Leaving America...Briefly

Our Memorial Day weekend in Orcas Island, WA was memorable indeed. We had a fantastic visit with cousins Ron and Susie in their beautiful home and property near the cool village of Eastsound on Orcas Island.

Debbie and her cousin Ron shared their Cory family memories one evening over cocktails and we had a lot of laughs (and yes, cried a little bit too) hearing their stories spanning 70 years. Susie and I had of course heard some of them but there were some new nuggets that had us in stitches...a very fine evening was had by all.

Ron and Debbie solving the world's problems

Now to the title of today's post...yes, in coming out to Orcas Island we briefly left America. Seems recently a certain US Border Patrol agent had been very zealous in his duties and was a constant presence on the ferry linking the island to the mainland that left many local residents feeling like they were leaving the country to come to and from their island homes. Apparently this has subsided a bit as the agent is no longer in the area but the attitude with the local residents persists. When someone leaves the island to go to the mainland they are said to be "going to America".
This also has some historical context as well. Seems it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Orcas and the other San Juan Islands would be a part of the United States until a German arbitrator settled a boundary dispute between the United States and Britain in 1872. Thirteen years earlier, the two nations nearly went to war after an American settler shot a pig owned by an Irishman who worked for the Hudson Bay Company (you really can't make this stuff up, right?). The so-called Pig War set in motion a process that eventually placed the border at the Haro Strait, which separates San Juan Island from Vancouver Island in Canada.
So based on these two observations we briefly left America to visit Orcas Island.

Now, what have we been up to you ask?

Saturday morning Ron and I were set to go shrimping - who knew shrimp lived in these cold waters, but they do good friends, and nice ones too - and his buddy Dick, the guy with the boat, called it off at the last minute due to high winds and rough sea conditions. Now when an experienced helo pilot with Vietnam war experience calls off an adventure, I'm all ears! This was really cool...so Ron and I are sitting at the local breakfast joint grabbing a quick bite before the fishing and the owner of the restaurant comes over to our table, hands Ron the phone and says..."Ron, Dick's on the phone". Now that is small town action right there, so cool! Ron, please extend my sincere thanks to Dick for the offer and tell him we'll nail 'em next time.
Here's a shot of Ron's "shed" containing every conceivable piece of fishing gear an angler could want...I was drooling. Ron fixed me up with a nice light weight tackle set up for fishing in Canada. Thanks Ron, the first cast will get a hard hit, I know it!



We drove up to Mt. Constitution, the highest point in the San Juan Islands with spectacular views of Mt. Rainier/Olympic Mountains to the south, Mt. Baker to the east and Vancouver and the BC coastal range to the north and ALL of the San Juan Islands.
Check out these views:

The views are best appreciated by climbing the observation tower to take it all in....




One of our favorite places we visited was Deer Harbor where we enjoyed a leisurely ice cream cone and chili dog on a gloriously sunfilled afternoon on the boat dock.



And, Doe Bay was lovely as well.....



I also enjoyed a nice hike out to the beach at Obstruction Pass early one morning and caught a decent photo for your enjoyment.....



Now, in closing out this post I'd like to mention we are not the only ones headed north. See, these hummingbirds are currently residing on Ron and Susie's terrace enjoying their fine hospitality as much as we did. They will be here till mid June and then complete the last of their journey from the Andes in South America to Alaska. Hey, if these little guys can do it, I'm liking our chances.



Finally, we want to say thank you to Susie and Ron for your generous hospitality and wonderful company, we had a great time and it was so nice to hang with you kind folks...thanks for sharing your slice of heaven with us...we're so happy for you guys!

Next up: this is the ferry taking us back to America...

but only for a couple of hours as we're scheduled to cross the border into Canada later this afternoon.
I don't know, suddenly I'm starting to feel all Vancouvery....later fine folks and thanks for tagging along.