San Juan Island

We’ve made it an annual tradition to go up to the San Juan Islands for our anniversary…I love this tradition. We just got back from another relaxing trip. We stayed on the west side of San Juan Island (the main of the 4 publicly serviced islands), about 2 miles from Lime Kiln Point State Park.

You can see our little guest house to the right of the big house. This was taken from the lighthouse – where we saw the whales last year! LPOD!

The view from our balcony of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse. Also a little closeup.

 

Some of the decor in our guest house. Hmmm. Wonder if anyone decorates with these pears around Christmas time….

Just a funny little comapny called downtown dogs. A shuttle comes to pick up these pups every day and takes them to school. The shuttle comes right through downtown and they all have their heads out the window checking out the tourists. We got several good laughs over that silly shuttle.

We didn’t see any Orcas this year (boo), but we did see many eagles, foxes, and this young buck made a stop by our place. This was taken from the kitchen window.

One afternoon we took a nice hike to a point above Lime Kiln. We were so high up, it was an amazing view. Look how little those kayakers look to me!

 

Back at the guest house, we saw a bunch of excitement over at the park, so we trekked out to the water’s edge to see if we could see the whales. No whales. They just wanted to be south the whole weekend. Sad

Only my husband can have a genuine smile on the way home from vacation. I was sad and acting bratty on the ferry, he’s just taking it all in appreciating the relaxing weekend we just had.

I love beautiful sunsets. Sigh, we’ll be back again soon!

What a week!

My hiatus is for a good reason. Mom & Dad came to town! They rented a truck and drove some furniture from Los Alamos all the way here (31 hours straight, I might add). We had a great week spending quality time together and eating. I think I gained 10 pounds last week Some photos of our adventures…

Cleaning up some of the furniture

Watch Out for the dip in the driveway!

I had to drag them along for an errand. The nursery got a new shipment of the hydrangeas we wanted to plant…we needed 3. As you can see, they are NOT small.

Poor Dad, we made him sit in the back with the plants.

One night we hiked to the beach at Carkeek Park just in time for Sunset

Oops, it got a little dark on the way home. Notice Scott grabbed an apple from the orchard in the middle of the park.

 

As a thank you for all of their help getting this beautiful furniture to us, we sent them to the San Juan Islands. Notice, there was a tag along who looks a lot like me!

 

We went to Lime Kiln State Park to look for whales (none to be found)

 

But we did meet this guy. He was snorty and fat.

 

Mom and Dad chilling at the light house

 

Kim & Dad taking in the view

  

The next day we toured the island a bit and went to Roche Harbor. Mom & Dad sitting in “the throne of Jupiter”

  

Enough said in the sign…

 

This was our transportation around the island. Nice, huh? Kidding, it was a beautiful yacht occupied by 4 people, while we think it could have slept 50! There were 5 people just cleaning the dinghy in the back!

 

In the afternoon, we picked up sandwiches and camped out at Lime Kiln State Park again, hoping for whales, but really just getting in some good relaxation. Dad & I hiked to Dead Man’s Bay.

  

He decided he’d rather go home.

 

But Mom wanted to buy this house.

 

The last day in the islands, we headed to Orcas Island (Sharla & Jake’s favorite island). We had a great time, but forgot to take any pictures!! Here is one of us eating lunch at the ferry terminal. As you can tell, the weather was sorry. Darn that Western Washington weather.

 

Bye Bye Orcas!

 

Check out mom’s beautiful bracelet! She wore it the ENTIRE trip. We decided she should showcase it while on the ferry.

 

The trip is over L We had such an incredible week. Thank you for everything  - you truly are the best parents ever! (we’re just waiting for that puppy now J)

 

Love you both.

Finally!

For at least a year, I’ve wanted to create a blog. I felt so limited and constrained by what in the world I would name my blog. Well, Lpod it is. We just returned from a fantastic trip to the San Juan Islands where we spent some time at a favorite state park. As we arrived the L pod was on their way to the park. I ran (in a dress) as fast as I could down the trail to the beach. Here are a few of the photos I snapped while there. I guess it is fitting if you knew me and my friend Karmonocky back in 1989.