Island Rainforest Vacation Fun!

Okay, so it was a day trip, and Lopez Island might not ever have been part of the Olympic Penninsula’s Hoh rainforest. But fun was definitely had by all yesterday!

We gathered up all our traveling stuff and made it to the 10am ferry in plenty of time, even after a stop at Krispy Kreme in Burlington for a dozen assorted. We spent a little time in the line at the ferry, watching some kids climb all over a pickup with tires taller than they were, and watching Cool Hippy Hair Woman with U.S. Government Plates talk on the phone in her pickup in line in front of us.

Once aboard the ferry Rona decided to try to take a nap in the car with Murphee, and I went upstairs to see what exciting things were going on. Saw Cool Hippy Hair Woman with U.S. Government Plates talking on the phone inside the ferry. Bought some amazingly non-offensive Starbucks drip coffee, and failed to notice that bad hot chocolate was available for Rona, who therefore got no bad hot chocolate. Sat, walked around, bought a Seattle paper, had a snack, and watched some Campscout Girls (or some kind of girls with matching shirts, anyway) conducting a scavenger hunt on the ferry. In the spirit of teamwork, the whole pack or den or gaggle of same-shirted girls seemed to be on the same team. So much for competition!

The ferry ride was a merciful 50-ish minutes short, so we soon enough found ourselves on beautiful Lopez Island.

Rona had warned me that passing drivers on Lopez will wave at you–for no reason other than to be friendly–as in not even to say "I can tell by your car’s stinky exhaust that you have a severe engine fire," or "city boy, you’re driving with your lights on in broad daylight." I found this to indeed be true. Soon I was waving at every car, house, cow, and horse we saw (and maybe a sheep or two as well), and they all waved back. No wonder they call Lopez the friendly island!

We traveled south from the ferry dock along the two lane roads, waving right and left, and coincidentally following Cool Hippy Hair Woman with U.S. Government Plates (chatting away on her phone), and soon hit a traffic jam. It seems that four rather large calves had declared that they didn’t need no stinking fences, and decided instead to go for a fun little jaunt along the road. Cool Hippy Hair Woman with U.S. Government Plates was all over the situation, however, and once we had crept past the cavorting bovines, she turned around, presumably to call a person about a cow.

The rest of the drive to Arlene and Allan’s was uneventful, and we finally gravelled to a halt in the beautifully tree-shaded area where their A-frame sits, overlooking Mud Bay. I wished that I had remembered my digital camera, because their A-frame is very cute, with brand-new rock-tiled floors throughout, heated (in the winter) by in-floor hot water pipes. From the eastward-facing windows they have a sweeping view of Mud Bay, which is much nicer than the name suggests.

Arlene had plenty of food on hand, and Al came home for lunch and to hang out with us. After lunch we helped Arlene set up her new Dell laptop, and I suffered much shiny new ‘puter envy. Murph was pretty antsy by now, so Murphee, Rona, and I hiked down to the beach with island dog Sheena blazing the trail. After a little trouble involving a missing stair and a scaredy-cat city doggie, we finally hit the actual beach a runnin’, and managed to trick Little Miss I Hate The Water into swimming a whole lot by "accidentally" (and repeatedly) tossing her ball into the ocean with the Chuckit.

Once Murphee was sufficiently wet and tired, we headed back up the slope to the house, Sheena leading the way. We watched some home movies (now on video) featuring fabulous seventies hair and clothing, ate more yummy food, and headed out to catch the 8:20 ferry. We waved our way along the island to the ferry without any cattle incidents, and after some waiting and people watching, boarded a much smaller ferry for the return trip to Anacortes. On the car deck, whom should we see but Cool Hippy Hair Woman with U.S. Government Plates? She quickly headed abovedecks, phone in hand.

We walked around the ferry and bought some not great ferry beverages, and talked for a while with a nice young rural Illinois couple and their one-year-old in the thankfully smoke-free smoking section at the fore of the boat. They had a nice midwest attitude that served to extend the friendliness of the friendly island, even as we headed back toward the rude realities of civilization.

After disembarking we ended up following Cool Hippy Hair Woman with U.S. Government Plates once more, and saw an amazing sunset. Had we had the camera I’d like to think we would have stopped to shoot the sunset, but we were on a mission to return back home, and who knows if we would have thought of it. Great sunset.

Somewhere close to Burlington, Cool Hippy Hair Woman with U.S. Government Plates took her leave, and the rest of our drive home was uneventful, after a terrific day in the San Juan Islands.