The hiking trip was fun! We hiked around Mountain Lake in Moran State Park. We tasted rose hips (bland), wild grapes (sour) and gooseberries (delicious!) as wells as some greens. We saw banana slugs. Nat had baked some blackberry scones the night before for us that we ate at the end of the hike — very yummy.
After our hike Wednesday we visited Orcas Moon Alpacas and had a wonderful farm tour, meeting the alpacas (who snorted on me, not spat, just snorted), the chickens (I want chickens!) and Badger the Giant Flemish bunny. I bought 2 skeins of some very pretty & soft alpaca (from Minnie)/merino/bamboo blend to use with the skeins I got at Warm Valley.
The kayaking trip around Sucia Island on Thursday was lovely, very easy paddling & so pretty. We saw harbor seals, river otter(s), beautiful purple starfish, some orange starfish, a sunstar (?) (many arms), chitons, green anemones, a kingfisher….Jesse, our guide, was a total sweetheart, very patient & knowledgeable. The sandstone formations reminded me of the formations you can see in Utah.
I’d definitely recommend both Natalie/Gnat’s Nature Hikes and Shearwater Kayaking.
We ate dinner Thursday night at Chimayo in East Sound — very tasty! (Please note that the review is a bit old — they do have table service and they do serve alcohol — I had a glassy of sangria. But it’s the best link I could find for the restaurant.)
I finished my Rivendell socks and cast on for my second Double Diamond sock (which I should finish this holiday weekend).
Friday morning we caught the ferry back to Anacortes then drove into Seattle. We found parking downtown (expensive), walked around Pike Place Market, had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch at Beecher‘s, and then walked to Pioneer Square and back, stopping for coffee at Ancient Grounds and browsing the various bookstores. (The Seattle Mystery Bookshop was my favorite — I bought Kat Richardson’s Underground, signed, there.) We had dinner at Le Pichet — very tasty — we shared a butter lettuce green salad with hazelnuts, then I had pork sausage & cherries over greens, Dave had hazelnut crusted lingcod.
We definitely want to go back !