i don't believe you...

The very last and most exciting things i did last month, other than all the visitors ( and learning how to make a hand bound journal) was our trip to the san juan islands. They are a group of islands about 2 hours north of seattle.

The night before we went, we had out friend Val over for dinner and perhaps too much wine tasting. We did however, still get up at 6am, pick her up and get our butts on the road by 8, which was just enough time because the ferry left the dock at exactly 9:30. The ride was beautiful, a onehour ferry ride across Puget sound and the straits of san juan de fuca.

Once we got off the ferry it was 11, so we got a little lunch and then drove around the island. We visited the main island and it is only 56 miles total, so it wasn't a tough drive. Our first stop was Lime Kiln State park. We hike down a little trail that lead to the shores of san juan de fuca and found an empty picnic table. There we sat for a mere 5 minutes before we saw the Orca whales start to make their prescence known to us. They did not breach, but they did some low dives and 'spy hopping" where they push their bodies out of the water for anywhere as long as 15-30 seconds. It was so breath taking. We spent a good part of the early afternoon laying on the picnic tables watching the whale action.

Once we were sure that they had gone further up the strait we went on a little hike around the park and then got back into the car to she what else the island had in store for us.

We were driving along when we found an alpaca farm. Our friend Valerie, even though she was born and raised in northern michigan, where there are a lot of farms, had no idea what they were. Also, she kept forgetting the names and calling them "Galacas" :)

so we pulled onto the farmer's driveway and there was a little gift shop, where the ower nearly crapped his pants when we told him that Val had never heard of alpaca. He was so nice and told us to drive into the farm a little further and try to pet them. So Tony, Val and i spent about 30 minutes trying to get them to come closer to the fence so we could do just that. Just as we were about to give up hope, the farmer let his herding dog out to help us. It was so cool!!! All the animals heads rose as the dog approached and then began to run in the direction that the dog was running, but still NOWHERE near the fence.

We played with the dog for a bit and then totally gave up hope on petting them.

We got back in the car and were on the search for the lavendar farm when Tony spotted some Bald eagles just resting in the trees. Not one or two, but at least 4 that we could see and 4 more flying so high in the sky that we couldn't get photos of them!!!

As I turned the car around so that we could park and watch the eagles for a minute, a little red fox was watching us from across the street. it ran across the road and there was another fox, a gray one i think and the two of them began to chase and play with each other! It was so cool, two foxes on the ground only about 50 feet from us and tons of eagles in the trees above. I was in awe.

Once we got our fill of that. Again we followed that road that would lead us to the farm. Suddenly i saw a giant blonde animal in a pastuer, i asked tony and val if they thought it was camel, they said i was being silly and it was probably a horse...

right across the street from the "camel" was a winery, so we alldecided it would be a good idea to go have a little taste. Once we were there, the pourer confirmed, that the animal was in fact a camel. Mona was her name, she was adopted by the farmer from a petting zoo that was closing.

We never did make it to the lavendar farm. They closed at 5 and we were no where near when the clock struck 5.

So we headed back to the dock to get the ferry. We thought that we arrived just on time, but we were an hour and half early, so the 3 of us got some tea and/or coffee and sat on the docks watching the boats. It was such an relaxing and awesome experience to see all that wildlife ( minus the camel, who was far from wild) in one day, on one very small island!

Thursday kristine comes to visit for a short little trip, and the weather is getting more hike friendly so there will be many more posts to come and i will try my hardest to get them done in a timely manner; )