Orcas Island Cozy

April and May were a whirlwind of activity culminating in spending Memorial Day weekend with our most fabulous friends Ryan and Elizabeth on Orcas Island. Orcas is right across the water from Lummi – almost like it’s big brother – similar personality, a bit more sophisticated and much bigger (in fact, the largest of the San Juan’s)!

So where to begin? Arriving Friday night from Los Angeles we picked Ryan and Elizabeth up at SeaTac and whisked them off to South Lake Union for dinner at one of Tom Douglas’s restaurants Serious Pie. Some of you may remember this is where we spent John’s birthday and not only is it a great place to take a vegetarian (Ryan) but it’s just plain delicious and real food!!! Everyone (well, except Ryan) was jealous of my fennel sausage pizza – I told you guys it was the BEST!
The next morning we were up with the chickens – we had a ferry to catch! Our hotel had warned us of long Memorial Day weekend lines and with the minimal ferry schedule we did not want to miss the 10:30 depature. If we did, the next boat out wouldn’t get us to Orcas until 4pm. Better make that an extra shot in my latte thank you!
The ferry for Orcas departs out of Anacortes. This is about an 1.5 hour drive from Seattle. To take your car on is not cheap – for 4 of us total cost with dar $80 but at least this is round trip.

Some of us called the deck of the ferry refreshing, others thought it was just plain chilly! As you can see, the sun was also still waking up….

Violin Virtuoso – a bit like out of a Fellini film as this woman serenaded us on deck to the rolling tides and screeching seagulls……

Shortly after landing (a beautiful 5 minutes drive?) we pulled up to our hotel. I have to say we really lucked out with our choice of the Inn at Ship Bay. It has a comparatively pretty webiste but even that didn’t do it justice! A small hotel on beautiful grounds a small orchard of (fruit trees, big herb & vegetable garden) with an amazing restaurant perched on the cliff overlooking the ocean. Gorgeous!

Who has time to unpack? We were starving so we headed immediately into the little village of Eastsound (about 2 minute drive from out hotel and later Elizabeth and I would eventually easily walk it).

Saturday is Farmer’s Market day but first things first – a yummy lunch at Enzo’s Gallery Cafe. Now, without grumbling stomachs, we could explore the market and some of the local shops.

Love the hand chalked sign and slogan of Maple Rock Farms – Know your farmer. Know your food.There are lots of farms on Orcas including Black Dog below which we hope to explore on the next trip!

Eastsound has lots of beautiful small town charm!

We wandered into the home section of Tres Fabu (a local clothing and accessory boutique) and could have easily come out with a handful of stuff…the island version of Anthropologie! Inside-

And out…

New use for an old chair – love it!

I’m always searching for my favorite card store and I can now easily say it is Darvill’s Bookstore on Eastsound. Yes, they have great books in this small but charming store but their card selection is fantastic and I found myself snapping up cards left and right – love having a stash of great cards ready to go and none of that last minute panic trying to find the perfect card.

Marc and I had had ice cream from this “truck” the last time we were on the island and I’ll seriously never forget how fresh and delicious the berry flavor I had was.

Darn it why did I have to be too full from just eating lunch???…oh well, another reason to return to Orcas!!! Or maybe we’ll see it again tomorrow?
Time to move on to the next part of day 1 on Orcas. To be continued!