Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Orcas Island, Washington

We spent Thanksgiving this year on Orcas Island, one of the San Juan Islands, in Washington State. After 3 nights in Vancouver, BC (see the previous 3 blog posts) we drove down to Anacortes, WA on Wednesday to get one of the Washington State Ferries out to Orcas.

There's not a lot to do at the Anacortes ferry dock while you're waiting for the boat, except perhaps enjoy the great scenery, and the new walking paths recently put in along the marsh near the shoreline.







Our rental Toyota was packed in tight on the main car deck of the MV Elwah (it's a good thing it was a low car or I would not have been able to open the door) but we made it out to Orcas without incident. Not everyone who's traveled on the Elwah can say that, as it is somewhat infamous as the ferry that ran aground on an uncharted rock off Grindstone Harbor in October of 1983. Apparently the captain had a friend in the wheelhouse with him, and the story is that he wanted to show her what her home looked like from the water.



We wound up on an afternoon boat, and got to see a great sunset as we cruised through the San Juan Islands. Most everyone stayed inside where it was warm, but when I saw this I had to go out on deck for some pictures.





If you look closely in this next shot you can see another WSF boat passing in the distance, I think it's MV Chelan.



On Thursday morning we wandered around the little town of Eastsound before heading up into Moran State Park for a hike. Heather checked out the little maze alongside the church.



The views of the sound were nice in the morning sun. I can see why these chairs are set up here.





There's a new sculpture next to the Orcas Island Historical Museum. Being Thanksgiving morning the town was pretty much empty, nothing was open.



We spent most of our time on Orcas with family, and much of that involved food, including this crab that Heather's cousin caught on Thursday morning. It was quite good.



Here's one last shot of Orcas Island, looking back at the ferry dock on our way back to the mainland on Friday.



I'll post pictures from our hike around Moran State Park in a separate post.
   
Click here to see more images from our trip to Orcas Island in November 2013.
    

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