We only got to see some of the mountains from the plane… here’s the bonus pics from the last day of vacation. Click on image to see album:

Day 6 of our vacation in the Pacific Northwest. We weren’t exactly in Seattle, it was more like in between Seattle and Tacoma, by the airport, in a city called Seatac, which probably sprang out of the airport. We drove to the city and learned to appreciate the kinder, gentler traffic jams we have back home (think Houston traffic) and made our way to Pike Place Market. You could spend days exploring it, but we only had one, and we probably walked at least a couple of miles from end to end to end over level and level. Maybe not that much, but then again, maybe more.

Click on image to see the album:

View Larger Map

Day 5 of our vacation in the Pacific Northwest. Five days sure do go by quickly when you’re having fun… It was time to pack up and say good-bye to the small town of Friday Harbor, its fresh air and cool summer weather, and head back to the ferry and the mainland. During the whole five days we used less than a tank of gas, since you can basically walk anywhere you want to in the island, and it’s less than 15 miles to anywhere else you may want to go.

We parked the car in line at the ferry and ate our last meal in the island. From there we were back in Anacortes and traveled back to Seattle.

Click on image to see album:

View Larger Map

Day 4 of our vacation in the Pacific Northwest. Days in the northwest are long this time of the year… there’s still daylight past 10 p.m., and sunrise happens before 5 a.m. Our bodies are in Central time, so we went to bed early, so sometimes we never saw night fall.

This morning we went to the Whale Museum, a few blocks away from the Kirk House. Interesting enough — we learned about the orcas that we saw the day before. They all have names and are tracked constantly.

Later we went back to Roche Harbor, since we only got close to it the day before. There’s a bunch of condos and a small shopping center.

There was a confrontation between the Americans and the British in San Juan Island that is referred to as “The Pig War.” There are two parks in the Island that conserve the original American and English camps, or at least their locations. Apparently they knew they weren’t going to be around too long so they didn’t put too much effort into building the structures. It was quite a hike to get around, but there were some breath-taking views and a bit of history never hurt anyone. We only visited the American Camp.

Click on image to see album:

View Fourth Day Map in a larger map

Day 3 of our vacation in the Pacific Northwest. Breakfast at the Kirk House is quite the treat, with a an awesome award-winning yogurt parfait. We took a whale watching tour on San Juan Safaris, although the other folks staying at the bed and breakfast told us they were disappointed on their trip and didn’t get to see any whales. After more than an hour circling the island, we met up with several other boats and our captain announced they had finally spotted a couple of orca pods. We couldn’t get very close to them, but we did get to see what might have been a couple dozen killer whales frolicking in the water. The visual will be a lot better when I upload the videos. Turns out someone in the boat lives in the town next to ours.

Later that day we drove up to Roche Harbor and saw the most peculiar art exhibit: An outdoor gallery of sorts — and I do mean outdoor, with ducks and weeds and mosquitos all around. Most of the displays were for sale (we didn’t buy anything) and the place seems to just run itself, with an honor-system admission slot at the front.

Click on image to see album:

View Third Day Map in a larger map