The Latest on the Lowes

We started this blog to share the transformation of our 1926 fixer...but with time and the addition of kids it has become my way of documenting two childhoods...the triumphs, moments of hilarity, lessons learned and everything in between.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Lopez Island

This past weekend Julie took me to Lopez Island as part of my birthday celebration. Lopez Island is part of the San Juan Islands which are located between the Washington State mainland and the Canadian island of Vancouver (not to be confused with the Washington city of Vancouver which is on the mainland!) To get there meant driving north of Seattle for 90 minutes to the town of Anacortes and then getting on a car ferry. The ferry system in Washington is unlike anything else in the country and the ride from Anacortes to Lopez is a pleasant 45 minute sail passing several islands. We passed the time playing Scrabble which Julie was a good sport about playing. I admit to being a Scrabble fiend and the game tends to bring out my competitive side.

Once on the island we met our guide - Colin of Cascadia KayakTours - who gave us a brief introduction to the two seat kayak we'd be paddling. We hit the water and began crossing the bay. Across the bay we hugged the shoreline and as we paddled along Colin pointed out various flora and fauna we likely would have missed. We spotted brilliant purple starfish clinging to the rocks just below the surface, huge kelp plants, and large ruby colored jelly fish. A little further along we saw some deer looking down on us from the shore. The highlight came when we approached a small cave in the side of the cliff. The cave was only a couple of feet wider than our kayak and you could hear the water crashing inside. We were only able to paddle a few feet in but that was far enough for us to notice the brilliant pink algae growing on the rocks. The photos simply don't do it justice. From the cave we paddled further along the coast and past a rock inhabited by seals. We stayed a healthy distance away from the seals so as not to disturb them. As we turned around we did notice the head of a seal poking up out of the kelp and watching us intently as we paddled by. On the way back we took a break on a beach where Julie thoughtfully busted out some cookies she'd purchased on the ferry. It was a fantastic trip and kayaking was a great way to see parts of the world you'd never get too see. Surprisingly, paddling was much easier than Julie or I had thought. We expected to wake up the next morning with sore arms but instead were fine.

Once we were back on dry land we high tailed it to the village of Lopez in order to make our dinner reservation. Only problem is we couldn't find it. This is a real feat given that Lopez Island is only 2 miles wide and 4 miles long! Eventually we found the village - all 3 blocks of it - and checked into the Inn and went to dinner. The next morning we had breakfast at the Inn. The Inn itself is a large bread and breakfast place. It was a great building and we were curious as to its history. Old ship captain's house? Summer estate home of some Seattle magnate? Nope. It was built in 1990...as an inn. Unimpressive history aside, it was a nice place to stay.

We barely managed to make the ferry ride back to Anacortes and were literally the last car allowed on. The ride back featured another game of Scrabble and once we hit Anacortes we were confronted with traffic hell. Heading out we'd seen a large banner on the main drag of Anacortes advertising an oyster run the following day. Julie thought this alluded to some sort of 10k run while I was imaging something along the lines of the running of the bulls in Pamplona (albeit slower and much less exciting!) Turns out the oyster run was actually a motorcycle rally and we soon found ourselves crawling down the road surrounded by thousands of Harley Davidson motorcycles. Of course these days a Harley Davidson costs an arm and leg which means many of these people were more likely to be a Hells Accountant rather than a Hells Angel.