DAY-28 Leaving the Islands & A Change of Plans

Day-28: Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Starting Location: Highland Inn B&B, Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA

Ending Location: Best Western, Mount Vernon, WA

Helen had a another great breakfast for us this morning featuring a Smoked Salmon Egg Puff along with another great fruit mix and English muffins. We chatted about the art of knowing what the clients like or dislike when it comes to breakfast. Seems that after years of experience and briefly getting to know her clients, Helen has learned to judge appetites and likes/dislikes fairly well.

This would be our final day on San Juan Island and though we had pretty much been to all points of the compass, we planned our day with time allowed for a late lunch before our 4:15 PM ferry cruise back to Anacortes.

After breakfast we packed up and spent a fair amount of time just chatting with Helen.

Helen has an interesting family history in addition to the things she has personally accomplished over the years. She had stories to tell of grandparents and their siblings working and living in India as missionaries and doctors in the early 1900's and uncles who were WWI Canadian flyers in France. In addition to Helen's career in running B&Bs and raising a family apparently she holds a fishing record for catching a large big eye tuna on 50 lb. test line.

We were packed, said our goodbyes and departed the Highland Inn around 11 AM.

For our first stop we headed over to the Alpaca Farm, Krystal Acres. Sheila just wanted to look in the store; sure, just look, I've heard that before. I watched the Alpacas for a while; they're much like sheep just nibbling off the grass sprouts growing in their pastures. The farm has about 60 Alpacas, most of a dirty white color but some mottled with brown and at least one that is jet black. In addition to shearing the Alpacas for the wool/fur/hair (???) the farm shows these animals through Northwest livestock programs and has received numerous ribbons and awards.

Our next stop was the Pelindaba Lavender Farm, a place we had actually missed in criss-crossing the island. The farm has about 5 acres planted with many varieties of Lavender. They too have a store but this time we just looked at the fields and moved on.

Our last stop before heading into Friday Harbor was at the National Historic Park that I mentioned yesterday. The visitor center is at the American Camp where we were able to secure a stamp for our parks book and learn a little more about the "Pig War".

As I mentioned there was no fighting over the pig just a lot of jawing and positioning with a settlement finally coming out of negotiation and mediation. As the story goes, an "American" farmer shot and killed what was deemed to be a "Problem Pig" of the crown or more specifically of an employee of the Hudson Bay Company. The company wanted the American prosecuted even though the farmer was willing to pay restitution for the pig, and so began a confrontation between warriors of Great Britain and the United States. As for George Pickett, he was a Captain in the U.S. Army stationed in the Washington Territories who in 1859 was sent on TDY (temporary duty) to San Juan Island to establish the U.S. garrison. Two years later he would be fighting for the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War. As for San Juan Island the dispute of ownership wasn't settled until 12 years later at which time both the British and American military units departed the island.

From the park we returned to Friday Harbor and chose Herb's Food & Spirits, a long standing pub and sports bar in town. For me a cup of chili and a hot dog, good old American comfort food was for lunch washed down by a pint of Alaskan Amber Ale.

Around 3:30 we joined the queue for the ferry and promptly at 4:15 after boarding we were underway for Anacortes with a stop at Lopez Island along the way on our ferry the M/V Samish, a 2015 addition to the Washington State Ferry System fleet.

The cruise was again scenic, with Mount Baker visible in the distance. The wildlife along the way was primarily birds but I did happen to see one seal or sea lion swimming along the shore line near Lopez Island.

We arrived as planned around 6 PM at Anacortes and drove the 30 miles or so to Mount Vernon, our home for the night.

Though I haven't mentioned it in past posts, we've been keeping an eye on Hurricane Joaquin churning away in the Atlantic. Currently the forecasted landfall is centered on the OBX sometime on Sunday with expected high winds and storm surges possibly causing flooding.

With that in mind and knowing of the typical preparations necessary for such a storm we've decided to change our plans and return to Kitty Hawk tomorrow rather than visit North Cascades and Mount Rainier National Parks.  We'll be flying eastward tomorrow afternoon but will now have a reason to return to the Pacific NW on another journey.

After check-in at our hotel we brought in all of our luggage and loose items accumulated over the past four weeks. We finished up the cheese and crackers and downed a bottle of wine while repacking for our trip.

With that the night was pretty much over.