The Boths and the Rowlands Visit

We recently had a whole crew of visitors, which is fantastic because we love to host! It was an action packed week in which we got out and did many of the things we have been talking about doing.

The whole crew and a sunset on the ferry.

To start off, we took a ferry over to Orcas Island, which is one of the hundreds of beautiful San Juan Islands.

For geographic reference.

We camped for a few nights and occupied our time during the days by hiking to the top of Mt.Constitution for some absurdly picturesque views and swimming in aptly named and refreshingly pristine Mountain Lake. 

On the hike.

Tess found a cool panoramic feature on her phone and we took this picture of the amazing view featuring myself (thrice).

One night we had to chase away a campsite invader, which luckily turned out to not be a huge bear, but instead a little deer who has become accustomed to ransacking campsites. It was making quite a ruckus by eating our tortilla chips, so I yelled at it, called it names, threw things at it, and hit it straight between the eyes with Tess’ flip-flop, so it finally decided to wander off slowly to raid the neighbors camp.

The next morning we grabbed a delicious brunch at Doe Bay Cafe and then drove across the island to hopped on a whale watching boat. The deal with whale watching is that it is whale searching…and if you get lucky, you may see a whale, otherwise it is an expensive boat excursion. We did stalk a Minke whale for a while and saw it surface several times, which was cool, as well as saw various other wildlife including porpoises, eagles, and many of the beautiful islands that make up the San Juan archipelago, so it turned out pretty good (although a sighting of one the Orcas of the local pods would have been nice).

Minke whale  (this is kind of what whale watching looks like) [photo courtesy of Andi]

Arlo is a zen child.

This is what Ezra thinks of Seattle's playgrounds.

Us and the Space Needle

Our visitors spent the week seeing what Seattle has going on and checking out many of the cool museums and attractions. Tess joined them for a trip to Woodland Park Zoo and we both tagged along for a trip to the Experience Music Project (a post soon to come). One evening we treated ourselves to fine dining at The Walrus and the Carpenter for some amazing oysters and seafood. The food was beyond spectacular. All in all it was a whirlwind, action-packed, fantastic week. I wish we could do it all over again!

Me and the empty oyster shells.