Monday, June 20, 2011

Guemes Island Weekend Vacation

Holy smokes. I just got home from two of the best days I've had in longer than I can count.

I am a serious sucker for weekend vacations in/near/around the Seattle area. While usually my tiny car gets loaded up with a tent and an assortment of fleece clothing- this trip was based around a resort (we are so fancy). Guemes Island Resort is the only place to stay on Guemes Island (aside from rental homes) and the tiny sweet yurt that we rented out was charming beyond measure. Guemes Island is a quick seven minute ferry ride from Anacortes and with one general store, a fire station, the resort, and a very small mountain- it's one of the least visited (and least expensive) populated San Juan Islands. And I am crazy, madly in love.

Heading out after work, we just barely missed our intended ferry and had to hang out in the parking lot for a bit. Amy promptly broke my binoculars and we managed to spread all of our food/clothes/gear into a ten foot radius out the back end of the car.


Our first night on the island was fairly uneventful- we made friends with a few people staying in the cabins and coerced them into sharing their grill with us. Sneaky.


On Friday night the four of us decided to turn off our cell phones and not look at watches or clocks for the rest of our stay. It didn't work perfectly well, but for the most part we had no solid idea of what time it was. Saturday morning was this glorious combination of waking up and falling back asleep and lying in bed listening to the rain come through the trees.


Once up and moving, we did a bit of exploring around the resort, and then headed out for our big adventure. Driving a whole four (or so) miles to the Guemes Mountain trail head. It was a quick hike to the top, and the view was pretty phenomenal. I should note that the entire island was full of slugs. It was non-stop slug action the whole weekend. There were also appearances by caterpillars, snails, and tiny crabs. Non stop!


That night we put on our bras and clean jeans and rolled into Anderson's General Store for drinks, dinner, and a  performance by Pretty Little Feet. We thought we were so hilarious, closing down the place at 8:30 pm. Better watch out.


Sunday morning was a bit lazy and slow moving, but once we rolled our little butts out of the yurt we headed down to the resort office and checked out their (free!) kayaks for a few hours. We paddled to nearby uninhabited Jack Island and spent a good chunk of time looking under rocks and making sure Amy didn't break any of her body parts.


Before leaving Guemes we spent some time back at Anderson's, drinking tea and watching the ferry go back and forth. Convincing ourselves to finally get in the ferry line took a bit of strength. I'm ready to go back right now.

3 comments:

Kim said...

What a great trip! That place looks fantastic and is definitely getting added to "my list."

Karla said...

That looked like a lovely place and yurt!

Stina G said...

Looks gorgeous! That last photo is so beautiful. Everyone keep stalking about their little weekend getaways lately and its making me really antsy to go on one myself!

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