Romantic Washington: the San Juan Islands

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

 

Despite their proximity to each other, the San Juan Islands are surprisingly diverse. 

Everyone seems to have heard of San Juan Island, the busiest of the three major islands. Friday Harbor, the biggest town on the islands, is the first stop there on the Anacortes ferry and watching the ferry come in –and leave -- is a strangely soothing start to vacationing on the San Juans. It sets the pace. It suggests visitors may be on a journey, the cares of the frantic life left behind. Indeed, if you are confining your vacation to Friday Harbor you don’t need a car. San Juan Suites is a good location in town, a block from the ferry and a block from the Whale Museum, above Pelindaba, a small bakery. It’s owned by a former journalist married to a retired physician. They own the lavender farm outside town.

Hungry after the sea breeze? Try Downriggers for fresh seafood; it overlooks the harbor and if the mainland Red Hat Society has come that day for lunch commandeering the tables you can follow locals to the Backdoor Kitchen, a cozy, multiethnic, organic restaurant with great curries two blocks deeper into town.

Dinner choices include Friday Harbor House whose dining room has the most romantic view in town, and Duck Soup Inn, a gourmet, country restaurant four miles into the woods (call 360-378-4878 for reservations and directions). At the only restaurant on the island with a sunset view, McMillin’s at Roche Harbor, you can enjoy both 28 day-aged prime rib and the resort’s sunset flag salute to Canada, Great Britain and the United States started between the two latter countries -- visit both American Camp (six miles southeast of Friday Harbor) and English Camp (nine miles northwest) or ask any locals in town for the story of the famous “Pig War.” Such visits are classic for any San Juan stay, as is getting your vacation portraits taken on location by island photographers Marie and Ron DiChristina, or wandering around the Westcott Bay Sculpture Park where more than 100 sculptures sprawl over 20 acres of parkland. Says Kay Kammerzell, the park director, “Art in the outdoors opens our eyes aesthetically, first to the art then to nature itself.”

Nature is appreciated, too, on little Lopez Island, Carole Coffelt, lodgings owner of Bay House and the Garden Cottages explains why Lopez is special: “Views, sunsets, tranquility, privacy, simplicity. We’re all former hippies. Lopez is what the San Juans used to be.”

They’re not unsophisticated at Lopez Island Vineyards on the ferry road. A bottle of the wine that won the Los Angeles County Fair Gold in 2004 stands below other awards the oldest winery in the county has won. If you’d like a cinnamon bun to go with your wine head for the village, four miles from the ferry, and join the throng at Holly B’s bakery. It’s an island tradition. For dinner, walk a few steps to the Bay Cafe for tasty seafood and magnificent views of this 30 square miles island.

Orcas Island, the third tourist island, is actually bigger, 57 square miles, than San Juan’s 55 square miles and probably as well known. It’s upscale as you find as soon as you check into the Inn on Orcas Island in Deer Harbor and feel you’ve stepped into the pages of Architectural Digest. It’s all beautiful antiques, attractive art, working fireplaces, inviting jacuzzis, down comforters and indulgent breakfasts. You won’t want to leave.

There are lunch choices at Orcas Village, Deer Harbor and Eastsound Village but for dinner make for The Inn at Ship Bay in a restored 1869 farmhouse or the Rosario Resort in the original Moran Mansion, now listed on the National Historic Register.