Sunday, October 16

More than a week ago now we left Bellingham and headed for the San Juan Islands off the Washington coast. Tentatively we planned to spend a day or two on San Juan Island. Our friends Dave and Marian had put us in touch with their niece Katie in Friday Harbor, and said she'd be glad to have us stay. That was enough to prompt us to go there, though we also checked out camping possibilities on the island ahead of time, not presuming to count on the kindness of a stranger.

Leaving Bellingham we drove Route 11 through Fairhaven – a wonderfully scenic byway – to the ferry port in Anacortes. Lucky travelers that we are, we found there was a glitch or two.

Waiting for the ferry to Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

Since it’s only an hour by ferry from Anacortes (and we travel well supplied in the rig) we didn’t starve during the journey.

Arriving at Friday Harbor, we found our way to Lacrover Farm. 

There we met our delightful host Katie, who lives on the farm with her son Quinn. She immediately took us on a walking tour of her 30 acres. 

Katie, Kate, and Becca the Dog tour the Back 30

The farm produces hay, apples, pears, and tomatoes for sale. At times Katie and her late husband also raised sheep and chickens.  The acreage is patrolled vigilantly by the family border collies, Becca and Paxton.

The apples are sweet and juicy. Katie plans to sell them to a local cider distillery.

I've never seen so many pears on one tree. We sampled them. Delicious.

While on the island we saw some sights on our own, were treated to guided tours of others by Katie, and had some memorable meals with Katie at her home and in town.  On the appointed evening of the second presidential debate, the three of us had intended to watch it at a restaurant in town over dinner. We tried each of the six restaurants and bars in town with televisions, and were told unanimously “It’s our policy not to mix alcohol with Trump/Clinton debates – we’re showing football only.” So with Quinn’s help we streamed the debate at Katie’s house, while eating delicious Lacrover Farm ground lamb.

We settled in at Lacrover Farm for several days, camping in our rig next to the tractor shed. It was a good spot except for the occasional snakes. The local bald eagles helped with that, though.

Among the places Kate and I visited on our own was Lime Kiln State Park.  Lime is a product of limestone, a sedimentary rock formed by marine invertebrate skeletons. When limestone is baked at high temperatures the impurities are removed and lime is the result. Lime is useful in the production of steel, plaster, cement, and paper. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the limestone on San Juan Island was the purest known in the world, and its production was a thriving local industry.

 The lime kiln in the background was built in 1918. Limestone was baked at temperatures of 2,000 degrees - about 3 1/2 cords of wood were burned daily to produce 100 barrels of lime.

Did we hike in Lime Kiln State Park? Of course.

The usual harbinger of hardship. Why exactly is it called "Dead Man Bay?"

Lots of driftwood on the beach at Dead Man Bay.

Kate decided to get creative....

....with good result.

Another hike at Lime Kiln took us to the old lighthouse, now part of a whale research facility run by the University of Western Washington. We actually spotted a whale breeching off of Dead Man Beach. Too far away to photograph, though.

Lighthouse at Lime Kiln

Katie took us on a tour of two beautiful spots on the east side of San Juan Island, Snug Harbor and Roche Harbor.

At Roche Harbor with Katie and Becca the Dog

On another day Kate and I went on our own to walk on South Beach.

Kate at South Beach

While on San Juan Island we visited Kate’s childhood Los Gatos friends Jay and Liza, who came to Friday Harbor through an accident of fate in 1978 and never left. Jay recently retired after teaching for more than 30 years in Friday Harbor. Among his students was Katie’s son Quinn.

With Jay in Friday Harbor

Among our favorite experiences was the wonderful dinner we had with Katie on our last night, at "The Place," a restaurant with view to Friday Harbor.

The Place

After a very pleasant stay on San Juan Island we departed Friday Harbor by ferry to Anacortes and drove to Whidbey Island, where we camped overnight at Deception Pass State Park.  Campsites there are in a very pretty setting. We noticed a sign at the camp entrance: “For complaints about jet noise call the following number.” It seemed a little odd, but we didn’t think much about it until we settled into our site. The evening solitude was punctuated by the sound of dozens Navy Growlers (you could look it up), apparently flying at an altitude of about 10 feet above our campsite. Palo Altans should come to Whidbey to see what airplane noise is REALLY about.

 Kate is a good fire builder, but the sound you hear isn't a roaring fire. It's Navy Growlers cruising over the park.

We awoke the next morning to the sound of more Growlers. Despite the threat of rain at that point, we decided to hike the West Beach Trail. Kate: "This will be a nice morning walk!" 

8/10 of a Mile? 30 Minutes? Uh Oh.

We hiked to Goose Rock Summit – a place to view Mount Baker and Mount Rainier, but no view that day – we were in the clouds. We did get to walk on Deception Pass Bridge and we viewed the bridge from West Beach. The bridge was built by out-of-work farmers working for the WPA – it was completed in 1935. The bridge spans the gorge where the mighty Skagit River (remember those dams and powerhouses?) flows into the Pacific.

At the end of our nice morning walk we had covered six miles and my Fitbit said we had climbed the equivalent of 90 floors.

Leaving Whidbey

From Deception Pass we drove to Coupville. By then the rain began in earnest.

At Coupville we were the last vehicle squeezed onto the ferry to Port Townsend. While on the ferry, I phoned our former Palo Alto next door neighbor Marilyn to surprise her. She was surprised -- she's house sitting in San Francisco. She had this advice: "Stay away from the coast -- The Storm of the Century is coming this weekend." 

The first sign we saw as we left the ferry was for Fort Worden State Park. Sounded promising. It turned out to be a nicely restored garrison that was an active US Army base from 1902 to 1953. It's now owned by the State of Washington and used as a conference center. It also has rental cabins and campsites on the grounds. We went to check in. "We're expecting 60 mph winds, so we've closed the upper campgrounds because we're afraid of falling trees. But you can stay in a site on the beach..." So we did.  First, to fortify ourselves, we went to the pub on the grounds called The Guard House.  It is indeed the old fort jail.

 As we hunkered down in our campsite that evening to await the 60 mph winds, Kate opened the sliding side door for some fresh air. "Isn't it cozy here in our little RV?"

After a night of rain and wind in the rig at Fort Worden, we noticed the next morning that everyone was leaving the campsites — even the camp host seemed to have deserted his post. The weather forecast was for the worst storm since 2008, to be followed shortly by the worst storm since 1962. Five inches of rain and winds of 80 mph were predicted for our planned next destination, Olympic National Park. It appeared that we had a window of about five hours between storms to make our getaway.

We decided to head toward Portland, where at least we could arrange to pick up our month’s accumulation of mail, and where (in nearby Salem) it was parents’ weekend at Willamette, where our adopted granddaughter Aaliyah is a freshman.

We drove south along the Hood Canal. The wind tried hard to make us change lanes, the rain was falling sideways, and on the road we dodged small- to medium-sized branches as they became dislodged from the beautiful evergreens surrounding us.  Eventually we arrived in Portland; we visited Sam briefly in his law office where he was buried in work. We were joined there (in Sam’s office) even more briefly by Laura and Mia, who had just arrived for the Willamette weekend visit.

Laura and Mia, dropping in on Sam

Off we went to Salem, where we hunkered down in a pretty bad motel.

Despite battling the elements and the pretty bad motel, we had a very enjoyable time with Laura, Mia, and Aaliyah. We all had dinner with Aaliyah and some of her new college friends, attended an orchestra and choral concert at the University, and saw a very funny performance by a standup comic named Jessi Campbell.

Dinner with Aaliyah's Friends

Looks like the winter rainy season is here to stay in the Northwest, so we’re  thinking of heading east and south to visit friends and relatives in Idaho and Colorado next, hoping to dodge winter there for a while.