Orcas Island!

The last adventure of summer! And certainly not the least. 

In late September, the four of us drove up to Orcas Island, one of the San Juan Islands. In case you are not familiar with them, they're not the sort of tropical islands--probably in the Caribbean--that you might imagine! They're actually off the coast of Washington State, an easy day's drive from us.

Here's a map to give you an idea where they are. The marker is on Orcas Island.

There's no bridge to these islands, though they have a significant population. Instead, you have to take a ferry. That in itself is a fun adventure! Below you can see what the line of parked cars waiting for the ferry at Anacortes looked like.

We stayed at a very cute little cottage on Orcas Island at a place called Cabins on the Point. It was great! We had views of West Sound out the back, and access to the water. Plus, there were kayaks on the property that we were allowed to use!

Our cottage was an old, quaint little house. My favorite feature was the lovely sun room off the back. It was a perfect place to sit, think, and read.

Old, chipped-paint flooring in the sun room. I thought it looked kinda neat.

"The last rose of summer" outside the sun room windows.

Vintage door knobs.

I also had fun taking some shots around the yard.

The lovely little front porch! (Not the entrance we actually used.)

The back porch of our cottage.

The view down to the water from our cottage.

One of our adventures during our time on the island was an early morning hike up to Ship Peak. The trail head was very close to our cottage, and what a beautiful view there was!

Another adventure was driving up to the top of Mt. Constitution. It's the highest point on the island. From there you can see the mainland, Mt. Baker, and even Canada!

Looking through a window in the lookout tower on top of Mt. Constitution.

That's Mt. Baker (at least I'm pretty sure) in the center on the horizon.

Spending time by and on the water at our cottage was probably my favorite thing to do. There was a small dock on the property.

We also got to have a fire by the water one night!

Here's some pictures of the ferry ride on the way home. This picture is from the ferry stop at Shaw Island. It was fun to watch the process of docking.

Christina and I had fun wandering around the ferry decks!

We passed a sailboat on our way back to Anacortes.

We also passed a another ferry.

And so ended a wonderful week away. It was a great time to rest and relax. If you've not been to the San Juan Islands, I highly recommend a visit!

Labor Day on the Coast

Here is a smattering of pictures from our Labor Day camping trip to the Coast. We stayed at Beverly Beach State Park--a new spot for me. We were blessed with really wonderful weather (not at all a guaranteed thing in September!).  These pictures don't cover the whole trip, but they do show some of the things I ended up capturing with my "big camera" at different spots. As usual, I was pretty terrible about taking people shots, but we enjoyed spending the weekend with very dear friends. Most of these pictures were taken while exploring the area with Christina and Caitlin.

The lovely view from the Otter Crest lookout. The long stretch of beach in the background is the Beverly Beach area. And the little spit of land just a bit nearer to the camera is Devil's Punch Bowl.

And here's Devil's Punch Bowl itself. The ocean was calm the day we were there, but I think if we had been there when the ocean was rougher, we would have seen water spraying up out of this hole.

Christina enjoying the sunset at Beverly Beach.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse (as seen from Cobble Beach).

This is the view looking out from Cobble Beach. Do you see the little spots in the water on the left and the lumps on the rocks? Those are seals! (Well, there's some birds on the rocks, too.)

Tiny treasures in the tide pools at Cobble Beach! 

(That's Christina on the left checking out a tide pool.)

Looking down at Cobble Beach. 

We also checked out Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, which is a bit south in Newport. The lighthouse there is on top of the keeper's house. This is the view out the front door of the keeper's house.

Anyway, there's a few shots from our time at the Coast. Next up is pictures from our time on Orcas Island!