Vacation Part II

If you missed Part I you can read it here!

On Tuesday morning of vacation we woke up relatively early, took a cab to the airport and picked up our rental car. 

We then drove 1.5 hours to Anacortes, WA to get on a ferry. 

This was cool. 

How often do you get to drive your car onto a boat?! 

We took the one hour ferry ride over to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. 

It is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to! 

There we had a bed and breakfast booked. 

Neither of us have ever stayed at a b & b before. 

Lets just say, I don't think it's our scene. 

We pulled up to a BRIGHT yellow farm house that was COVERED in knick knacks. 

I mean inside and OUT. 

Cat figurines? Yup. 

Fairies? Yup. 

Creepy stuffed animals on the furniture overlooking your bed? Yup. 

If it wasn't for the SPETACULAR VIEW BEYOND WORDS, our accommodations would have been a bust.  

Now, we didn't choose this b & b, it was recommended to us. 

John almost cried when he found out it was a vegetarian establishment. 

This led to shameful behavior like:

Sneaking a supreme pizza into our room and being too scared to throw it away, therefore smuggling the remains back to the car...

Completely normal. 

Also, the whole communal breakfast thing...

Okay, maybe it's fine if you are similar to the other guests, 

but John and I were clearly not the "normal" Friday Harbor visitors. 

A) We don't get SUPER into outdoorsy activities, they are fine and fun on occasion but defnitely not a hobby (i.e. hiking, biking, kayaking)

B) We don't wear outdoorsy shoes. 

C) We rented a SUV instead of Prius

D) I (GASP!) wore makeup... homegirl needs a little tinted moisturizer! 

This led to awkward table conversations. 

Like, the inn keepers telling me that their connection with their pets is as strong as a parent/child connection and that their, wait for it, PET PSYCHIC, is really helpful in helping them all to communicate. 

Other than our adventures in b & b life, we enjoyed a very sweaty hike to the beach, lots of beers, food at pretty much every restaurant on the island, pretty drives, early morning trips to the beach, a whale watching tour, and lots and lots of pretty views! 

We started our journey home (that spanned across 2 days) on Friday morning, and I was actually sad to leave the island.

Other than our... crunchy accommodations, it was a truly amazing place to relax, read, and hang with my husband! 

Enjoy 8,000 pictures... okay, more like 25ish, but still...

Wale watching pictures via.

Vacation Part I

John and I spent last week on an 8 day, 2 part vacation. I am going to try not to overload posts with TOO many pictures... So I am splitting my recap into two days!

The first part of our Vacation, Friday night-Tuesday morning, was spent in Seattle! 

John was born in Seattle and lived there until he was 7. 

His parents met at UW, where they were both studying for their PhD. 

I have never been to the Pacific North West & John has a terrible memory, so we were more or less in a completely unfamiliar place.

This was good and bad. John and I had fun exploring together. 

But we aren't really "city people", so we basically figured out how to go to one place and just went there. 

Saturday was spent exploring the market! We woke up early but felt well rested and ready to go.

(Thank you 3 hour time difference!) 

We were able to walk around in peace, as there weren't many people out and about just yet!

We enjoyed a few cups of coffee (duh)

A spectacular breakfast (I want it again, right now!)

And the general splendor that is Pike's Place.

We also made our way down to the pier and enjoyed the beautiful views!

Saturday night we made our way back to the pier & had a fantastic meal at Elliot's Oyster House. 

This might have been the best meal we had the whole trip!

From the oysters to my fresh market halibut on parmesan polenta,

everything about that meal was heaven. 

Including the company :) 

On Sunday, John's uncle picked us up and drove us out to the "suburbs" for a hike & dinner. 

It was nice to get out of the city and enjoy the outdoors, 

although we brought the heat with us and spent our whole vacation in a Washington heat wave!

John has two cousins that are younger (5 years and 21 months) so it was also nice to get in a baby fix! We talked late and learned some awesome family history from John's uncle. 

 

Monday, our last day in the city, John had a good friend come up from Portland. 

We decided to have our own little bar crawl. 

Let's discuss how well this went for me...

In bed by 8:30 PM friends. Like a champion. 

I blame it on the shot of Underberg... it's like Jager, but worse! 

Sorry this got a little long, but I wanted to make sure I properly documented everything for my future self! Check back in tomorrow for a recap on my favorite part of vacation :)