Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . (part 2)
The next morning we were greeted with cloudy skies and an easy morning of packing and getting out of town. We found the name of a decent breakfast place from a nice young local at a coffee shop and took our time getting to Port Townsend. From there it was supposed to be a quick ferry to Coupeville, a short drive up Whidbey Island to Anacortes, and then another longer ferry to Orcas Island. Even though we had a late start (breakfast was worth it), we would likely get onto Orcas Island around 1pm.
Well, as you might suspect, things didn’t go according to plan. The culprit - fog! Apparently, at least two of the Washington State Ferries do not have radar. When we arrived in Port Townsend, there were two ferries docked there. It seems that one of the ferries tried to make it across, but couldn’t find the Coupeville harbor, and had to turn back around. We were told to come back in an hour. So we walked around beautiful touristy Coupeville. More touristy than beautiful, which is why I don’t have any pictures for you. We went back to the dock, come back in another hour. We putzed around some more - come back in another hour. Got some coffee, and finally, come on in and line up.
It was amazing how quickly the skies cleared, but you could see from the boat why it didn’t set out earlier.
Imagine that wall of fog covering everything! Better safe than sorry and hey, we were on vacation, what did we care?
Kit and I checked the outside decks and I had to get a shot of him. It was pretty cold out there, so we quickly headed back in.
As I stepped inside the boat, I took one look back and saw something that made me brave the cold just a bit more.
It must have been the mist of the remnant fog that created it, but we had the faintest of rainbows about 50 feet from the boat!
A half hour later we were back on terra firma and headed north as fast as we could. If we missed the next ferry to Orcas Island, we’d not arrive on the island until 7pm. Fortunately we made it, and we weren’t too far back in line (though it looked like it - this boat was much bigger than the one from Port Townsend). So we drove on-board and got ready for a 2-1/2 hour ride (no, not a Gilligan’s Island 3-Hour Tour).
As we pulled out, there was still evidence of the fog that caused us so much trouble earlier in the day.
Ann and Kit quickly got settled down for the long ride. The choice of tables was dictated by the fact that it was next to a power outlet because Kit was running out of juice. With the table came a puzzle. And yes, they finished the puzzle by the time we arrived to Orcas Island.
Me, I got a bit bored. I’d go out, check out the sites, get cold, come back in. Get bored (hard to have 3 do the puzzle with these tables), go out again. Admittedly, the scenery was beautiful!
I even got to the point where I took some abstract photos of our wake.
Walked around a bit, and then took some more!
After a pretty wide and open crossing to the San Juan Islands, we started weaving our way through the islands. Some bigger, some smaller:
The scenery was constantly changing.
As soon as we landed in Westsound, we drove up-island to Eastsound, where we’d rented a condo. My advice, if you have a choice between a hotel room and a condo, go with the condo - having a kitchen and a real living room is mighty nice!
A few steps from our condo balcony, just across the street was a small park we stopped at on our way to dinner that evening. Of course, since all of us were geared up, we just had to start taking pictures . . .
And as the sun started setting, we had more interesting things to photograph.
It’s really amazing how differently the sky, color and light can look in different directions. This photograph was taken within minutes of the previous one.
So, we didn’t quite get to Orcas Island with time to do a lot of exploring that first day, but it was still a very good day!