Good Last Day On Orcas Island

We enjoyed our last day here on Orcas Island! Its hard to accept we must leave it in favor of the real world beyond. The whole experience has been simply wonderful. Better than I could’ve hoped.

I can see why we decided to return here after our last visit seven years ago, though a week’s visit isn’t nearly enough. The slower pace here gets into you and makes you dread crossing over to the mainland again. I think of the recent hours I spent crawling along I-95 and then I think of strolling around downtown Eastsound. No contest!

Today’s big event was the EAA fly-in at Orcas Island Airport. We visited briefly yesterday but today was by far the big event. There were so many planes covering the 64-acre airport that they had trouble parking them all!

Kelly wasn’t feeling well this morning, so I took the kids to the airport around 9. Travis protested firmly when we kept going past the biplane hanger, as he wanted desperately to ride the little kid’s car inside. Somehow we made it to the airplanes, though, and he calmed down once he got a chance to see them up close.

We watched as a Canadian gentleman named Mr. Roger landed and stopped, then offered up his plane for our inspection. Both kids got a few minutes sitting in the cockpit, though I was so focused on not letting them twiddle every knob and dial that I completely neglected to take their pictures there! We did manage to thank Mr. Roger for his kindness before running off to see the next plane.

I stopped at a food stand to buy a coffee and a muffin for the kids. A man from Texas introduced himself, took one look at Hallie and told me, “looks like you’re gonna have to get a bigger shotgun for that one.” I laughed and assured him I had it covered. His son is flying an AWACS over Baghdad right now.

We also lingered by a stand filled with stuffed animals. Hallie brought up how her cousins Judah and Audrey now had a new baby brother and insisted we get presents for both of them. I couldn’t help but reward their thoughtfulness by obliging. We now have two stuffed animals to give to Hallie’s and Travis’s cousins so they don’t feel overlooked by the new family member. I am impressed by their thoughtfulness!

We finally made it to the biplane hanger, where Rod was readying to fly tourists in Magic Air, his biplane. The kids spotted toy cars not already occupied by happy kids and went right to them! I spent the next hour and a half chatting with the owner’s wife, Allision, and just watching the kids play. It was tough dragging them away from there (and tough for me to go, too, since its such a friendly place), but somehow I managed.

I took the kids home for lunch, where we were happy to see Kelly was feeling better. It was close to naptime for them, so after they were fed Kelly read them stories while I made a run to drop off our garbage. Then Kelly continued reading her book while I snuck back out to the airport.

Lots of planes now crowded the parking area. I chatted with a few pilots, including an ex-Navy one who owned a high-performance plane called an RV-4. He and his fellow RV-4-owning veterans have formed a squadron of sorts called the “Blackjack squadron.” I had seen it flying over the airport in formation, about six planes all wing-to-wing. It was impressive to see! A basic private pilot’s ticket isn’t enough to fly these 200+ MPH cheetahs, so even if I get my license I’ll have lots of work to do to get to fly one. I did get a chance to watch the “squadron” take off together and boy, they were airborne in a heartbeat! It looks like as much fun as you can have flying a propeller plane.

The kids awoke from their naps around 4, at which point we opted to tour the places still on our list. We visited West Beach Resort to see where Kelly’s friend usually stays (it was nice). Then we drove over to Deer Harbor to look at the boats (as well as spend a little time playing on their beach (with real sand!). Once again it was tough dragging ourselves away but we headed back home for dinner and baths.

Now wer’re hustling around, trying to gather our stuff for an early exit in the morning. We’re aiming to catch the first ferry at 7:15 AM PDT, so that we’re not stuck in the ferry line forever tomorrow. Tomorrow’s activities include a look around Seattle before spending the night there and flying back early Monday morning to Raleigh. It should be fun, if we can survive the next few early wakeups!