We started our day by going to see Ron’s beautiful property on Buck Mountain. Stunning view, Ron! After that, we drove to Mountain Lake for a fun hike to the dam and back. On the way down, we rented a rowboat and rowed across Cascade Lake to see the bridge being rebuilt.
Now its a quick lunch before heading back to downtown Eastsound to see the starfish at low tide. Gotta make the most of our time left!
We didn’t have specific plans today, so we took up Ron’s suggestions and headed over to the Rosario Resort to visit the museum on the second floor. Calling it a museum is a bit of a stretch, as there are lots of 8×10″ historical photographs on the walls but scant items to view, other than the house itself which is gorgeous. There was a model of the USS Nebraska (BB14), built by the Moran Brothers shipyard and the only battleship ever built in Washington state, and a model of the Moran Brothers shipyard. There was also a display case with gauges and buttons from the USS Nebraska in it as well as a large desk, from which I imagine Robert Moran contemplated his business empire.
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We got news about an hour ago that our latest nephew, Benjamin Kaelin Turner, was born this afternoon! This is Allen and Tanya’s third child, making a big sister out of Audrey and an even bigger brother out of Judah.
Benjamin weighed in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces and measured a lengthy 22 inches. Size comes naturally to the Turners, so he’s off to a good start. I’m told momma and family are doing fine.
We look forward to meeting the newest Turner when we return to North Carolina. Hurray!
Once again, we enjoyed a stunning sunrise over the water as we awoke near 6 AM PST. It looks like our string of perfect days is not quite over.
We’ve got no real agenda today. Possible visits include the Rosario resort, Turtleback Mountain, or maybe a visit to Deer Harbor to look at the boats. A return visit to Cascade Lake (and park) is definitely in our future.
Ron, a new MT.Net visitor (15 now! Woowoo!), mentioned today that Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson lives here on Orcas Island. Since then, I’ve been thinking about the alternate universe where instead of being a high-paid computer geek, I followed my cartooning interest into a career. Then I read about Mr. Larson’s polite but emphatic notices to fans to remove Far Side cartoons from their webpages. That’s when I run into a personal conflict.
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I found a local paper’s report about the latest orca sighting on Friday. Looks like we missed a doozie.
The ranger we spoke with today told me there is a service that will page you when the whales are coming. They charge “big bucks” for that service, though. I’m sure the captains of the whale watch boats all subscribe to it.
I think we’ll have to wait until next time to see the orcas.
Today is Wednesday, the half-way point of our vacation. We’ve done a ton of things already and still have plenty more we can do. The weather has continued to be unbelievably perfect: totally clear with gentle breezes and temperatures around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. We couldn’t have picked a better time to be here, weather-wise.
The neighbor’s WiFi is now reachable again, too, which saves me a drive to town to post this. I think there is some sort of ducting going on which makes this access point accessible from here occasionally. I could not locate it at all yesterday, no matter how I tried.
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I’m in the parking lot of the Orcas Island Library, which offers free WiFi access. It turns out the neighbor’s WiFi that I’d been, um, security auditing the past few days disappeared yesterday afternoon, so we’ve been offline for a while. The library’s network doesn’t seem to like picture uploads, either, so you won’t see much until I can solve that particular problem. Shame, too, as its absolutely gorgeous here.
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We awoke at 5:30 PST to the sound of kids scheming with each other. Hallie and Travis slept in the same room and began to chat excitedly around that time. To our surprise, I was able to settle them down for another 45 minutes of snoozing.
Before I went back to bed, I peeked out the back window to see the sun creeping up in an almost completely clear sky. I wish I’d grabbed the camera at that moment and waited it out, because I’m certain I missed a spectacular sunrise!
A night of sleep did me good. I feel much better! I’m feeling much better, health-wise, and I think that jet lag was an issue and isn’t much anymore.
On deck today is an attempt to hike up Mount Constitution, elevation 2,407 feet (734m), in Moran State Park. Kelly and I did it last time we were here and loved the stunning view. It should be a great, fun-filled day.
I’m not going to post pictures this evening because I’m flat-out beat. I’ve been dealing with some kind of stomach bug this whole trip and it has sapped my energy. In fact, Saturday morning my breakfast became airborne well before I did.
I hope this all gets over with soon, since I don’t want to be a drag on my family. Everyone is fired up about being here and I feel bad about not having the energy to keep up.
I’ll try to post pictures in the morning (and provide a handy link for them as well). For now, though, good night!
