Friday Harbor

Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of the San Juan islands, or Friday Harbor. We are so glad we have become acquainted.

A few years ago on a tour of Italy and Greece, we struck a friendship with an American couple who live in Vancouver, and at times in Bellingham, just about on the US and Canadian border. They have dual Canadian and US citizenships, and these days that seems a good decision, especially if, like them, you were born in and escaped from Iran. They met and married in the United States, and are now retired in this beautiful part of the world – the Pacific North-West United States and British Columbia. Anyway, Nadia suggested a few good areas to go to, and I was intrigued by Friday Harbor, the main village on San Juan.

We picked up our hire car on Saturday morning. It is a very nice little Ford C-Max Hybrid. We navigated our way carefully onto the freeway, the Interstate 5 that goes from Mexico to Canada.  Jen did not cope well to being on the right hand side of the car without pedals or a steering wheel, so she made up for her lack of actual control, with virtual control, screaming terrified warnings and directions. I thought I managed quite well. The plan was to get off the highway and head for Anacortes, the ferry terminal for San Juan, via Whidbey Island, a longish island sitting just off the coast of Washington. It too needed a ferry, and there was quite a wait till we were able to board the ferry for the short trip across to Whidbey. Whidbey is mainly rural, and very pretty countryside, so our (Jen’s) nerves were a bit more settled by the time we got to Anacortes. We had taken the precaution of pre-booking our ferry spot to San Juan, and that was a rare wise decision, as the ferry was full.

San Juan and Friday Harbor is one of those places not seemingly well-known to folks from other places. It is closer to Victoria than mainland Washington, and it is connected to there by ferry and sea plane.

What a delightful place. Friday Harbor is the main port and town of the island. It has about 2,200 people, but is well supported by tourists. The folks we spoke to seemed to have been either born there as third generation San Juanians, or come for a holiday and never left. We tried the fare at the  Cask and Schooner Pub and were not disappointed with our fish and chips. We, at least I, appreciate Americans’ good sense with appropriate table arrangements and provisions.

We felt a bit guilty about not having been to church for a couple of weeks, so we asked our landlord if there was a local church. It turned out he had been the pastor of a local church but retired, as he said, to earn a retirement living. He seems to have managed well, as he owns 12 of the holiday units where we were staying with AirBnB. Interestingly, he only mentioned and recommended two “community churches” but we later noticed a Presbyterian building on main street – which is where we went. We had a great time of fellowship with the good folk of Friday Harbor Presbyterian which in such a small population has a strong congregation, a minister (Dr Joe) and lots of activities. We were made very welcome. People seem genuinely astonished that people would come from Australia to San Juan. But we got some good recommendations for things to do and see.

The next couple of days we just pottered around the island. There was Roche Harbor – a tourist resort sort of place with a fleet of yachts to match anywhere in the world; a winery with a pretty good selection; lavender farm; whale watching. There is a whale research station which plots the movements of various orca pods though the nearby waters. We happily got lost on many occasions, but every journey led somewhere interesting and profoundly beautiful – lakes and hills, windswept plains, mountains and forest, with pretty lanes, and of course farms and the odd small settlement.

It is quite a prosperous community, as evidenced by the marinas and private moorings. I only once was brave enough to broach the subject of “The President”. This was with our host, and for a smart person, he is lockstep with Mr Trump on every level – health, climate change, immigration. Well, maybe he is not so smart after all, considering this island would be under threat with rising sea levels. We chose to agree to disagree.

I doubt we will ever return there but recommend a few days there for our friends who may be visiting the Pacific North West.

Our next port of call is Vancouver where we have another AirBnB apartment – in North Vancouver – and will visit our friends Iraj and Nadia.