YakimaGulagLiteraryGazett

thinking that this vacation took place in Dalmacija, because the San Juan Islands look a LOT like the islands off Croatia. In fact, Anacortes one of the small towns, where you catch the ferry is a sister city to Vela Luka in Croatia and a lot of diaspora have lived in the region for a bit over 100 years. That is a whole nother posting!

The park service reservation LOOKED like it was for San Juan island, so the crew of us, my daughter, my son, her husband, and her two kids went on the Anacortes ferry to San Juan Island, where they told us, LAUGHING about it that we really were on LOPEZ Island, not SAN JUAN Island! So we sweated the absolute last ferry out. Mercifully the name of our party WAS on the signs but it was too late to actually check in. My son-in-law and daughter and son pitched tents while my son's girlfriend and I tried to keep the kids from doing too much damage. My son took them to the beach until high tide came in. Then his girlfriend and I helped fill air mattresses. It was late, we had very little food. Normally this level of razfukana-ness would NEVER happen on any camping trip with my daughter and son-in-law. The next day after a good sleep, we made a store run and got some food. Then much later my sister came, again on the last ferry but at least she knew which island! :)

My son-in-law gave us all crabs, NO NOT THAT KINDA CRABS! He is very good at finding crabs in their hiding places and there were lots of cute baby crabs, and he caught them for us all to hold and release. They were really cute, and we would hold them awhile, admire them and let them go. One had just lost it's shell to grow a new one. It was easy to see it's eyes looking at us. My grand daughter found a jelly fish. She injured the poor thing. She didn't mean to. Jelly fish are just very fragile. It was lovely. There were starfish. We all took some nice pictures. We had some nice weenie roasts and marshmallow roasts. I hadn't been camping since I was a little kid. Let me tell you changing in a bell tent is really hard if it is small! They called my tent 'the mother-in-law house' I took my C.D. player and listened to Kultur Shock and Dino Merlin quietly at night, while reading by the light of two flashlights, one wind up and one batter operated. I could have stayed longer.
The site I shared with my son and his very sweet girlfriend was right on the beach. In fact I went to the beach in my p.j.s the last night! :) It had a little drift-wood beach house.

Deer swim between the islands. We in fact photographed one deer, in someone's yard in Lopez Village. We also saw some Highland cattle and there was a guy wearing a utili-kilt at the Red Apple where we went for supplies. We did not discover the location of the free showers until the last day. The camp site itself did not have any running water. That was the only downside. Would I do it again? HELL YEAH!