I've mentioned that life on San Juan Island is different. If you don't have your own boat or airplane, you are dependent on the Washington State Ferry... to get on and off the island, and for almost all goods brought to the island.
We haven't been off the island in a while, and this morning (on our day off), we decided a change of scenery sounded like a good plan. After getting to sleep in (relatively speaking), we got our morning chores done and geared up for a day on the scoots - heading to Orcas Island, our first time there this season.
About that sensibilities thing: we arrived just a few minutes before the inter-island ferry. While waiting for it to unload, we saw a worker bringing trash off the ferry. He unlocked the dumpster and tossed in 4 bags of trash. I had to chuckle... getting rid of trash on an island is a concern. Most businesses here have a lock on their dumpsters so people don't put their personal trash in them. They don't lock their cars, but they have a lock on their dumpsters. Go figure?
On with the day - at the ferry landing...
Here comes the ferry...
Loaded up first...
The obligatory Joan-on-the-ferry shot...
A pretty day - some views from the ferry ride to Orcas Island...
Coming into the Orcas Island ferry landing, waiting for the other inter-island ferry to depart...
Gearing up again...
No plan, no destination; some riding and lunch. I took about 80 shots while riding. No, I won't post 'em all. As usual, the images where you can see Joan and her scoot from the front were taken over my shoulder... I'm getting better at it. ;-)
We stopped in East Sound, at Madrona Grill, for lunch. We got a table outside - pretty view...
Oh, and the scenery was nice, too...
It was warm enough to be in shirt sleeves at the outside seating. Nice to have a leisurely lunch. Afterwards, we walked around Eastsound, but didn't find anything in the shops that we couldn't live without.
Back to riding...
Up Mt. Constitution - a stop at an overlook on the way up...
The view from the top, looking to the northeast...
Back down...
A stop at the overlook to prove I was along today...
Heading to the west side of the island...
While driving by the airport we saw this...
At first glance, I thought it was a Beech Starship... too squatty-looking, no winglets... nope, it's a Piaggio P180. For the scooter fans: yes, Piaggio - the company behind Vespa.
Back to the riding...
Deer Harbor...
Heading back to the ferry landing on Orcas...
Nice riding. Fun change of pace. And time for ice cream before the ferry arrived. :-)
4 comments:
Great pics Jim!
Btw, do you ever miss having a boat in the San Juans?
You know what my day-job is, don't ya?? ;-)
There are days when I am at the helm and think of all the great times we had cruising our own boat in the San Juans, the Gulf Islands, Desolation Sound, Puget Sound. This area is some truly spectacular cruising. On with the next chapter - another few weeks, and we'll be land cruising again. No schedules. No regrets.
Nice Pics. Capt'n-- Taking Pics. while Scooting = Distractive Scooting?
Hi HRB. The scenery is distracting. The cute Blonde on the other scooter is distracting. Those boats out on the water are distracting. There are no nearby vehicles when I shoot while scooting. I don't take my eyes off the road - just point and shoot, not using the view-finder. I think most folks would be more distracted looking at their GPS for a couple seconds by comparison. You aren't seeing all the images that are "fails." ;-)
There was a Class A going up the road to Mt. Constitution as we were coming down. A small one by most standards, but not something I'd want to take on that narrow road... I didn't get a photo of that because I had both hands on the handlebars and eyes on my narrow bit of road that was left as he went by. I know "when to say when." ;-)
Post a Comment