We were there for five days.
It could have been five months. It was beautiful.
Sherri
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
riding on the ferry
Rick and I took our little Paddy Jeep with our canoe across the Puget Sound from Anacortes to Orcas Island. Brad's little one Matthew was worried that if you put a car on a boat, it would sink. So we took lots of pictures and emailed them to Brad since he would be getting to the ferry two days later.
No sinking.
Sherri
No sinking.
Sherri
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Orcas Island for spring break
Rick and I went to Orcas Island for spring break. We rode the ferry over mid-afternoon and got to the resort just before sunset. Debs and Brian, Hannah, Megan and Alex met us later in the evening on that first day. On the second day, Scott and Amy, Susanna and Andrew joined us. On the third day, Papa and Grandma, Amy and Seth, Sam, Ellie, Jayne and Jacob (Diego Batman) arrived. On the fourth day, Brad and Susan, Maggie, Jonathan, Katie, Ben and Matthew joined us. On the fifth day, we rested. Oh, I mean we had a birthday party for Alex (Happy Birthday, Alex!!) Generally, it was a party the entire time.
It rained. There was intermittent sunshine. One day the wind blew and blew and a transformer on the mainland in Anacortes blew out, leaving the entire island without power. We heated the cabins with firewood, bought some drinking water since the wells were electrical, and played cards and Bananas (a game of speed Scrabble) in the cabins. There was a raucous Easter egg hunt on Sunday. I'm sure West Beach will never be the same.
One of the highlights for me was a whale-watching trip to look for Orcas with Outer Island Expeditions. It is not the season to find the whales, so we mostly expected to see the sea lions, maybe some dolphins and the harbor seals. Just as we pulled out, our whale-boat Captain Beau Brandow got a call saying the BC ferry had spotted a pod of transient Orcas. Beau told us that it was a needle in a haystack, but that he would make every effort to find the whales if we wanted to give it a try. After a bit of debate, Papa said yes, let's find the whales.
Beau was amazing. He drove us 45 minutes deep into Canadian waters, circled back along the tide that he figured the whales were following, and swept back in a plan to intercept the whales that he calculated were moving along a string of islands toward us. And there they were.
There were five whales altogether. Beau said there were three adult females, one young whale, and a baby whale that looked to be 6-8 weeks old. The pod circled over to us and seemed to be playing and showing off not too far from our boat. Then they suddenly lined up and took off to the north at a pretty fast pace. We followed them in the boat, and they swam really close to the shore of one island, close enough that the campers spotted them and went running down to the beach. The whales went on past the island and straight out into the open Sound.
We ended the whale watching by a circle around a small island and saw some lazy-looking Harbor seals, a huge flock of cormorants and gulls. As we pulled up to the West Beach pier, the bobbing heads of all the Brad-and-Susan cousins had arrived and came running down the beach to greet us.
I would live there in a minute. Island and all.
Sherri
It rained. There was intermittent sunshine. One day the wind blew and blew and a transformer on the mainland in Anacortes blew out, leaving the entire island without power. We heated the cabins with firewood, bought some drinking water since the wells were electrical, and played cards and Bananas (a game of speed Scrabble) in the cabins. There was a raucous Easter egg hunt on Sunday. I'm sure West Beach will never be the same.
One of the highlights for me was a whale-watching trip to look for Orcas with Outer Island Expeditions. It is not the season to find the whales, so we mostly expected to see the sea lions, maybe some dolphins and the harbor seals. Just as we pulled out, our whale-boat Captain Beau Brandow got a call saying the BC ferry had spotted a pod of transient Orcas. Beau told us that it was a needle in a haystack, but that he would make every effort to find the whales if we wanted to give it a try. After a bit of debate, Papa said yes, let's find the whales.
Beau was amazing. He drove us 45 minutes deep into Canadian waters, circled back along the tide that he figured the whales were following, and swept back in a plan to intercept the whales that he calculated were moving along a string of islands toward us. And there they were.
There were five whales altogether. Beau said there were three adult females, one young whale, and a baby whale that looked to be 6-8 weeks old. The pod circled over to us and seemed to be playing and showing off not too far from our boat. Then they suddenly lined up and took off to the north at a pretty fast pace. We followed them in the boat, and they swam really close to the shore of one island, close enough that the campers spotted them and went running down to the beach. The whales went on past the island and straight out into the open Sound.
We ended the whale watching by a circle around a small island and saw some lazy-looking Harbor seals, a huge flock of cormorants and gulls. As we pulled up to the West Beach pier, the bobbing heads of all the Brad-and-Susan cousins had arrived and came running down the beach to greet us.
I would live there in a minute. Island and all.
Sherri
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