This week away has to be one of our biggest and one of my favourites. We spent a week exploring the parks in the Pacific North West, seeing mountains, wildlife, ocean and vampires.
We had an early start at the airport, and flew straight into Seattle. We dropped our bags at the hotel and then headed out into the city on the light rail. We stopped at Pike Place Market first to see the fish and browse the market stalls. I got a smoothie and we chose some mushroom jerky to take with us later in the week on our hikes.
We also picked up some Vietnamese buns for lunch. They were filled with cabbage and vegetables, but were also quite sweet, so they were very interesting.
We ate these on the pier between the high rises of the city and the ocean. There were plenty of coffee shops in the area, including the original Starbucks, but I'd chosen the smoothie instead.
After lunch, we walked along the marina and through the city to get to the park where the Chihuly Gardens and the Space Needle were. We decided to only do one of these as they were pretty expensive and we had a whole week of adventures to pay for, so we chose the glass gardens.
It's all made by one artist, and he fills rooms and gardens with colourful glass in abstract shapes. It's very pretty and they had photographers stationed around to take your photo for free.
After the gardens we got a McFlurry from the McDonald's opposite and had a little rest in the park. It was a lovely sunny day for the rainiest city.
Once we were rested, we went to go and meet Mitchell's friend from Gamlingay and his Seattle based fiance. We went out for dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant, and then we all went to a pinball bar. We got some drinks at the bar in the front, and then in the back was a giant room filled with pinball machines and other arcade games. We had a lot of fun playing these and some multiplayer games.
Then it was time to head back to the hotel for our early morning. However, a couple of hours after we'd gone to sleep, the fire alarm in the hotel went off and we all had to evacuate the building in our pyjamas. There didn't seem to be anything wrong, and once the fire department had arrived and turned off the alarm we were all allowed back in.
Bright and early, we picked up our car from the rental agency and headed north. We reached the town of Anacortes in time for an early lunch and picked up some bagels. We ate them in a little marina park and watched the boats. We also had time to pick up some snacks and items we couldn't bring in our hand luggage.
But then it was 1pm and time to get on the ferry! We were taking the boat to San Juan island (the biggest island in the San Juan Islands). I had a little nap on the ride over after our two early mornings, but we arrived to bright sunshine and a lovely little town. We drove straight to the motel to check in and then walked back to explore the town. There were lots of little shops (a lot of which were selling used books and soap) and restaurants.
We decided on some pizza and took it down to the marina to eat. We saw a seal poke his head up as he swam through the harbor. We also got some ice cream before it got to chilly as the sun started to set.
The next morning we got some coffee and an egg sandwich (which you will see became quite the default as we travelled around) in a tiny cafe. It was mainly a drive through, but it did have a cute little seating area which we sat in because it was a two minute walk from our hotel. After breakfast we drove over to a state park to have a little walk.
It started in the forest, but it wasn't long before we broke through the trees to see the sea. It was a cloudy morning, so we couldn't see very far, but it did make it look very atmospheric. The trail took us to a lighthouse, a lime kiln, and several wildlife points where you can sometimes see whales. We didn't see any, but we did watch a seagull catch some fish.
Once we were done there it was on to the next trail on the opposite side of the island (ie. 15 minutes drive away). This one was a national historic park and was the base camp for the Americans while they and the English fought over whether the islands belonged to the US or Canada.
We just did a short trail here as we were pressed for time, but we found some blackberries (I'm still not sure if you're allowed to forage in a National Park, but we did), saw some deer on the trail and made it out to the viewpoints. It was still cloudy at this point so the views weren't super great, but it was cool to see none-the-less.
After that we raced back to town and bought some sandwiches for lunch from the market. It was then time for the main reason for coming to the island, the whale watching tour!
It was a small group that day which was nice as we had space to go wherever we wanted to on the boat and see clearly from all sides. It was a 3-4 hour trip and we spent the first hour or so just getting into a good spot. We saw just seabirds and seals for this first section and I was getting worried, but after a while we got word that the local orcas had been spotted close to the island, so we zoomed over to see them.
The pod had split in two, so three were close to the boat and surfacing regularly, including a smaller calf born earlier in the year. We watched them for a while and followed their progress through the water. After a while we caught sight of the rest of the pod and watched them join back up.
After such a spectacle we were ready to head back to shore, but there was word of a minke whale too, so went to see that. I was able to see him each time he briefly surfaced, but he didn't poke up as much as the orcas.
The tour company we went with took pictures along the way, it helps them with their research, but it also meant they sent us some high quality close ups of the whales afterwards. This also meant that we could focus on enjoying the moment and not worrying about getting good shots.
The ocean was very calm, and with the afternoon sun poking through a very light layer of clouds it looked very magical.
Back on land, we popped back to the hotel to change into some warmer clothes, and then went out for dinner. The place we had our eye on for some desert was closed, so instead we got in the car and went to watch the sunset from the beach on the south side of the island. As we drove down the beach road we were on the lookout for foxes, as we'd been told they were often seen there. I saw one in a field as we went past, and immediately saw why - the entire field was filled with bunnies! It was a pretty big field, so I guessed at maybe 200 of them.
The sunset was so pretty from that beach, and the sun had come out in the afternoon, so we got to experience a really lovely evening. As we drove by the bay the sky and sea were almost pink and with a single sailing ship on the water and Mt Baker in the background it looked like Neverland.
The next morning, we got some breakfast burritos to eat by the marina again, and then took the car back on the ferry. This time we left the car rather than napping, and headed up to the passenger deck to watch the islands go by.
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| Yes this is sideways |
We spent most of the day driving, with just a couple of stops. One at a rest stop which was actually very nice where we ate our picnic under the trees, and another where we quickly stopped at a state park to use the bathroom and fill up our water. The drive was very pretty, and once we'd left the freeways surrounding Seattle it was mostly through forests with soft autumn light filtering through.
Find out where we arrived in part 2!
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