Island Adventure Pt. 1

So Labor Day weekend Bill and I wanted to take a little road trip. We have been getting hitch-itch in spite of the fact we don’t have anything to hitch. Friday afternoon I started to feel ill. Just a little sore throat so I thought maybe my allergies were worse. Saturday morning about 4 am I woke up and felt like I couldn’t breath. I took 2 ibuprofen and sat there in the dark for a bit before I realized I should probably go to the doctor since it felt like someone was sliding a knife down my throat every time I swallowed. I woke Bill up and told him I needed to go to the urgent care. I hate hospitals and so after spending so much time in ERs this year I determined I would much rather go to the Urgent Care then the ER. It would also be cheaper. So we load ourselves in the jeep with Kindles and DS and go prepared to kill a few hours. Bill “knows” where the Urgent Care is and so I didn’t stop and try to get an address. He had taken Adam there years ago for some reason or another, so off we go to Issaquah. We arrive in Issaquah and where Bill now “thinks” the urgent care should be… nope not there it’s an ER. I am still not in that much pain so I am determined to go to the urgent care instead. I grab my phone and look up the address. I put the address in Cher (our jeep’s gps) and off we go a few miles back the way we came. We arrive and Bill drops me off at the door, but hmmmm it looks a little dark and there are no cars in the parking lot. I go inside and walk to the area that has signs that say Urgent Care there is a sign “We have moved” and an address. I walk back outside (did I mention it is raining?) and back to the Jeep which bill has now parked. We get back in and give Cher the new address. She then directs us back a mile in the direction we had just come from the ER. Finally we found it and find out they had moved only a week or 2 before. Luckily there is no one in the waiting room when we arrive. I check in and fill out the pages of paperwork (why don’t they just create a friggin database? SERIOUSLY) and wait for the dr. The ibuprofen has done its job and the swelling has gone down somewhat so I have less fear of suffocation. The nurse calls me back after only 20 mins and I go sit while the nurse takes my vitals and asks why I am there. Nurses really do do all the work don’t they? Shortly after the doctor comes in, looks at my throat and in my ears and gives me 2 prescriptions but I am told not to use them unless I get worse (which I did but then I got better). I am not going to die even though I still feel the imaginary knife slicing my throat open every time I swallow.

We go home and sleep till noon having decided not to bother going out so that I can stay home and rest. So basically Labor Day weekend sucked. It was rainy and blah and I was blah.

The Friday afternoon after Labor Day I was feeling much better. On our way home from work Bill asks what I want to do for the weekend. We him and haw and Bill jokingly says “Let’s go to the beach”. Unlike Labor Day weekend this particular weekend was supposed to be lovely. 70s and sunny you don’t get that much in Washington in September. I say “sure let’s go.” Bill then tries to determine if I am serious, which I am. We get home determined to go somewhere. We are thinking about going to Long Beach, Washington and so I hop on the computer and look to see if there are events there that weekend. There was a old car show and so I check the hotel room prices to see how much it will effect it. The last time we stayed in Long Beach we stayed at a nice little Super 8 only a block from the beach. It was summer time and so we did not bawk when it cost $78. I called and the best room rate was $120. EEK! This is not a ritzy area. It is a small backwoods beach on the west coast or Washington not South Beach, Florida! We decided to go home and look at other options. Once we arrived home I pulled out a few magazines I had picked up this summer about “Staycations” I really love that term and it is something my family was famous for. I can not even tell you all the little mini-vacations we went on. Just get in the car and see where you end up.

The first one I flipped through was the Sunset Magazines Great Northwest Escapes. They had a listing with lots of different islands in San Juan County. We read a little about Friday Harbor and decided that it sounded interesting. I found it fascinating that Bill had never been to the San Juans even though he has lived here over 20 years. We decided to wait and drive up in the morning on Saturday to save money on a hotel. We had planned to catch the 8:15 ferry and then we would have the whole weekend to explore the island. We headed out for dinner because we didn’t want to buy anything that would go bad while we were gone and we were feeling lazy. After dinner Bill kept saying his foot hurt. He had thought maybe he had a bug bite or something and when I had looked at it before we left the house it was a little pink and a tiny bit of swelling so we didn’t worry about it. We arrived home about 9pm and when Bill took off his shoe I gasped. It was red and swollen and looked like he had poured boiling water over it, covered in blisters and just all around ugly. So I sigh, grab my keys and back to the Urgent Care we go. After waiting about 40 mins they took him back. He had gone walking at lunch and somehow had gotten into so poison sumac. I had never heard of it. The doctor gave him a prescription for a steroid to take and one for an antihistamine. I was very glad we had not left for the island that night.

We did not get home until late and so we did not pack. Also Bill wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to go and so we decided to play it by ear. Going to bed late means getting up late, I woke up and decided to relax until Bill woke up. When he finally came to we discussed whether we wanted to go. Bill said yes and I bound out of bed throwing things into the overnight bag. I hadn’t wanted him to think I would be sorely disappointed if we stayed home but I think I would have. It was almost 8 and if we hurried we should be able to make it to the ferry place 30 minutes before which the website said would be plenty of time. They lie. LOL We arrived about 35 minutes early and I relaxed. With a 2-hour drive through Seattle you never can tell if it will turn into a 5 hour drive. We paid for our ferry ride ($63 which shocked us a little but was fine) and I was happy to discover you only pay on the way off the main land. That way if you run out of money while you are there you can still get home. J. This did make me wonder when I noticed cars for sale on the island. You could walk on for much cheaper than you could drive on so do cars that are sold on the island have to pay a ferry fee? Once we had our ticket we drove up to get in line. The woman says, “Well you are #1 for our Stand-by.” Bill and I were shocked. Will we make it to the island? If not the next ferry doesn’t leave for over 3 hours. This could put a remarkable dent in our Island Adventure. We sat there waiting for the ferry to arrive and to learn our fate. We spoke with one of the ladies that works there while we waited and she said there would be a good chance we would make it on. So we bided our time reading books we had brought with us and watching the clock. The ferry arrived and the cars unloaded. I am continuously amazed at how many cars and trucks, RVs and semis they can fit on those things. Line after line of cars began loading. We sat and played the, “how many small cars vs. big cars are there?” game. Oh Look! A mini-cooper. Oh and a Prius! Uh Oh there goes a 5er (Heavy Duty Truck pulling a 5th wheel RV). It is really not a fun game when the fate of your day lies in how many big SUVs there are in front of us.

Finally the last line starts and we watch as they get the vehicles situated on-board waiting for the call to determine if we would be driving back into Anacortes for those berries at the little Farm Stand I refused to stop at on our way through. The traffic director is standing in front of the jeep rocking the cone back and forth waiting for word. Magic to our ears we hear, “Five”. The woman smiles at us and moves the cone beckoning us forth to our fun in the sun.

Once onboard we vacated the vehicle to go up on the deck. It was a little chill and so I went inside and sat by a window, watching Bill run from bow to the stern and back taking pictures and burning up gig on the camera. The trip is quite lovely. You got a great view of Mount Baker (or apparently as the locals call it “Mount Tammy Faye Baker”) and the islands that make up San Juan County. Finally we arrived at Friday Harbor. Being nearly the last vehicle on we knew we had time. So we sat and patiently waited just happy that we weren’t still on the other side of the water. Once we knew we were moving we figured we had better find lunch. We pulled off the ferry and mad our way up the one street through the “town” and on our left saw a sign for a visitor center. Knowing we had to find somewhere to stay before the last ferry headed back to the main land in case it was sold out we found a parking space and walked over to grab some info. As soon as we had reached land we saw a nice little restaurant that had mostly outdoor seating and claimed to have “Great Seafood” Fried pretty much anything. Clams, scallops, fish, etc. and if you don’t like seafood there were hamburgers and chicken too. The place looked oddly familiar which is funny because I am 100% certain I had never been on this particular island before. So after grabbing some info we headed over. Bill ordered fried clams and I ordered the fish sandwich. It was fabulous. As I was going through the info we had picked up at the town hall area it had a little ad for the restaurant we were sitting in, it said, “As seen on Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels”. Of course this would be why some strange place looked familiar. Grin.

Bill started going through hotels and B&Bs to find us a place to stay. He called the only chain hotel on the island and they were booked except for a Master suite and we didn’t want to pay as much for a master suite at a name brand then we could at a nice B&B. I have always wanted to stay in a B&B. The only thing that really has put me off is sharing a bathroom. If I need to go in the middle of the night I don’t want to have to find clothes. So Bill looked at the list of B&Bs listed and knowing how funny I am about names he suggested the “Inn to the Woods” I giggled and he decided to give them a call. They had one room left but it was their biggest room that, dreadfully had it’s own private deck and hot tub. How horrible for us. Of course it was not much more expensive than the master suite at the brand hotel so Bill booked it. It did cost more than we had preferred to spend but we were only staying one night instead of the 3 night we would have if we had gone out on Labor Day weekend. The room would not be ready until after 3pm so we decided to go “get lost” we figured being on an island there wouldn’t be much to getting lost. We were surprised at how lost you could actually get though. Grin

We drove around about 1/3 of the island looking at the beaches (well they call them beaches but being from Florida I have to disagree) and drove through one of the County Parks. We drove a big wide circle and ended back at the B&B about 3:30. The man that owns the place showed us our room and I changed out of my shirt that had gotten a little sweaty walking around up and down a few of the hills. We went and sat on the main deck and took our books to kill time before dinner.

This would be where I would meet my new friend, Clint. More soon...

For pictures from the weekend check here: www.twotwistedlimes.smugmug.com