Whidbey Island and San Juan Island (Puget Sound, Washington)
Friday, August 19th, 2011July 25th-July 27th
After returning to the U.S. from Vancouver, we weren’t quite finished visiting Washington. We decided to spend a couple of days near Anacortes (the gateway to the San Juan Islands) discovering the Puget Sound area. We set up camp at the nearby Bayview State Park for three nights (something we hadn’t done in a while.) The cool, grey weather had returned so we decided to spend a day exploring nearby Whidbey Island (which is accessible by bridge.) We went to Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve which had an old fort built at the beginning of the 20th century to defend Puget Sound (presumably from pirates) and an old restored lighthouse. We also visited some blockhouses (a building to retreat to in case of Indian attack. We stopped in Coupeville, a charming little historic town with an old pier. We learned in an exhibition there about how orcas were killed or captured for aquatic shows in the 1950s and 60s, and about the efforts to restore and protect the orca population in Puget Sound. We also stopped at Deception Pass State Park where there is a historic bridge crossing a menacing channel with strong currents. Our last stop was in Anacortes to do some grocery shopping before finishing the day in the campground.
The following day, we took the ferry to San Juan Island. On the way to the ferry station, we had a little mishap with the car. They were repainting the lines on the road (in rush hour ferry traffic.) Fabien had to turn to get into the parking lot and ended up splashing yellow paint up the side of the car…an annoying road trip souvenir. We were determined not to let it ruin our day, though as there wasn’t much we could do about it when we were running to catch a ferry. On the trip out to San Juan Island, it was grey and cool, but the sun started to break through as we pulled into the little port of Friday Harbor. Friday Harbor was a typical little tourist town with some nautical charm (we wandered down to pear at the sailboats in the marina.) We hadn’t planned exactly what we were going to do on the island- we thought about renting bikes, but they were grossly overpriced and we didn’t have time to get very far anyway, so we took a private island shuttle out to Lime Kiln State Park (also known as “Whale Watchers Park.”) Apparently, it’s the best land-based place to watch orcas in the U.S. We planned to spend two hours out at the park, hoping to spot an orca, and then catch the shuttle back to catch a ferry to another island. We checked at the small visitors’ center immediately when we arrived to find out when we might see an orca. They had passed that morning and were feeding south of the park (too far to get on foot in a short period of time.) We found a picnic table with an ocean view and had lunch, then checked in at the old lighthouse where they were tracking the pods. Then we followed some shoreline paths, constantly scanning the horizon with our binoculars looking for signs of an orca or a porpoise. It was getting close to the time to catch the shuttle back; we gloomily made our way back to the parking lot. Suddenly, a woman drove up, rolled down her window, and announced that the whales were coming. We ran to an overlook, spotted black fins on the horizon and decided to abandon the shuttle and the ferry. We ran down to the shoreline where we had about a half-hour of up close time with a pod of orcas. It was amazing- some of them were close enough that we could see the full outline of their bodies when they were swimming underwater. After what seemed like playtime, they turned and went back south. We caught the next shuttle and went back to Friday Harbor where we had an ice cream to celebrate the orcas. Finally, we took a direct ferry back to Anacortes. We spent the evening trying to get the paint off the car (with no luck.)
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