July 29, 2007

There were 3 posts published on July 29, 2007 (this is page 1 of 1).

At Our Orcas Island Home

We made it our home on Orcas Island about two hours ago. Spent an hour making beds, bringing in luggage, and reading to the kids. The next hour was spent napping, for I, at least, was feeling incredibly tired. We woke to find unexpected neighbors across the street: three deer, grazing in among the dandilions near a patch of woods.

We’re enjoying a snack of gelato before taking a short walk down to see the beach. We can see the water from our back deck. It’s wonderful.

By the way, I found our location on Google Maps but it unfortunately falls within a low-resolution area of the maps. If you’re still curious, you can see it here. Oh, and pictures to follow later this evening.

Waiting for the Ferry

We’re in line for the ferry to Orcas Island. There is no internet access here (though a few closed access points are apparently nearby) but I thought I’d spend the time waiting in the car by writing a post.

Our Dutch breakfast was enjoyable. Once we were done with that, we headed over to the Anacortes Safeway to pick up most of our groceries for the week. All that’s left to buy is the perishable items, which we will get at the island grocery stores.

The weather in Seattle yesterday was phenomenal! It was partly sunny with a nice breeze and a temperature of 70F. Today in Anacortes we have overcast skies (ceiling around 2000 ft, in my estimation) and 59F. I’m now wishing I hadn’t forgotten to pack my jacket, though now I have a great excuse to buy a nice souvenir jacket! On the other hand, most of my clothes I brought are for cool weather, so overall I’m in good shape.

The sound is beautiful, just like I remember it. Even when its cloudy there is a certain peacefulness about it. In fact, the clouds add a bit of mystery, which I think appropriate for this area. There is a certain magic to the place. Its a place man will never completely tame.

In a few minutes we’ll drive onto the ferry, then climb up into the passenger areas. We’ve talked up the ferry ride to the kids so much that I hope it doesn’t disappoint it. I’m sure they’ll love it.

More when I get time to write. By the time you read this, we may be settled in our house.

In Anacortes

We made it to Seattle and Anacortes yesterday afternoon. The flight went smoothly: our kids are outstanding travelers. The only thing that drove Kelly and me crazy was Travis’s non-napping on the flights. We specifically took his carseat on the plane with the expectation that he’d be more comfortable in it and fall asleep. Wouldn’t you know it, we were on final approach to Seattle-Tacoma when Travis’s eyelids began to flutter!

It was tough gathering 10 days of bags together to get them into our rental car, but we somehow did it. After a detour to the Trader Joe’s near the University of Washington, we were soon in Anacortes and checking into our motel room.

Dinner was a disaster. What we needed was quick and easy and we got neither. We went to a place suggested by the hotel staff, Randy’s Pier 61. It was a bit overpriced for us, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the service, which was absolutely horrible. We waited on an outside patio for close to an hour, all for soup, salads, and two kids meals (fish and chips). The food was actually pretty good. Once we got it, that is. By the time we left, Travis had rubbed lemon juice in his eye and was bawling and Hallie was whining, too. We were all obviously tired from our very long day.

The place we stayed last night, the Islands Inn on Commercial Avenue, is something straight out of the 1950s but is charming in its own way. It is no thing of beauty, but did have beds in two rooms, complimentary breakfast, and free Internet in the lobby (yay). We were so knackered, we were all in bed by 7PM, Pacific. Despite a little noise from neighboring rooms, we slept amazingly well. I think we slept close to 12 hours!

We’re going to shop in Anacortes for groceries before trying to catch a 10 AM ferry to Orcas Island. We check into our cabin at 3PM, before which we should have plenty of time to explore the sights around Eastsound.

Now a nice, complimentary Dutch breakfast is in front of us (the inn owners are Hollanders. Hi, Guus!). I need to put the laptop down and enjoy it!