Our 2nd Wedding Anniversary Trip | Orcas Island Pt.1
Our second wedding anniversary was Sunday May 14th. Beau told me not to make any plans for Saturday or Sunday, to pack a bag with camping and hiking gear and to plan to be up by before 3am. That was all I knew. I love how much he loves to surprise me. He always has. I'm not great at surprises because I typically clue in to little details easily, but we've both gotten better the longer we've been together.
Saturday morning, the alarm went off at 2:30am. Beau made us coffee and hustled me out the door in all of my groggy splendor. The coffee, we agreed, was terrible because he thought he'd run the same K-cup in the Keurig twice to make one big coffee (don't waste your coffee this way my friends). We stayed awake out of excitement for the rest of drive though, the Serial podcast holding our attention. By the time we reached Anacortes, I figured out we were taking the ferry over to the San Juan Islands.
On the ferry, Beau clued me in that we were going to Orcas Island and he had a list of awesome places for us to check out when we got there. The ferry wasn't packed and we walked around, watching the sun slowly coming up and fighting buying the delicious smelling tator tots because he promised there would be a cafe on the island I would love more.
We arrived at the island around 6am and the sleepy island town was still asleep so we drove around the entire west side of the island and walked along the beach, stepping on squishy kelp and looking for crabs. Once the Brown Bear Cafe opened, we were some of the first in line to enjoy a delicious Vanilla Peach croissant, JamBon (ham) croissant and a large vanilla americano.
We headed over to hike Obstruction Pass on a mission to find the starfish we read about. The screaming seagulls wanted to eat them so it took a little time to discover how well they were burrowed under crevices of rocks. It did not disappoint, they were beautiful and bright. We hate seagulls (yes, I've been pooped on on my head) so we made sure to hide them just as we found them to keep the birds guessing.
During the afternoon, we checked out Constitution point and watched two baby deer prancing around. One was albino and if you look close enough in my photos there, you can see him in the distance.
Afterwards, we stopped locally for some fresh caught mussels and then sampled vino at the Orcas Island Winery. Interestingly enough, they don't grow their own grapes on the island. The climate isn't right for growing, but they love the place enough to open a winery there. I don't mind; the merlot was delicious and bold with raspberry taste!
We stayed in a Leanto and it was much cooler than I thought a glamping experience would be! I love camping, but throw in a tent big enough to stand in, a luxury bed, camping chairs, tables, umbrellas, firepit, water jug, coffee and lanterns and all the stress of packing goes out the window. Beau surprised me with a cheeseboard, my favorite snack/meal ever. We sat by the fire all night, reminiscing our favorite wedding memories.
It was very cold outside, but they provided us a hot water bottle heat pack and wool blankets so we stayed cozy in bed. After Beau killed a large spider, I slept like a baby (which is rare for the light sleeper I am).
Enough words, more photos... Keep scrollin'
Part 2, coming right up!