Summer San Juans Sailing

Nice 5 weeks up in the San Juans. Temperatures in the 70's - 80's everyday! Really!

Caught lots of crab and ate tons of crab cocktails! Yumm!

Enjoyed our marine state parks and hiked every trail we found.

Old growth tree at Matia.

Can you see Jack?

Hobnobbed with the rich boaters at Roche Harbor as we needed to fill up with water and propane, get groceries, and do laundry. With the price of fuel this year. ($4.99/gallon at Roche) It made more sense to stay at Roche for $60 a night (!) than to travel a couple hours down to Friday Harbor for more reasonably priced fuel.

Didn't see any orcas but enjoyed watching wildlife and people. A lot more sailboats with their sails up this year. No wonder!

Lots of kayaks too. Got a kick out of the number of folk necessary to carry this kayak to the water. Must be very heavy.

Sightings of deer on the beach from the dinghy.

A red inchworm?

Lots of birds: pigeon guillemots with bright orange feet (related to the puffin family) nesting on the cliffs of Matia Island. These are seabirds and do not do well ashore but, goshdarnit, if that's what's necessary, they'll do it.

Had listened to what sounded like chickens cackling while we were at Sucia so went exploring and found nesting great blue herons.

Momma gull was watching over her baby who managed to fall out of the nest. We think he was lucky to fall to the dock rather than the sea. Hopefully he'll get enough to eat until his feathers grow in.

Saw many bald eagles, osprey, and turkey vultures.

But watch out for the dreaded shark attack on the trail!

Now what was Laurie doing trying to pick up what she thought was a garter snake on the trail. She figured it out when it coiled and struck that, no, it wasn't a garter snake and freaked a little. Could it be a rattler on W side of the state? Nope, we found out it was probably a small gopher snake who went on the defensive when stressed by my actions. Won't do that again! I did not take this picture.

Weather turned "crappy" (aren't we spoiled!) on the way home. We traveled through rain and dense fog which allowed us to play with the radar (successfully). Of course, knowing we were going home to a big painting project caused us to slow down even more.

It was a very good trip.