Tired. About to leave Orcas for a few days to explore Lopez, San Juan and Vancouver island in the morning. However, I wanted to put up some pictures and text of our stay.


For the last couple of days this has been our home. Our great hosts, Carl and Beth, have let us use their trailer tent while on Orcas. A lot roomier than our REI tent for sure. They live on an amazing bit of land at the YMCA camp. When we first rode up here, I couldn’t believe just how beautiful it was.

This photo is a few minutes after meeting Carl. We followed him up the hill to the farm house. On the way we crossed paths with some camp kids riding horses. Just a normal commute for Carl.

Laura and I get a tour of the YMCA and I get to have the camp experience I never had as a kid.

I found some Spanish Chorrizo at the local market and gather some ingredients (Penn Cove mussels, halibut, vegetables, etc.,) and we have paella around the fire pit in their yard. After dinner we sit around and talk. Horses walk around us. The sun goes down and the sky turns a rich purple and I’m reminded of how fortunate we are.

We are leaving Orcas for a few days to explore the other islands, but we’ll pass through here again before we finally leave the Pacific Northwest and start heading south. What a magical stay it has been here!