Welcome to Lummi Island

Last weekend Josh and I had our 6th wedding anniversary. We have both been feeling pretty stressed lately and we wanted to get away for the weekend to relax and be together. When I found an inexpensive rental on an island with a population lower than our apartment complex (ok that is an exaggeration, but just barely) it sounded like the perfect place to unwind. We both took Friday off work so we could go up on Thursday night. If we weren't already convinced that we wanted to get away, the traffic in Seattle ensured that we did. Traffic was bad (it took us 40 minutes from the time we got on the on-ramp until we actually got on the freeway) and it was more than enough for both of us to want to flee the city for an escape on a quiet little island. Amazingly, even with the traffic, we still made our ferry. We pulled in line just as they started loading cars.  

There is only one store on the island which is aptly named "The Islander". It also doubles as a gift shop and movie rental store.

Our cabin.

I am standing on the deck to take the picture. The upper left window is where our bedroom was. The bottom left windows are the kitchen and it has an awesome view of the water. The cabin also had a firewood heated hot tub, which was really cool. Inside the cabin our main source of heat was a potbelly stove, which we would later learn was perfect for s'mores.

There is only 1 restaurant on the island, however it is apparently awesome and you have to make reservations more than 1 day in advance (which we did not do). We brought food for breakfast and lunch but we were planning on eating out for dinner. So on Friday after doing a bit of island exploration we got back on the ferry and headed into Bellingham to eat some dinner. The place we ate was right on the marina and had some pretty delicious food and great views of Bellingham Bay.

On Saturday we went on a little hike. The highest point on the island has no outward views (thanks to the dense forest that makes up most of this area) but there was a hike to a lookout just below the peak that offered a nice view of the sound and some of the other San Juan Islands.

There was one rather giant tree that was in the middle of the "view" from the lookout, so you have to look through the branches to the islands beyond. 

The happy couple.

From the lookout we saw 10-15 bald eagles. They were flying fast enough that they were pretty tough to get a picture of, but we tried. 

After the hike we explored a bit more of the island. We found a beach behind the local church that was open to the public. Nearly all of the beaches are private and few allow public access. 

We found this little guy and it took a bit of gentle poking before we were certain he was dead. He was surprisingly intact for being dead.

Attempting to skip rocks. 

For dinner on Saturday we decided to make due with what was on the island. We went to scope out The Islander and we were not disappointed. I mean, who doesn't want frozen pizza and s'mores for their anniversary dinner? :) It was actually pretty fun. When we bought the pizza we were unaware that the oven didn't work so we ended up cooking it on the stove in a big skillet with a bowl over the top as a lid. We had to finish it off in the microwave to make the cheese bubbly, but it worked way better than either of us thought it would. It was memorable to say the least. 

We checked out on Sunday and boarded the Whatcom Chief one last time.

On the way home were going to pass through Mt. Vernon and since we missed the tulips on our previous visit we decided to stop and see if they were still in bloom. They were...

So many colors!

Pantalones

Beautiful 

I don't like to repeat myself, but they really are beautiful. 

It was so awesome to get away for the weekend and enjoy being together. We slept in, we watched a movie on VHS...well, half of it. Then it died and we watched the rest on Neflix. We relaxed in the hot tub and we made pizza on stove top. It was a really perfect weekend. 

*On a side note, I was sustained today as the new Young Women's president for our ward. Here goes....