After Idaho we drove west through the beautiful state of Washington to meet up with our friends, the Nelsons. Have I already said that meeting up with friends and family along the way was one of the best things about our trip!? We loved spending time with each of them and helped the kids to have others to interact and play with and made our long drives more enjoyable when we were looking forward to seeing familiar faces at the destination.
We met up with the Nelson's at the ferry terminal and our Chocolate Chica rode a ferry for the first time! We crossed the Rosario Straight and had views of several other smaller islands on our way to Friday Harbor. The kids had fun playing telestrations on the ferry. Once we arrived we grabbed mexican food for dinner and made our way to the beach with tons of driftwood and black charcoal sand for a picnic dinner.
After dinner we drove to Maria's parents property on the Island where they graciously hosted us. It was so beautiful and our poshest camping experience yet! They have set up a guests paradise on their property with a hot tub, slack line, fire pit, beautiful gardens, archery and shooting range, all surrounded by forest.
We spent a morning shooting archery and guns. My first time shooting a real gun and the kids, too! Maria's dad is in the military and gave us good instruction and safety lessons. We went out for a hike and explored the harbor.
That evening we took another ferry and crossed over to Victoria Island, Canada! We had fun walking around the wharf and seeing the small floating houses and touring the parliament building. We spent the afternoon at Butchart Gardens. This has been on my bucket list for a while. It was soo beautiful! The kids filled out little explorer guides and loved seeing all of the flowers, statues and different styles of gardens. They were not impressed with the sticker prize at the end. We found arches of roses, stepping stones in the Japanese Gardens and secret passageways all around. It was spectacular.
Brownies, Ice Cream and S'mores by the fire for Clara's birthday!
Our final day back on San Juan Island we took the older girls out on a zodiac boat for a whale watching trip. They suited us up in heavy rain gear and we all looked like sumo wrestlers. It seemed like maybe overkill with all the gear until we got out onto the water and the boat was going 60 miles per hour in the rain out to drive out to find the whales. After about an hour drive being possibly the coldest we've even been, we were rewarded with a pod of orcas! We saw moms and babies swimming together, blowing water and jumping. It was amazing! And freezing! But quite the adventure and I'm glad we did it. Clara stayed with Maria, Hazel and Crew and got to visit the lavender fields and playground. We had a great time with the Nelsons in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
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