Ah yes… Tuesday. Today we all piled into the car and headed for the San Juan Islands. Shaw island in particular. Shaw is one of many smaller islands in the Puget Sound and they are a main tourist attraction in the summer. We arrived after the hour and a half journey at the ferry dock at Anacortes and loaded on shortly after leaving my uncle jon behind because he has this thing called a job and couldn't get away. As we stood on the balcony seals and dolphins were surfacing and I spotted numerous of each species. Those ferries were giant. I was shocked to see like four semis drive onto it. There were also 2 decks for passengers and copious amounts of outside walking space. I had to resist the urge to go to the tip of the ship and do a titanic style pose on the railing. The ride out to Shaw was beautiful. We passed many islands of all shapes and sizes. It was pleasantly sunny out and I got some great pictures. The ferry made a few pit stops at one or two other islands, losing and accruing passengers at each destination. We finally arrived at Shaw and were greeted warmly by Kay Miller, a wonderful lady and ---insert relation---

. she drove us out to her waterfront home in her jeep down winding roads through the many beautiful trees and views we encountered on the way. As we pulled into their driveway she pointed out the house that her husband and his sons were building for someone else and it was incredible. We pulled up to the house and were greeted inside by a little super hyper dog whose name I cant spell (chabo?) and I got to meet Roman. I immediately fell in love with the house. I felt so homey and the decorating was very well done. After we got settled I made a dash for the door and out to the woods to do a bit of hiking before supper. I loved the trees and immediately I looked to my right and there was a young black tail deer starring at me. There would be many more of those encounters. I made the loop on the logging road trail and was back inside just in time for supper. We had a wonderful meal of lasagna that some Roman and Kay's children -Heidi, Carl, and Matt- came over for and we all sat and had some very interesting discussions about everything from South Africa to sweet corn to "glyconutrients". The siblings left one by one and we all finally went to bed for the night. I asked to get woken up as early as Roman got up so I could go hike and then Kay suggested to me that I go on the mail route with Carl. I agreed and was up by 6:30 and was at the dock waiting to hop in his boat by 7. But I didn't see him and went home only to return a short while later with his cell phone number in hand. (cells don't work until you are near the dock) I found him by the ferry entrance and after he docked and dismissed the ferry we headed off to another island to retrieve the mail. We encountered no stereotypical rain, snow, hail or sleet- only an absolutely jaw dropping sunrise that I was pleased, to say the least, to get a few photographs of. On the island Carl drove off to get the mail and I hiked a bit up the small road and he returned in a bit with a full load of boxes and letters along with a stack of magazines and catalogues. We motored back on over to our island and I headed back to the Millers cozy home. We only had a short time until our ferry left for Friday Harbor on Orcas Island so I got another quick hike in with David after a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and eggs, and then we shipped off to Orcas. Upon arrival I noticed a full harbor of sailboats and every kind of motorized boat. We hopped off and were demoralized to find out that the island bus transit closed down. However, we went to an information station and found out that we could rent a car for less than it would have cost to take the bus so the lord had had our plan B organized before we even got there. We took off in the car, no less that 10 minutes later, and made our first stop at the Limestone Kiln Park where we had our lunch amidst the cry of seagulls and view of the crystal clear water below. We strained our eyes for a glimpse of a killer whale or two but there were none to be found. After our refueling, we headed over to Dead mans bay where we gathered up driftwood, stones and got to sit in the large shelter made from driftwood entirely. Our hike then continued back to the car where we then took off for Roche Harbor. There, we got to walk down around the probably million dollar boats and see the harbor. We then finished our loop back at Friday Harbor and took the ferry back to Anacortes. The ride back took an hour and a half-ish and I got some much needed rest on one of the many benches inside. As we pulled in, uncle jon was on shore waiting for us and we headed home. On the way back there was an incredible storm and I saw some of my first Seattle lightning. What was very cool was on the left side of the highway was a black storm with a double rainbow and on the left was the bright sunset casting rays through the clouds. Quite the beautiful clash of counterparts. we got home and I crashed.