Spring Break

This week was Jeff’s spring break. We went on a trip together!

Jeff and I left these two cuties with their Grama Meri and Grampa Charley (my parents) in the Seattle area, and then caught a ferry to San Juan Island. This was the first time we’ve spent more than a few hours away from Jay and Rose since they were born, and it was strange to have 2 1/2 days without them. We missed our kids, but at the same time it was so fun to spend some quality one-on-one time doing one of our favorite things—explore nature!

The whole island was satisfyingly rural and we had most of the coves and parks to ourselves. We explored remote coves. We drank in fresh damp air. We enjoyed sweeping coastal views. We saw animals in the wild: seals, bald eagles, otters, squashy purple seastars, spiny orange seastars, hermit crabs, mussels, and even some raccoons and a black fox. We looked and looked for whales, and took plenty of pictures of floating logs, but we never actually saw any real whales. It wasn’t quite the right season yet, even though San Juan Island is supposed to be the best land-based whale watching location in the country.

We went sea kayaking in the rain (burrrr). The sea kayak trip is where we saw tons of the wildlife, but since it was raining steadily for most of the 4 hour trip, we didn’t take any pictures. Kayaking is MUCH harder than it looks, by the way. It was fun to be down low in the water with the seals, otters, and sea stars, though, even in the rain.

We brought picnic lunches so we could go out to dinner TWICE. We had a Scrabble tournament and watched a movie (two things that we never seem to have time for in normal life). I slept in till nearly 8am on both mornings! Sweet rejuvenation.

Oh, and we also took a pile `o pictures. Here are some photos of our fun:

Grandma’s Cove

Duck.

Can you see a Shaina?

This is the tip of the island—I loved the panorama of water around us.

Limekiln State Park had a small-but-real lighthouse.

Dead Man’s Cove

That’s a REAL bald eagle! Chills.

I fell in love with the tide pools…

…and the purple seastars! I found one in a tide pool and it was so plump and purple and BIG. I didn’t know that there are purple seastars up in the pacific northwest.

Seriously, the tide pools were mesmerizing. And beautiful.

Me and my purple seastar—you can barely see him down there.

The beach pebbles actually are rainbow colored.

On the porch of the Argyle House’s Honeymoon Cottage.

Isn’t it cute? We liked staying there.

We hiked up to the highest point on the island: Young Hill (less than 700 feet high, but still great views). We went down the other side of the hill and ended up taking a 3 or 4 mile detour to get back to our car.

Yes, I hiked in a dress. And loved it.

blech.

Right as we were leaving, the sky cleared  and it got gorgeously sunny.

In line to get onto the ferry at Friday Harbor. The ferry took one hour to get us back to Anacortes, WA, and from there it was a 2 hour drive back to my parents’ house and our kids. The next morning, we drove the 3 hours back to our home. Washington is such a BIG, diverse state!

Jay and Rose had a blast with their Grama. Jay got her to let him watch Star Wars every day we were gone. They went to the park and used up all of Grama’s bubble supply. They took a bath in Grama and Grampa’s big bathtub. My mom said they were good, and she had fun with them too. I’m glad we all had a super-duper week.

Pulling away from Friday Harbor. Adios, vacation! Jay and Rose always get jealous and squeal and weasel in between us and climb our legs when we even HUG in their presence, so it was great to have Jeff all to myself for 2 1/2 days.

Now it’s back to the ongoing Star Wars conversation that is my normal life.