Well overdue post about Honeymoon in the San Juan's at Doe Bay

All the pics (here)

I have been meaning to writeup a post about our honeymoon, aka minimoon (it was Thursday - Sunday), in the San Juan's for weeks.  Well now that we just passed our one month anniversary I thought it was about time to sit down and make myself type.

I will post about the wedding as well but I am waiting to get our photos back from the photographers.  We had the time of our lives at the wedding but it was over before we knew it.  Monday rolled around and I had to go back to work for a few days.  I worked from Monday until Wednesday the week following the wedding and by the time Wednesday rolled around I was dying to get away and relax with my wife.  We headed out as soon as I got in from work Wednesday and were in Anacortes WA by 7 or 8pm.  We checked into our hotel for the night and were thrilled to be upgraded to a water view room with a hot tub.  We took the front desks suggestion on where to eat and headed downtown to a cool brew pub.  I can't remember the name.  The beer was good but the music was excellent.  They had a local bluegrass band playing and we had a great time kicking back and listening.

After a lazy breakfast we woke up Thursday morning and got on the ferry around 10.  I was exhausted from the wedding and work and took the ferry ride as a great opportunity to catch a little nap.  We got to the San Juan's and were greeted by low clouds and a nice drizzle.

The whole weekend the weather switched between rainy, cloudy weather and then the sun would pop out for a while.  The rain storms were a great opportunity to open up the front door on our little water front cabin, and read.

Thursday night we headed over to open mic night which I thought would be very lame.  I mean open mic night /pizza night on a tiny island?  How lame....  Well it was awesome!  We got take out pizza because the restaurant was too full for us to sit down.  The pizza was amazing.  After eating our pizza and washing it down with a little wine in our cabin we walked back over to check out the music.  For such a tiny place there sure was a lot of musical talent.  Most of the singers worked at the restaurant and were really impressive.  One guy had a business on the island of making ukuleles.  He play a few tunes that were really cool.  We had one strange dude sing songs about dogs.  He was pretty proud that when you search google for dog songs he was one of the first few hits.  A great mix of people and it was over way too soon.

Friday we woke up to some really nice weather and decided to get out for a hike.  We headed to a nearby lake and took a nice leisurely 4 mile hike.  The trail wound around the lake and it was a great time.  We headed back in time to catch the afternoon showers.

Saturday we had a reservation to go kayaking.  The best part was we would start right at Doe Bay so we did not even have to get in the car.  Well we woke up and could not see 5 feet outside the window.  Luckily the fog cleared a bit before our time to go out and we had a blast.  The fog socked things in so you really felt like the place was remote.  All sound was muffled so all you could hear was your paddle in the water.  We saw a few seals, a jelly fish the size of a basketball (seriously it was huge), and a ton of starfish.  What a great time.

I am missing a ton of things but you just have to go to Doe Bay yourself to see them.  It is an amazing place.  Natalie and I recently have been thinking of how we live to extremely different lives.  When we are home we have busy jobs, a fun busy city full of things to experience.  It seems like there are always people to see and friends we have not caught up with in too long, phones ring too much, and we are always running around.  When we go on vacation we tend to go off the grid.  Backpacking or going to a resort with no phone service, and yurts, or high camp where you have to be snowmobiled in or something just as basic.  It is great to live in a place where we can experience all that a city has to offer and at the same time be out in the middle of nowhere.