Orcas Day 2015

I’ve been wanting to do a ferry ride to the islands with the family, but summer just flew by. We finally set a date and were able to get the ferry reservations we wanted, so we were off! Unfortunately, the beautiful summer decided to deteriorate on us for that one day, but we were so thankful whenever we got a break from the heat that we didn’t care that much. We didn’t get wet, and since we were hiking most of the time, we weren’t really cold either – in fact, the girls had their sweatshirts off most of the day!

We walked around the water’s edge near the ferry dock as we waited for the ferry. It was a foggy morning!

First we headed to the opposite side of the island from the ferry dock to Obstruction Pass State Park. We found a trail that led to a beach and we did some beach combing and rock climbing.

Then we headed up to Mt. Constitution…the original plan was for Sarah to run up Mt. Constitution while we drove…but we were already doing a fair amount of hiking and she decided it wasn’t the right workout for her that day. It was cloudy, but we could still see a fair bit from up there!

There’s a big tower with lots of steps you can climb up to get an even better view.

We did some more hikes in Moran State Park – the goal of the day was to create a “Lord of the Rings” experience – and the foggy weather definitely helped with the mood! All the mossy trails and rolling hills with roads named things like Enchanted Forest Road and Elderberry Lane, complete with the Gandolf-tower on Mt. Constitution, surrounded by evergreen trees…if you use your imagination the forests even feel magical! So on our next hike we were attempting to find a hobbit-like shelter, a troll-like stump, and some caves to remind us of the Mines of Moria.

Those two weren’t as enchanted by the fantasy experience, but we had fun!

We found the hobbit-like shelter AND the troll-like stump that someone carved a face in…but the directions for scrambling up the side to find the caves left us bewildered…

We sat and waited while Ed & the big girls went cave hunting, but they were unsuccessful.

We went on another hike that was supposed to have 4 waterfalls and we were going to assign each girl a waterfall, but we only ever found 3…so 2 girls had to share.

When we got back to Eastsound, which is the main town on the island, there was a white Episcopal Church that had a labyrinth walk we all wanted to do.

You’re supposed to pray & meditate…but we just ran around it being goofy.

After ice cream for dinner, we drove through some more island-rolling-fantasy-evoking hills, parked at the ferry dock (then had our real dinner of sandwiches, fruit, & chips from the cooler in the back of the van) and waited for our hour ferry ride back to the mainland. After that it was a 75 minute drive home…so we got back late and were tired, but it was a fun family day!