Back to being an island boy...

Certainly not a tropical island.

We drove north from the Seattle area today, in the more typical PNW drizzly conditions. Destination: Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. Not knowing what the demand would be for the ferry, we arrived an hour and a half early, and we weren't the first ones in line...


Trying to get into the island spirit, we kicked back and read and surfed while waiting for the ferry. Easy to say that when this is a once in a great while thing for us. They started loading the ferry about 12 minutes before the scheduled departure...


It was interesting watching the guy guide in vehicles, deciding on the fly which lane they should head to.


We wound up close to the front on the port side.


If it hadn't been raining, I might have just picked the car up and carried it under my arm and just paid as a walk-on. ;-)

Once underway, we went upstairs to the comfortable seating. Joan pulled up Maps on her iPhone to check the route, I went for the Navionics marine app...



The water was smooth as glass on the ride over; we only saw one boat out moving around...


A 42' Nordic Tug - a good looking boat that looked kinda small from this perspective.

This may be old hat to folks who live here, but the ferry ride was a treat for us. It took off right on time and pulled into the dock at Friday Harbor right on time.

We were in Friday Harbor nearly 6 years ago on our boat. It looks quite different this time of year: very few people out and about...


We walked the docks for a bit (the rain stopped) - saw a couple C-Dorys, reminisced about where we had last been on the docks, and enjoyed seeing the boats. We passed one other person out on the dock while we were there. Yep, it's quiet here. We visited with a nice guy in the Harbormaster's Office - very friendly and informative.

Time for supper; we set off in search of an Italian restaurant our friend Tom told us about. He couldn't remember the name of the place, but Friday Harbor isn't that big... a half our later, I stopped at a convenience store to ask. "Oh, that must be Vinnie's. It's good food." He gave me directions. Yeah, "Take a left by the ferry" didn't pan out for us, so Joan Googled it. Never would have found it, since it sits off the street and has no signage that you can see until you are right in front of the place. Of course, it was closed. I had my mouth ready for Italian, so we went to... Kung Fu Pizza. Chinese and pizza. Sounds odd, but the pizza was outstanding. And the Chinese menu looked good, too. We may have to go back tomorrow to try that out.

We visited with the young man who waited on us about life in Friday Harbor - he was originally from Florida and couldn't say enough good about this place and the people who call it home.

The room we are in for the next couple nights is compact, but very liveable. Right across the street from the place we were told to go for "the best breakfast in town." And, they have a hot tub. I can't imagine there'll be a crowd in there tonight. Quite a different pace from the past few days.