From Gaijin to Gringo to Granola: Camping on San Juan Island

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Camping on San Juan Island

As one last hurrah before the start of school, Erik wanted to take a family camping trip. While on deployment, he continually had visions of setting up camp with his boys once he was home for the summer to make some memories. So! We loaded up the truck with gear galore and hopped on a ferry starting in Anacortes and destined for Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

After driving off the ferry and through the small town of Friday Harbor, it was about a 10 minute drive to Lakedale, a resort that offers campgrounds, canvas tents for glamping and log cabins. We got a spot right along the lake and set up the ol' family Coleman for a few days. We all had a nice time and the best part (other than lack of crowds post Labor Day): there was no cell reception. No text messaging, no emails, no aimless Facebooking. Just us. When the kids went to bed, Erik and I stayed by the fire, looking up at the sky, glimpsing shooting stars. In the nearby brush, a majestic (aaand kinda scary) owl swooped out 20 feet from us and flew on his way once I shone my headlamp on him. It was pretty cheesy and generic as camping could get; it was wonderful.

Lounging and s'moring.

Brother on marshmallow duty. Kudos to us as all meals were made over a campfire and a small charcoal grill. Related point: we also smelled like campfire for 3 days straight.

Starting the fire on a chilly morning.

Brother on firewood duty.

I forced my family to a nearby sculpture garden on the other side of the island and it was too much to handle. That's Landon looking defeated and bored on the long carving log.

Seriously - the sculpture garden and trails were so neat! You'd be walking through the forest and then there would some amazing and random artwork when you least expected it. Anders and I liked this dragon :)