The mellow vibe of the St Juan Islands
Thursday 30 May
Yes, we arrived in Friday Harbour on a Thursday! A very pleasant couple of bus rides north of Seattle took us to Anacortes, a city in Skagit County, Washington and the dock and terminal serving the San Juan Islands, where we boarded a very large car ferry – with not a lot of passengers – for a very pleasant hour’s sail out to Friday Harbour, the major commercial centre of the San Juan Islands.
Famous for The Pig War, a confrontation in 1859 between the US and the UK over the British-US border in the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver Island and the Washington Territory. The conflict began when American farmer Lyman Cutlar shot and killed a pig owned by British citizen Charles Griffin after discovering the pig eating his potatoes!!! The British considered the claims of 18 Americans who had settled on Hudson Bay Company’s sheep grazing lands to be illegal and the claimants to be trespassers. When the British authorities threatened to arrest Cutlar and evict the Americans, a delegation sought military protection. The Americans backed Cutlar and the British supported Griffin, sending warships to the area and the USA deployed 66 troops. Although the conflict escalated into an armed conflict, there were no human casualties. The only casualty of course was…the pig! Which explains why we have seen a number of bronze pigs scultures around the place!
We were delighted when we stepped off the ferry – what a charming little seaport. Galleries, museums, boutiques, water view cafés and restaurants, all within one square mile and all looking extremely quaint. Our accommodation was literally one block from the ferry dock, so after lugging our bags up the stairs and into our room we headed out straight away for a lovely wander around in the sunshine, ending with a spot of wine tasting at the San Juan Cellars before we sat in the sunshine for a pre-dinner drink and dinner at Downriggers. What a great start to our few days here.
Friday 31 May
After an early morning walk, and coffee at the Salty Fox café, we wandered down to the Marina where we were meeting Mike, who was coming in to collect us on his 28ft aluminium dayboat, driven by a Hamilton jet. This is the jet engine designed by the New Zealander Sir William Hamilton and still leads the world technology in jet engines. It drives the boat by pushing water out, similar to an aeroplane engine which pushes air out. Mike worked for HamiltonJet when he lived in New Zealand. Mike and Debbie are related to Geoff’s daughter-in-law Kate, and live in Washington State, but also have a holiday place here on John Island and are hosting us for the day, and also again on Sunday in La Conner.
Mike then proceeded to take us on a wonderful tour of the islands….Orcas, Lopez, and Shaw and we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day, a beautiful blue sky and calm water. It was wonderful. We passed lots of little fishing boats hoping for a shrimp catch in the bays, sea lions basking on the rocks and the island hopper sea planes buzzing around us. We finally made our way to John Island and were met by Debbie and their two corgis, Ranger and Misty. What a delightful rustic cabin they have, with the most spectacular view over the water. It was lovely sitting outside on the deck in the warm sunshine (especially after all the cold weather in Alaska) – I even got my arms and legs out for the first time in a few weeks!!! Debbie treated us to a delicious lunch, and we put the world to rights for a few hours around the table (with one obviously big talking point being yesterday’s Donald Trump conviction news!). We followed this with a great walk around the other side of the island, lush foliage and the odd few deer along the way, before Mike returned us back to Friday Harbour. A great day out and we feel very fortunate that we have been connected once again with new friends who have gone out of their way with kindness to make our visits very, very memorable.
Saturday 1 June
Determined to make the most of our last day here, we decided to hire a car and drive all around San Juan Island. Our little ladybird red Smart Car was the perfect choice and off we went! First stop was San Juan Golf and Tennis Club – it seemed only right given one of Geoff’s golfing pals in NZ, Jay, who has a home in these parts, was the one who told us to come to the San Juans for a visit. A bucket of balls on the driving range for Geoff whilst Ryan Fox was entertaining us on the TV at the Canadian Open, and then we were off driving through lush Lime Kiln Point State Park and San Juan County Park, alongside the coast and ending up in the extremely picturesque Roche Harbour on the northwest side facing Haro Strait. This is a designated US port of entry from Canada and a small customs dock (and it really was small!) occupies the end of the marina.
The first two lime kilns were built by the British Royal Marines under the direction of Lt. Richard Roche as a way of occupying the troops billeted here during the Pig War. Limestone was quarried, delivered by rail to chutes and dropped into the kilns where it was burned down into industrial lime and used in the production of steel, plaster, cement and paper. Production ceased in 1956 with the sale of Roche Harbour to Reuben Tarte and his family who developed the town into a boating resort with a marina. The Tarte family sold Roche Harbour in 1988 to businessmen Verne Howard of King’s Market and Rich Komen of Restaurants Unlimited and it is now owned by Komen and Saltchuk Resources.
We had a delightful wander around the marina and the old limestone building, now beautifully renovated and housing charming shops – a lovely way to spend the afternoon, followed by a delicious Italian dinner that evening in a small, local-owned restaurant near Friday Harbour.
Sunday 2 June
We’re back on the ferry to Anacortes this morning and sadly, it is the worse weather-day we have had since we left New Zealand. Raining and grey which wasn’t what we were hoping for as we have a visit to La Conner today and sunshine would have been much more welcome. Never mind, we’ll make the best of it – out came the dreaded purple/pink rain jacket again – thought that had been finally relegated to the bottom of my suitcase!
Mike and Debbie met us at the ferry terminal in Anacortes, and like “Alaskan Mike”, “San Juan Islands Mike” also has a big comfortable Chevy truck (perfect for all the luggage we have) and off we went to Le Conner. With a population of around 1,000 it was first settled in May 1867 by Alonzo Low and was then known by its post office name, Swinomish due to its location on the Swinomish channel and its ideal safe harbour for ships. In 1869, J S Conner bought the settlement’s trading post and in 1870 had the name changed to honour his wife, Louisa Ann Conner, the “La” representing her first and middle names. It is located at the edge of the Skagit Valley, the largest tulip-growing region in the world and host of an annual tulip festival, other crops in the area include strawberries and wheat. Sadly, we were about 6 weeks too late to see these glorious tulips.
A delicious lunch was followed by a walk through yet another, delightfully charming little town. Fortunately, the rain had abated a little and we were able to wander up and down and in and out of the art galleries, and wonderfully eclectic little speciality shops, antiques, woodworking, home décor, pottery. If only I wasn’t still travelling for the next 6 weeks and had the space – I could easily have filled a suitcase with all sorts of delights.
Then it was back to Mike and Debbie’s beautiful home in Belleview, not far from La Conner, for a very tasty dinner and another convivial evening!