Day 19- San Juan Islands, WA

                                                                Monday 7/9/12
We woke up in the town of Anacortes and drove to the park and ride about a half mile outside of town. While waiting for the bus Isaiah met a local Native named Eagle Bear. Eagle Bear was extremely friendly and open and so we spent the bus ride to the ferry terminal learning about his history and hearing him play us a song he wrote on his drum. Though locally he is probably known as crazy, we thought he was great. He talked about the importance of honoring women and how his society is matriarchal as well as the visions he has seen in his life. We made it just in time to catch the ferry to Orcas Island but not without having to make a dash for it. After sailing along for about 45 minutes or so we docked on Orcas, one of the smaller of the San Juan Islands.

Isaiah had found a way to get us a half priced bus ticket (typically it would be $15 each for an all day pass, it was $15 total) and so we boarded to explore the island. Our bus driver was extremely friendly and helpful and drove us all over the island pointing out all the sights. She was very sweet but definitely one that liked to over share as we now know most of her personal history. Since she is locally based she shared some insight with us about living on the island. The first piece of wisdom was that to afford living there you either have to work three jobs like she does or be rich. The second piece of wisdom is that all the food is way over priced and she couldn't recommend any place to eat. The third piece of advice was to tour the island by bus and then hop a ferry to San Juan. We decided to take her up on that wisdom and hopped a ferry for Friday Harbor, the largest town on San Juan island at no additional cost from the $12.45 each we had already paid. We stopped to have lunch at a park and enjoyed the fearless local bunnies who stood within 15 feet of us.

Another bus took us all around San Juan island and this bus driver thankfully thought of herself as a tour guide as well. She strapped on her microphone and gave us the history of everything we passed as well as the notable people who lived in town. She also stopped several times in the middle of the road trying to give us better views as we went. In her words whales are most likely to be spotted when many boats are gathered so she slowed along the cliff but we had already missed them. After a brief walk of downtown Friday Harbor we took a long ferry ride back to Anacortes.

For dinner we stopped at the Swinomish casino and partook of their buffet. It was a vegetarian delight and I still managed to accidentally eat a piece of bacon. The dessert however was disappointing. The icecream machine squeaked so loudly the staff thought I had broken it. While we were dining we also learned a little bit about the history of the game Keno. Apparently it was created 2,100 years ago in China as a way to raise money for the Chinese army. It is rumored to have also helped in building the Great Wall.

For the night we drove with the hope that the town of Concrete would hold overnight accomodations. It was such a disappointing sight as we drove through the town. Anywhere we parked would have caused a visit from the sheriff and so we continued on. In desperation we were prepared to scrap the plans for tomorrow and drive all night to Spokane. As the pictures from tomorrow will show thank god we didn't. Eventually we settled upon a campsite a little past where we planned to hike the following day.  -A

In the wise words of Eagle Bear: "FEAR is Forgetting Everything's Alright."

View from ferry to Orcas Island

View from ferry to Orcas Island

View from Orcas Island

Friendly bunnies