Thursday June 19th
Deception Pass
Today was going to be some of the best weather that we were going to have at this stop, so we decided to spend the day outside! Our first stop of the morning was driving to Deception Pass. Deception Pass is a strait separating Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island. It is a Washington State Park, so you normally need a Discover Pass to get in, but because it was a holiday, it was a free day! We drove across the bridge and got lucky with a parking spot. We walked across the bridge and enjoyed the wind in our hair while we took in the views.
We then went under the bridge where Tyler “pondered the phsyics of it all”. It was really crazy to see how it all was held up!
We wanted to take the path down to the beach, so Tyler ran back to the car to get his sweatshirt. While he was at the car, I heard someone from the bridge shouting that they saw whales. When Tyler got back, we walked quickly down the path and were able to get a good view of the water. I could not believe it, but there were two orcas swimming around! It was our first full day here and we already saw whales!
We walked down the path surrounded by giant trees. Tyler had to find a tree to hug and a kind hiker offered to take a picture of both of us, so I hugged my first tree of a trip!
The beach was a beautiful rock beach, with great views of the bridge.
Tide Pools
The hike back to the car was pretty steep, but we handled it well. I can tell we are getting stronger each day of this trip! We then drove over to Rosario Beach. This beach is well known for having tidepools. We walked around admiring all of the tiny crabs and other sealife in each pool.
We drove back to the campsite to take care of the pups, grab some lunch and head to the ferry for our next adventure!
The Ferry
Per usual, I did no research on the logistics of our stop and made 0 reservations. I learned that if you want to drive your car onto the ferry to take it with you to one of the islands, you should make a reservation way in advance. If you don’t make on in advance, they release some reservations 2 days before at 7:00 am PST. If you don’t have a reservation, you can get to the terminal a few hours early and hope you get on with standby. Well we did not even think that far enough head and did not want to risk stand by so we grabbed a late afternoon reservation to go to San Juan Island. We got to the ferry terminal about an hour early and parked in line. The ferry arrived and we were directed to drive up a ramp onto the second level of parking. Once parked, you can hang out in your car or get out and go to the passenger level. We got out and explored the decks. They have a few outside areas, chairs, tables and a cafeteria where you can buy food. They made an announcement that we were arriving at the island, so we headed back to our car and waited to dock. They directed us to drive off the boat and we were there! The whole process from arriving at the port and getting to San Juan Island took about 2.5 hours.
Friday Harbor
The ferry docks at Friday Harbor, a cute little town on the island. We spent some time walking around and looking in all of the shops. We had to try the local ice cream, and both went with the huckleberry cheesecake ice cream. It was amazing! It was cash only, so if you want to enjoy this treat (and a few other things on the island), make sure you bring cash! Now it was time to explore the rest of the island.
Lime Kiln Point State Park
We drove across the island to Lime Kilm Point State Park. The drive out there was through some beautiful farm land and through some forests. We had bought a Discover Pass for $30 while we were in Spokane, so we were able to park. This park is known for its cute little light house and as a good spot to see whales. We did not have any luck with whales, but we enjoyed the views and got back in the car.
South Beach and Cattle Point
We drove across the island to South Beach where we had heard you could see wild foxes. We did not see any wild foxes (at least not there), but we did see 5 bald eagles within seconds of each other. It was absolutely incredible and I could not stop talking about it.
We drove down to Cattle Point and walked to another little lighthouse. There were also some great views of the other islands, Canada and the Cascade mountains.
Dinner Time
Our only two options for taking the ferry back to Anacortes were 6:30 or 9:50. We did not arrive on the island until about 4:00, so we did not think the 6:30 ferry would give us enough time on the island and we decided on the later trip. That being said, we had a lot of time to kill and most things close pretty early on the island. We decided to eat at the San Juan Brewing Company. We grabbed a few beers along with our dinner. The beers were pretty good and I really liked my fries, but my cheesesteak and Tyler’s pizza were just okay. After the brewery closed, we still had almost two hours until the ferry, so we went to a wine and cider bar. We did a tasting and tried two wines and two ciders. It was unique to try wines and ciders that were made by fruit grown on the island, but they were all unsweetened and just not our taste.
A little buzzed from the beers and the tasting, I treated myself to another scoop of ice cream. This time I went with something super chocolately and it was so so good.
We parked in the line for the ferry and waited. The ferry was running late, which we learned is pretty common, so we did not even get on it until 10:30. We parked on the ferry and decided to stay in our car. We arrived at the Anacortes terminal after midnight and drove back to the RV. It was a good, but long day, so we both crashed pretty hard.