{6july2011: weekend road trip part 3}

part 1
part 2


On our last day on Orcas Island we had grand plans for brunching, kayaking and relaxing, but we scratched the kayaking portion pretty early in the day. It turned out to be a pretty warm day and there wasn't anywhere to keep Darwin while we went out for 3 hours so we cancelled at the last minute. Instead we found an off-leash park in Eastsound where Darwin got to play with some new friends.

I have to say for a small little park I liked that it was a grassy field and not wood chips and dirt as a lot of dog parks are and there were lots of toys/balls all over the park.

We didn't stay at the park very long and instead went over to visit Darwin's bff Friday. Little did we know Darwin would be making a new bff.... Skeeter!

At first they were unsure of each other. Darwin didn't like that Friday had a new friend and Skeeter didn't like that another dog was at her house. But soon they were all over each other!

Skeeter even would take flying leaps off of Jason's lap to jump at Darwin.

They even relaxed together in the shade.

All in all it was a fun weekend trip up to Orcas Island. Coming back to "city life" took some adjusting after the slow paced island weekend.

{1july2011: weekend road trip part 2}

(holy cow its already July! we are being featured at Two Pitties in the City for their "how to be a tourist" series. Go check us out!)
If you missed part one of our weekend road trip, check it out here.
Finding a place to stay with a dog can be tricky. It get's even trickier when you have a giant dog! Luckily after a bit of Googling I found a bunch of dog friendly accommodations on Orcas and found one that sounded perfect for us. Once in a Blue Moon Farm is a working farm, but they also have a variety of lodging accommodations. We went for the smallest room (funny considering we have a really big dog), but I loved the name of the room (the secret garden room) and I figured we'd be so busy and wouldn't really be spending a lot of time there.
The farm had chickens, llamas, horses, and sheep. The chicken and llama enclosures were right outside our door. (It's probably good that Darwin got llama proofed during our hike a few weeks ago.)


The llamas were so funny. We'd watch them and they'd stand there and watch us.

And did you know llamas make noises? Here's a youtube video where you can hear the sound. I think that brown llama was the ring leader of the group. When he would towards us, the rest of them would walk towards us. And when he got the zoomies and ran in a few circles the other llamas (and sheep) followed him.

There were also horses on the farm. Darwin and a white one gave each other eskimo kisses.

Darwin and I also checked out this fenced enclosure that had 3 sheep and an old goat with a skin problem.

There's a forest area on the backside of the property that we could hike through.
It felt like we were walking through a scene Twilight. 

While the room wasn't very big, one of the best things was the little garden right outside the door. And though we didn't have a whole lot of time to lounge around, we were able to relax for a bit with some tea (coffee for Jason) and some reading.

It was funny to us how Darwin didn't react to any of the animal sounds (chickens clucking, llamas making their noise, sheep, roosters, ducks) but when she hears the dogs that live in the unit next to us going outside for potty breaks she has to alert us (single barks). 

{28june2011: weekend road trip part 1}

A few weekends ago we took a weekend trip up to Orcas Island for our friends wedding. (If you ever get a chance to visit Seattle, plan to give yourself a couple days to go up to the San Juan Islands, it's amazingly laid back and relaxing.)
To get to Orcas Island (or any of the San Juan islands) it's about an hour and a half drive north from Seattle to Anacortes where you get on an hour ferry ride to get to the island. The ferries to the islands can get really crowded, especially in the summer, so it's best to get there early.

View Larger Map
We took that advice and got up very early on a Friday (430am early - oi) so we could get to the ferry by 630am to get on the 730am ferry.
{is the ferry here yet?!}

We slept in the car as we waited for the ferry then slept the whole ferry ride over to Orcas island. Of course we got there so early (830am) that nothing was really open so we decided to head over to Moran State Park and do a little hiking. We were a little hesitant about a very serious hike (aka Jason's epic hike because a few days earlier I had fallen walking Darwin and sprained my ankle (no she didn't pull me, I just was walking and fell. ahahaha) and Jason was feeling a little under the weather so we thought we'd do something easy, so we opted for a mostly flat hike around Mountain Lake.

Of course as soon as Darwin saw the lake she had to bless it.

The hike around the lake was beautiful and so peaceful. We saw one other couple and their dog during the whole four mile loop.

After walking around the lake we made it back to the car and had a breakfast picnic on a bench next to the lake. Once we finished eating a bit (we didn't want to eat too much as we wanted to try Passionate for Pies in Eastsound) we started to pack up the car so we could drive to the top of Mount Constitution to check out the stone tower. Darwin was not ready to leave yet and would not come near us so we could leash her and stayed by the picnic table.

For a good 10 minutes she ran around keeping a good distance between us and her letting us know she did not want to go. I finally lured her back to me with a piece of salami (I was a bad dog mom and forgot to bring her treats) and we loaded her up and drove to the top of the mountain.
Of course we had to pop into the gift shop.

After picking up a few postcards we walked up a little hill to the stone tower.

Jason still wasn't feeling 100% so I went up the tower to check out the view while he hung out with Darwin on the bottom.

The tower isn't very tall, but from the top of it you can see almost all of Orcas Island and its surrounding islands and the surrounding mountains (they say on a clear day you can see down to Mount Rainer). It wasn't very clear while I was up there, but it was still an awesome view.
What I did see though were a couple of kids loving on Darwin, all while she kept her eyes on me.

By then I was hungry for pies so we headed to Eastsound (the main town on Orcas) and hunted down the pie shop. I love that they carry sweet and savory pies. We both tried a savory pie while Darwin watched us. hehehe

Of course since we were on vacation we had to let Darwin have a treat too and we found Lily, a little ice cream shop . Darwin, the spoiled girl she is got her own scoop of vanilla.

Since we were bad dog parents and didn't come totally prepared we stopped at the pet store, Pawki's to find some treats for Dar (always good to have treats on us for training).

Stay tuned for part 2 which will show the great little farm we stayed at!