San Juan Islands Trip

Over Memorial Day weekend we went camping with some friends in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington. Our friends, the Espings, had the great idea months ago and we quickly signed up! There were five couples and we spent the first night, well four hours of it, at the Esping's in Seattle and then all rose early to catch the 6am ferry as to avoid any holiday weekend delays.

We arrived in Friday Harbor, the main harbor on San Juan, just in time for the sun to really shine. We spent the morning hiking, checking out state parks, playing frisbee and waiting long enough until we could check into our campsite. The island had a very unique island/forest feel. San Juan is the main island and about 25 miles in circumference. One day Daniel and his friend Jeff rode around the entire island. I got to ride around a few times as well, but the hills just about killed me on the last ride!

Our campsite was perfect, set right next to a lake. We had brought most of our food and enjoyed creatively cooking everything over the open fire. The other couples had all headed home by early Monday morning, but Daniel and I decided to stay and tour another island. We took the ferry over to Lopez island on Monday morning. We'd planned on just staying the morning, grabbing lunch and taking an afternoon ferry back to the mainland and driving home that night. Everyone else had the same idea! So, when we realized the ferry line was about 4 hours, we decided to stay that night on Lopez. It was awesome! We drove around the island, did some hiking, walked around the Lopez village area and by mid afternoon had checked into a local lodge (we were done with the camping at that point!) and made reservations for a sunset kayaking tour. Since it was Memorial Day we had to find some ribs and the local's choice fulfilled the need! After dinner we set out on a 2 hour sunset cruise. It was so quiet on the island, since the holiday weekend was over, and we had the tour guide to ourselves. We saw some harbor seals and lots of birds. The sunset was just incredible!

We feel so privileged to be able to explore the Pacific Northwest while we're out here. Daniel has one week and some finals left before the summer begins. We are taking a camping trip/vacation in mid-June in between semesters and to do a couple triathlons. We'll be exploring a little more of Eastern Oregon on that trip. Stay tuned!