked up donuts at a bakery shop in downtown Anacortes.  

We made it to the ferry terminal at 8:10 am, showed the confirmation via IPhone. The guy was going to charge us $77 but we told the agent we are seniors... Down to $63.70 (round trip fare). Then next booth the lady asked us where we were going, then told us to proceed to lane #2. It started to drizzle, then it rained.  There was a police guy walking a dog to sniff out vehicles for drugs.  

Waiting in line!

Lines of cars waiting to get on the ferry

While waiting for the ferry Erwin took his time to enjoy
a cup of coffee while gazing at the water

The GPS works over water!

Raining!

We finally boarded the ferry at 8:49 am. The ferry left the terminal at 9:05 am and it was right on time. It was very cloudy all the way.  We went outside for a short while, but it was so cold and windy, so we chose to spend time inside the ferry.  We did not see whales along the way.  

Inside the ferry 

Leaving Anacortes, WA

On the ferry

Sailing across Griffin Bay

The ferry arrived at Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA at 10:05 am.  We made a beeline to Lime Kiln State Park where there is a lighthouse.

Lime Kiln Lighthouse is also a famous spot for whale watching.  We were hoping to see some pods of Orcas, but none showed up.  There were reports that some pods were spotted yesterday at 7 pm.  We stayed a while, then went inside the information center. There were pictures of pods.  There was one picture of 3 generations of Orcas.  

Pacific Madrone

Watching for Orcas

Lime Kiln Lighthouse

Pacific Madrone

Big Leaf Maple

After leaving Lime Kiln State Park we checked out San Juan Park, took a look around before heading to Alpaca Farm where they raise alpacas for fur. There is a gift/clothing store, but almost everything was little too pricey. 

Alpacas

Asking price was $19,500

We went to Friday Harbor town, found a place to park our car at the courthouse area (8 hr limit parking). In the town center the parking time is limited to 2-3 hours.

We walked down to the marina area to look for something  to eat for lunch.  Had lunch at Friday's Crabhouse.  Erwin had grilled salmon and Edith had Dungeness crab cakes.  

We took a quick stroll around the town before returning back to the courthouse parking to wait for the zipline guide to meet us at 1:45 pm.

The ferry arriving at Friday Harbor terminal

Over 125 year old graft of Asian Elm and American Elm

Interwoven and tangled branches!

Mountain Ash Berries

Ivan and Laura were in the van waiting to meet us. Ivan walked around looking for us and he spotted Erwin, asked him if he was waiting for the tour.  Ivan told us we can follow the van to the zipline area, about 5 miles.  On way Erwin thought he saw a camel, wasn't sure if it was his imagination or it might be a statue.  After getting there there were 7 passengers coming out of the van.  We were quickly outfitted with harness, cables, helmets, gloves, etc. Edith brought her GoPro camera and fastened it to the chest harness she had with her. There was a quick course on proper ways to zipline.  Once everyone of us were familiar with it we then walked to the first zipline.  It was fun.  The guides, Laura and Ivan, were very friendly, took their time to make sure everyone of us was comfortable.  We were the only Americans in the group. The rest (7 of them) were from Europe and Japan.


There were eight ziplines and one suspension bridge. The shortest zipline was 45' and the longest was 612' which is as long as Space Needle is tall.

Laura getting the gear ready for biplane

Photobombed!

 Ready and excited for action!

 Edith waiting for her turn while

Ivan was waiting for the signal from Laura

https://youtu.be/2LQkXa4iVVY

 Down below

 Edith ziplining

 Erwin leaning out

 Goofing around after the completion of zipline

We did it!

After leaving zipline we wanted to check out if there was a camel on the island. Yes, there is a camel on the island!  There is a nice old church across from where the camel was.  On the side of the road next to the church is a winery.

Yes,  Erwin's eyes weren't playing tricks on him!

We went to Cattle Point area where there is another lighthouse. Edith told Erwin to pull over because she wanted to get pictures of the landscape and the clouds.  When she opened the door to step out she got stopped in her tracks when she saw a fox that was resting by the interpretive signs.  It was looking for handouts and we did not give it anything.  While Edith was busy checking her camera she didn't know that the fox was coming close to her. She was startled briefly, but then started to take pictures when she was close to the fox.  Edith then decided to put down her camera to allow the fox to take a look at it.  After checking it out and sniffing it peed on the lens! 

 The Inspector!

 Peeing on Edith's camera!

Apparently, it was upset that it was not 

something it could eat

The fox left its mark on Edith's lens

The fox was looking for handouts, but these guys did not give it anything

Anytime a vehicle slow down or pull over the fox would walk over with hopes of getting foods.  None of them had anything. The fox wasn't not too afraid, but wouldn't get too close either.

We took a brief stop at Cattle Point area where there is a small lighthouse, but we didn't take a walk to get close.  A lady was playing a violin in the vacant building and the echoes were awesome, adding beautiful sounds to the violin! 

Erwin suggested that we go back to Lime Kiln Lighthouse for sunset photography. When we got there there were few people waiting to get pictures of the sunset.  We were hoping to see pods of Orcas, but none showed up.  A guy, walking his dog, informed us that a pod of Orcas were passing by the lighthouse at 3 pm and we were ziplining at that time!

We went back to Friday Harbor, but we realized we were going to miss the 6:30 pm ferry to Anacortes, WA, so we spent some time walking around downtown.  We were hungry and many restaurants were already closed early. We finally found a restaurant that was open late. 

Friday Harbor downtown

This is where we had late supper
before catching a 10 pm ferry back to
Anacortes, WA

We boarded the ferry at 10 pm, with two stops at Orcas and Lopez Islands before arriving back to Anacortes at midnight.  We were so tired, but were happy that we had a great time at San Juan Islands, WA.