Getting There

Orcas Island is not that far from Seattle. But the wait to get there is. I’m not talking about “the trip seemed so long because I could hardly wait to get there.” I mean waiting for ferries is what puts another hour or more on the trip. The drive is easy to Anacortes. But if you want to get on the ferry for the time you want, arrive early – esp. during the summer. It was just Pic and I. Cassie had to stay in Seattle for the first half of the day, so she was meeting up with us on the island later.

We got an express ferry. No stops between Anacortes and Orcas. Took under an hour.
There was so much scenery and talking about our plans that I didn’t even get out my usual ferry entertainment: deck of cards, crossword puzzle, book – although I briefly took out my crochet but was constantly looking up from it.

Here is a map of the island. Click on it to make it bigger. We were staying at Doe Bay, on the other side of the horseshoe from the ferry landing.

I was always surprised how fast we would get somewhere and then realize that it's not that big of an island to begin with - it's not like looking at a metropolitan map. Doe Bay is about 8 miles from Eastsound (I think that's right).

We stopped in Eastsound (the "commercial center") for lunch at Verne's. I love the fact that most restaurants serve breakfast until 2 or 3 pm. My people! So I got scrambled eggs and a great view for lunch:

Then we headed off to see The Legion of Terror, an improv group consisting of teenage boys. The performance was outside, near The Funhouse (imagine a smaller version OMSI or Pacific Science Center). We were just going to see the end of it - or so we thought. When we get to the door, there is an adult and a high school kid standing just outside. Asked about the improv. Turns out, they are part of the group and not only had it not started yet, it had been relocated to inside the Funhouse (apparently someone else had reserved the field for another activity). Pic is really good about introducing herself and finding out other peoples names and chatting with them for awhile. Something I am trying to learn from her. So we talked with John (adult leader) and Jake. John asked if we did any improv (I actually forgotten until later that for one semester I did do improv - I'm just so bad at it). I said no, but I worked at a theatre, which he actually had heard of. Later we realized that we looked kind of odd because while it is an all- ages-family-activity people tend to bring actual families. Here were two grown-ups without any kids.

We enjoyed the performance. The kids in the audience loved giving suggestions, even when it wasn't time to do so. I was very impressed when they had to do a scene in different styles and one of the styles was Shakespeare. They did a very good job.

See the bright orange in the picture below? I was told that this was phosphorescent plankton. When it gets stirred up, it glows. On warmer nights people go swimming in it, stirring it up so it glows bright. This was all told to me by a stranger I met on a beach.