See Below for Significance: May 2011

A few weekends ago (okay, a heckuva lotta weekends ago), Andy helped me complete one of my more involved goals - #28: Visit the San Juans.Andy suggested the trip after a Friday saturated with basketball and ruined brackets. He even promised that there would be NO basketball watching during the trip! He must really like me.

The trip began with this:

Yes, in the age of GPS & iPhone, we used a map.

Andy decided that it would be a good challenge if instead of relying on our phones for mapping the trip, if I (yes, the most directionally-challenged person you've probably ever met) navigated using the most ancient of technology, a map. At first, I was pretty sure we'd end up in Mexico, but after a little bit (and after realizing that if you're just mapping your way across highways is fairly easy) I felt comfortable enough to even take us on a small scenic detour to see if we could find the Skagit Valley daffodils. We didn't. But here's what we DID see!

Sweet picture-taking face, eh?

My chauffeur.

This field clearly warrented documentation.

Was your Mama a llama? Mine wasn't.

Lance!

Holla to the 'Rado!

All of you non-Seattle/Bellevue/Washingtonians may not have noticed this, but LOOK AT THE SUN! It was SOOOOOO sunny for our entire roadtrip up, and it just made the adventure even more exciting! (It did not, however, make my skintone very exciting. Just call me Blanche.)

One of my favorite things about living in Washington is ferry rides. So easy, calm, and so gosh-darn-tootin' beautiful when it's sunny.

Can you find the sailboat?

There it is! Sorry I made you blurry, little fella.

Enjoying my ferry ride by sitting in the sun.

Andy enjoying his ferry ride by making me "touch" a dude's butt.

Argh! So pretty it hurts.

Once we actually landed on Orcas, we (through some trial and error) found a place to stay. We attempted to stay at the Rosario, which is a mansion-turned-hotel that used to be owned by the guy who turned a big chunk of Orcas into national park land. It was full. So instead, we stayed at the place next door, the Orcas Inn.

The check-in lodge at the Orcas Inn.

The lady that checked us in was lovably-flustered, and the owner of the Inn was kind enough to make dinner recommendations. I think they were both really excited to have tourists in the off-season.

The deserted boathouse... kinda creepy.

The generator? Andy made me take this.

Nerd alert.

The beautiful fountain leading us towards the room.

Andy was a real little photog with that fountain...

What a sweet ride.

Even though we didn't get to stay at the Rosario, we still had a sweet view of it from our balcony.

It's not as Shining-esque as this picture makes it look.

We stopped at a little market (doesn't "market" make it sound so quaint and adorable? It was a gas station mini-mart... same-same) and got snacks for the room and lunch - they actually made really delicious burgers! We took our burgers with us for some sight-seeing.

I call this one, "Patriotism." Don't be ashamed if you get emotional.

A baby sheep!

More baby sheep!

Then we went to the Mound Constitution Observation Tower, which is basically the highest point on any of the San Juan Islands. We ate our delicious burgers in the parking lot, and then trucked on up the tower. It's about 4 different levels with stone steps, and it's pretty dark inside. Each level has a room where you can learn facts about the tower, Moran State Park (named after the Seattle mayor and shipbuilder who bought and then donated the land to make it state protected, you can learn more here), and Orcas Island in general.

These are from the overlook area on the way up:

I like this view.

Some of these pictures are dark, but it really was a beautiful sunny day.

I guess we take pix of all the pretty views...

Even the better pictures don't do the view justice.

Then we got to the tower!

Just like Hogwarts, only skinnier. Diet Hogwarts.

I like pictures of stuff taken through stuff.

Some sort of seal. Probably a Freemason thing indicating that there is a lot of National Treasure below it. We didn't check.

Aaaand, the view.

Pretty sure you can see Canada from here. Maybe.

Hubba hubba.

Then we went back down.

It was really neat, but got REALLY cold at the end. After the tower, we drove around some more and then went to dinner at the Inn at Ship Bay restaurant, which was recommended by the owner/manager of the hotel we stayed at. I mostly forgot to take pictures at dinner. Oopsy.

It's obv why this was picture-worthy. If you don't get it that's your own fault.

Some sheep in the distance. Mostly brown grass. I am talented.

More sheep on the way to dinner.

He caught me taking pics! Eek!

A baby!

Are you tired of looking at sheepies yet?

And dinner... we did eat food, but I just took artsy wine pix. So artsy.

A little too artsy... or maybe it's dark. Too dark.

Not really an art pic, more of a these-are-our-wine-glasses-and-this-is-my-hand pic.

Andy was better at the art pics than I was.

The next morning we had breakfast at the other place the manager/owner guy recommended - the New Leaf Cafe - and then headed on home after grabbing some snacks at the supermarket and some pot pies from Passionate for Pies (which were www.bomb.com).