A look around the San Juans...

Again, as promised, for our daughter and anyone who wants to look, here is a look at some homes and some views of some of the other islands in the San Juan Islands.  Depending on who you ask, there are somewhere around 174 named islands in the San Juans.  Many are unpopulated (total population of San Juan County, which takes in all the islands is around 16,000); the four largest islands (San Juan Island, Orcas Island, Lopez Island, Shaw Island) have most of that population base.  It is the smallest county in Washington State in land size, at around 175 square miles of land and 446 square miles of water.

"Izzy, do you want to go out on the boat today?"  What do you think?

We had the day off today, and headed out on Wild Blue.  We considered heading to Victoria, but we have meat, vegetables, and fruit onboard... and no place to leave that, and no desire to toss it.  We first headed towards Shaw Island and one of our favorite anchorages in the San Juans, Blind Bay.  We were surprised to see only a few boats anchored there; when we have been here in the past (5 years ago was the last time), the anchorage was pretty well populated.  We noticed that there are fewer private boats out and about, but it may be that it is still early in the summer season.

We dodged the ferry between Orcas Island and Shaw Island, and made a turn into East Sound at Orcas Island.  We watched a Kenmore Air seaplane land and take off at Rosario Resort and Spa...

A look at Rosario Resort from the water...

You'd like this place... one guest review said it reminded them of the place in the movie Dirty Dancing. ;-)  A hot tub, heated pool, spa, and other amenities.  We again considered stopping for the night, but decided to move on.

We made our way through Wasp Passage, around a bunch of small islands, and a view of one of my favorite houses that I pass once in a while on the whale watch boat...

I'll have to hit the lottery to afford it, but what a spectacular view they have to the west.  Speaking of to the west, just a bit southwest of that place is another small island that is also a State Park: Jones Island.  We have stayed here a couple times.  Tent camping or staying on your boat, so it won't be as swanky as Rosario Resort...

As we cruised around the northwest side of Jones Island, we saw... some frickie-dickie porpoise...

The real name of these quick-moving, camera shy mammals is harbor porpoise; apparently the term "frickie-dickie" is a local colloquialism meaning: "The sun doesn't shine much here and I am pissed that you people from Texas get to see fun-loving dolphins every damn day, and you get to wear shorts even in the winter!"  The harbor porpoise are not as animated as the bottle nose dolphin back in the Tropical Tip... I've never seen one do a flip or dance on its tail.  Getting a photo of one is tough unless you have a DSLR, and we didn't bring ours.  Still, Joan got the shot above with a point and shoot.

We headed back towards San Juan Island.  A few more homes that you can see from the water...

On most of the populated islands, the terrain heads steeply down to the water - it makes for good views from homes that dot the hillsides.

We had no intention of whale watching today, but near San Juan Island, we came across this male foraging by hisself...

I made a call to our boats and we had a nice viewing to ourselves as this big fellow moved towards Speiden Channel.  It also gave me the opportunity to photograph our boats underway...

Reports came through of more animals to the south, so they departed.  We bobbed around and watched for a while, then decided to head towards Roche Harbor.  The marina there is nice, lots of BIG boats...

No real town associated with the place, but we do really like the restaurant there.  Joan had made lunch on the boat earlier, so we didn't feel the need for a stop.  As we left the area, we saw these folks driving their golf cart up their dock - walking is so gauche...

And a nice place with a lovely view of the harbor...

No, that's not the same dock as above.  Some folks have a fixed dock, with a platform that moves up and down with the tide.  Notice how steep the ramp is - pretty low tide today (the first full day of summer).

Heading out of Roche Harbor, we came across another Killer Whale (Orca)...

He obviously had someplace he needed to be - he was moving right along.  And, a few more homes along the shore.

And like the whale, time for me to go... hope you enjoyed today's photo essay.