A Weekend Away

This past week was Doug's birthday, and so to celebrate we set off for Orcas Island which is part of the San Juan Islands here in the Pacific Northwest. In case you aren't familiar with the San Juan Islands I'll give you a little geography lesson before I go into more details about our trip.(And I promise I am not trying to sound like a know it all..I found out most of this stuff very recently!)

Anyway, Orcas Island is part of the San Juan Islands (as I stated earlier) and is actually the largest island in the over 300 Islands that make up this group. The second largest is San Juan Island. The Washington state ferries only visit 4 of the islands - Shaw, San Juan, Orcas, and Lopez. The other islands are either privately owned or are protected as wildlife refuges by the government so of course the ferries can't really dock at any of these. However, you can visit most of the islands if you rent a boat and set sail!
Each island is very unique in both geography and wildlife and so it's really neat to explore as many as possible. Doug and I have been only to San Juan Island, so we were totally pumped to be headed to Orcas for the weekend!
Anyway, on to the trip:

After a 30 minute ferry ride (which was absolutely beautiful!) We checked into our B&B- The Inn on Orcas Island. I highly recommend it for any of you going to Orcas for a visit. The rooms were so cute, the food amazing, and you have access to the Inn's canoe and bikes to explore the area with. Here's a pic of the Inn:


Then, Doug and I set off to explore all that Orcas had to offer:


First, we went to Moran state park where we got to hike around this goregous lake...





Then we headed to the top of Mt. Constitution which is the highest point on the island at over 2000 feet. Here are some views from the top..




Then we got to kayak in the Puget Sound where there was a ton of sea life!



A group of seals sunning themselves on some rocks..we were literally like 10 feet away..so cool!



We found these starfish just hanging out..I never knew there were purple starfish! Go figure..


Anyway, that's just a few of the awesome things we got to do. I would post all of the pics but frankly, I am kind of blogged out now- plus, I don't want to bore you..=) So all in all, it was a good birthday for Doug (If I do say so myself!) And not to sound like the tourist department for Orcas Island, but seriously- you should go!

Update....

Things have been so crazy the last few months that I have not really had the chance to update our blog!

Anyway, I am back after an extended absence and am ready to enter the blogging world again...

This past weekend my friend Rachel and I had the opportunity to run a half marathon here on the island. It was the first one for both of us and we did decently well since considering we didn't really train as we should have...(oops!)

Here are some pics from the main event:

Rachel and I near the finish of the race...My legs were so tired I couldn't feel them anymore!

We were so excited we did it! Plus, we got these awesome medals that I plan on wearing every day for the rest of my life...(medals go with everything right?)

Rachel, Me, Tree, Anne and I all pose for a pic after the race....Tree also ran the race and cheered us on as did Anne...who was a great support on the last hill!

My biggest fan....Couldn't have done it without him!

Overall, it was a great but challenging race..(there were a ton of hills!) I had a blast though and am going to start training for my next half in July! (AAAH!)