Exploring San Juan north in the rain

Delightful start to the day with a wonderful breakfast at the B&B. We were all geared up and in Friday Harbor right at 10 to get the bike at Island Bicycles.

They were running a bit behind so we spent some time in the gallery admiring a varied and high quality assortment of artworks by local artists. I especially like the glass pieces. The tandem we picked up is a Burley who’s clearly got some miles on him but will do just fine for puttering around the islands.

It was raining lightly when we headed out Roche Harbor road. About 4 miles down the road we passed the San Juan Vineyards but it was just a tad too early for a tasting.

Right across the street is the home of Mona the camel. Rather sad story as she has been raised in captivity and has had several owners but she looks pretty happy and did seem to be posing for pictures

Mona does have a llama friend but she seemed rather snooty

Traffic was very light but I can imagine that it is somewhat tense biking during the summer. The roads do have bike turnouts pretty frequently which are good for letting cars pass and for sneaking a pee in the woods like this guy did

(I was just checking out the interesting ferns along the roadside!)

Coming in to Roche harbor we stopped to take a look at the airport. First time I have ever seen this sign

The sculpture park at the entrance to Roche Harbor is fabulous! Luckily they had umbrellas which made the stroll much better. Here are a few of my favorites. Would have been more pictures if it had been a tad warmer and drier

We fumbled around a bit finding the actual village of Roche Harbor as there is quite a bit of home/cottage building going on there. This was the view of the harbor from the road where we overshot the turnoff to the village.

All very tasteful but does have a Disney like fakeness to it. Had a coffee and some food at the Lime Kiln Cafe. The cafe was on the pier over looking the harbor. The pier led back to the village and the old, now-restored Hotel de Haro.

Jeannie took a picture of these plants which were outside many of the houses. What are they?

We walked over to see the lime kilns and I was rather puzzled by these long pools of water until I saw the sign

Apparently they have water bocce on San Juan Island.

Next stop was the English Camp where we saw this gorgeous old tree. A close up picture looked to me like it had stories to tell

The camp has beautiful grounds. It was a British encampment during a territorial dispute between the US and Britain.

After English camp we headed out the West Valley Road and considered going to Lime Kiln park but decided to just head for home as the wind was starting to kick up and I will admit that I was thinking about that claw foot tub. Finally got a good picture of the Kirk house since it had stopped raining when we got back

We looked at the maps and guidebooks to plan out a dinner destination and our route for tomorrow while having coffee, coffee cake and strawberries during the afternoon tea at Kirk House. We then cleaned up for dinner – which involved a long soak in the clawfoot tub for Jeannie and walked through the monsoon (lots of wind but fortunately not too much rain) to a great dinner at the Bluff restaurant. We stopped at Kings (the major grocery and wine and liquor store) to get some lunch for tomorrow since there aren’t any stops along our route for snacks. After we returned the clock struck 9 and we both turned in to pumpkins.