Jaunt to Orcas Island
- Jul 28
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 2
Five stars. (★★★★★)
Again, I failed to take enough photos. Was I living in the moment? Was I too fatigued heading into the trip to add extra tasks? Who can say? (It was the second one.)
It was a really lovely trip, starting with a perfect summer evening dinner with Elizabeth at Stoneburner on the same property as Hotel Ballard, then Saturday breakfast at Sabine. I got to see Elizabeth's charming home, walk around the nearby neighborhoods, pop into the office and finish with lunch at Red Star Taco Bar. The Ballard area reminds me of the Minneapolis lake neighborhoods; it's easy to see why Elizabeth and Paul love it here. Sadly, not a single photo.
From there, the Cabibbos picked me up for our Orcas Island adventure. As novice ferry passengers, there were a few things we could tweak for next time - but we made it. We arrived at Rosario Resort late Friday night, weary but intact. Our time on Orcas was lowkey, low pressure and flexible, just what I needed. The whale watching boat tour was longer than anyone expected, including the crew - five hours and 100 miles - but we saw whales! We dined and bought souvenirs at Eastsound, walked around Moran State Park enough to say we did it, and generally played by ear. Morning coffee in my room overlooking the water was soul-soothing, even when I was catching up on work. On the last night we had a gorgeous full moon over the water.
With a little extra time before our flights home, we stopped by Lighthouse Park in Mukilteo and Ivar's on the water for lunch.
I'm thankful to the Cabibbos for letting me tag along and putting up with me, it was so nice.
