San Juan Islands

It all started after the first bottle of wine and got increasingly rowdy from there. Wow - what a night at the bayside campsite and town karaoke bar on Lopez Island. It was hard crawling out of the tent this morning, but I'm used to it at this point.

Still we hit the water before noon and were bid farewell by a bald eagle perched on a channel marker leaving Lopez sound. The rest of the day we made our way slowly along the contours of the map to a small cluster of protected islands in the north of the archipelago called the Wasp Islands - a sanctuary for seals and seabirds.

It was wonderful to be out kayaking on the salt water. We passed through strange rip currents off rocky headlands where the tide created rapids like a river. Through shipping lanes busy with boat traffic and along quite inlets where seals hauled up on the rocks to sunbathe. We saw much wildlife - a family of otters hunting clams along the surf line, harbor seals that would pop their heads up by the kayak, eagles perched on tall pines and chattering kingfishers dive bombing tiny fish while the smooth fins of porpoises broke the water off our bough.

That evening we finally made it out to the Wasp Islands hauling the boat out between the driftwood. I wandered around the island before dusk to snap photos. It was a mesmerizing place in the soft light. Curly red madrone bark peels from twisting branches. Golden tall grasses wave down hillsides to the sea. Bull kelp undulates in the soft waves of the bay. And the erie cries of baby seals break the silences...

As the sun set a curious thing happened unique to this region. The sun suddenly lit up the islands in creamy orange silhouettes of light as it sunk under the cloudy western horizon. Like a gorgeous panoramic light show to celebrate our day. Natural magic!