Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! We took advantage of the 3 day weekend to drive the 4.5 hours from Seattle to Walla Walla – Washington’s wine country. So why you ask am I showing a picture of an onion? Well, grapes aren’t the only thing this region is famous for and I’m sure many of you have already heard of Walla Walla onions! We drove past this onion field and I couldn’t resist not only snapping this photo but you guessed it, “repurposing” one of the onions. Yup, pulled it right out of the ground and threw it in my trunk. Had some in a salad last night and it was delicious!

I’ll post wine country pics tomorrow as I see my morning clock is ticking away – time to get moving!

Let’s see – who has the upper hand in this picture? Maybe the title should be Frankie and Allegro?
Either way, I like to interpret this photo (courtesy of my sister Lisa) as a cozy cuddle not the beginning of a wrestling match. But somehow, if you know most cats, it always turns out that way, right?!!!
They look ready for the weekend and so am I!!!!
Super cute kitties, thanks Lis!

Time to say good bye to Orcas Island. I really hope that anyone googling Orcas might stumble across Cozyland and become a little inspired at all the wonderful things to do on this island!
Or all the wonderful things not to do – meaning lots of R&R – taking walks, gathering stones on the beach…

The last night before we left we had dinner at the Outlook Inn’s restaurant the New Leaf. – this was Marc and my 2nd time there and also has a view of the water. The food at Inn at Ship Bay was definitely more interesting but New Leaf does not disappoint and Ryan had a really gorgeous vegetarian entree. Across the street from the hotel/restaurant is a little church with all kinds of flowers growing. While the guys were doing guy stuff that involved the words “wireless connection” (see below)…

Elizabeth and I were enchanted by all the flowers growing, wild and otherwise including my favorite, Lily of the Valley and had to bring a souvenir bouquet back to our hotel.

This weekend had everything we love – beautiful nature, cool critters, adventure, great food and wine, fabulous friends! We will be back! Next Marc and I check out Washington’s famous Walla Walla wine country – stay tuned!

And his name could have been Mr. Ed! Ok, you have to be a lot older than 20 years old to know what I’m talking about but on our way to Deer Harbor Marina for our kayaking adventure we passed by this beautiful white barn with this equally beautiful white horse. On the way home Ryan insisted we stop by and a good thing we did!

This horse was super friendly and so was his buddy! I probably would be happy too if I were a horse who lived on Orcas Island on a beautiful spread like this with a white barn! For us, just another magical moment on Orcas (and a great picture taking opportunity!)

Ever since I moved to Seattle I was dying to go kayaking. Somehow it took almost a year for this to happen and what sealed the deal was when John and Vinnie gifted Marc and I for our birthdays with a 3 hour kayaking tour on Orcas Island! They knew we were headed to the island for the 3 day Memorial Day weekend so the timing was perfect. They even contacted Elizabeth and Ryan to give them the heads up what they were planning so they could join the tour too!

Ryan never admitted what a pro he was – dang, was he fast – can you say Row-bo cop?

Our tour with Shearwater Sea Kayaks started at 1pm but somehow time flew that morning and after having 2% difficulty finding the place we got there just in the nick of time armed with bad sandwiches we had just bought at the dock’s local convenience store that we would have to gobble up just to tide us over (no pun intended?). Our group had about 8 people in it and after getting safety instructions and the general “how to kayak” drill off we went. We could not have asked for a more glorious day and the coast was absolutely green and gorgeous!

Next time I’d like to go at a more leisurely pace, I seemed to be rowing like a devil but this was a great experience and I would love to do it again – highly recommend this to anyone who has not yet tried it and has been thinking about it! The tour also gave all kinds of flora and fauna info as well as what critters were on the shores and info about other islands. Good news is we were all strapped in and did not get wet one bit – I was happy about that.

You’d think I would have wanted or needed to head straight to a bar after my kayaking experience but Orcas is all about nature and as we only had such a short time on the island we headed up to Mount Constitution for a scenic view and hike through the woods.

There are tons of different places to hike on Orcas and I wish we would have had more time to really do some exploring. That just means we’ll have to come back (which we will over and over again!).

At the very top of Mount Constitution (which you can easily drive) you get a spectacular view – that is if the clouds are cooperating which oddly enough, that day they weren’t! LIke a big bowl of pea soup so we drove down a bit and found this clearing.

This shot was taken on a previous trip – you really get a great view of the San Juan islands on a clear day.

Another great day on Orcas Island!

There are not too many restaurants on Orcas and even with that we did not have to go far to find one of – if not the best – right there in our very own hotel! The restaurant at Inn of the Ship Bay turned out to be not only beautiful but absolutely delicious! The menu was unique – truly fresh and local and I could have easily ordered one of everything!
Elizabeth and I both had this amazing fresh crab salad shown above – wow, a piece of art!
We love cute carrots!

What’s an island dinner without fresh oysters? Especially when you know the oysters are from the same waters you are surrounded by! Elizabeth, Marc and I shared this plate – we just couldn’t resist!
The citron mignonette on the side was especially good…

Elizabeth and I must have been on the same food wavelength that night – we both ordered the scallops and we both extremely happy that we did!

Marc stuck with the seafood theme and when this steaming bowl of bouillabaise full of local mussels and salmon was put in front of him he too was very happy. Vegetarian Ryan gobbled up some fresh gnocchi with vegetables.

It was not hard to demolish 2 bottles of wine, somehow I only remember the first – a very good Semillon by local vineyard L’Ecole 41 from the Walla Walla region of Washington.

Marc and I are planning a trip there soon!

No, this is not a Rorschach test – these are drawings by women who should not drink, dine and draw at the same time… (we kept a bit of a journal of our activities on Orcas to help us remember all of our adventures!). BTW, that is Elizabeth’s drawing of me on the left and mine of her on the right (in her signature black turtleneck). Marc added the pipe to Elizabeth’s mouth which I swear, she was not smoking – but I would not have been surprised if she had…!

Here is the view from our dining room table – look how peaceful and what a way to end a wonderful day! Hopefully we will all get a good night sleep (no cats to wake us up afterall…) we have a 3 hour kayaking appointment tomorrow and we better be in tip top shape! Stay tuned….!

Ryan just emailed us his shots from Orcas and wow, did he get some amazing pictures of that darned bald eagle. Too good not to pass along!!!

I guess you had to be there to really appreciate how cool this was! Ok, time to move on to what else happened on Orcas Island!