Ralph and I were fortunate enough to travel to Vancouver on August 11th.   The plan was to spend the weekends in Vancouver and take a road trip with Wendy and John to an unknown destination (although being told to bring passports was a bit of a clue).  We had a great time and got lots of visiting in with friends and family on the weekends  and saw the beautiful San Juan Islands and Seattle during the week.

This photo  of the Fraser River was taken from a picturesque spot in Richmond.  I liked how the plant  appeared to be growing out of the water.

John had seen this boat wreck and thought I might like to photograph it.  

We left Vancouver at 6.30 AM on August 13th.  We had to catch the  Washington State ferry from Anacortes at 10.30 AM and we weren't sure how long it would take to cross the border or how busy the ferry would be.  As you can see there was a very long lineup.  I walked way back to near the end of the line-up  to take this photo.  The two empty lanes were for a different ferry.

While we were waiting for the ferry I walked  down  to the shore to take some photos.  

Here is a map showing the route from Anacortes to Orcas Island with a stop at Shaw Island.   You can see just how close we were to Canada.

This shot was taken from  the ferry showing the landscape of the area.  The Islands seemed to go on forever-there  are actually 172 Islands, some being little more than rocks and over 300 miles of shorelines.  

A closer view of one of the  houses on an Island.  

This is the ferry landing on Shaw Island.  

This was the view  of Orcas Island as we got close to shore. 

After lunch we wandered around the town of Eastsound Village.  This was the view looking down on the beach.

I liked this cottage on the water- what a great view these people had.  

Here is another view overlooking the beach area.  

Wendy and I stopped quite a lot  to take  photos of flowers.  

A group photo (minus me of course).  Still strange to see Ralph in the photo without the girls.

The clouds started to dissipate which made for a nice view of the harbour.

Another view of  the Bay.  Notice how calm the water was.

I liked this old building in Eastsound and the garden in front of it.

After exploring East Sound, we stopped at Rosario,  the resort where we were staying and then headed up to check out Moran State Park.  The park is made up of lots of lakes and over 30 miles of hiking trails.   We drove up to Mount Constitution to see some panoramic views of the San Juans, Vancouver Island and the Cascade and Olympic Mountain Ranges.  Unfortunately the weather did not co-operate as the clouds rolled in so it was difficult to get clear views.

Here is a view looking down into the park.

I liked this moody looking view with the interesting clouds.

One of the better views but still not not clear enough to see the other Islands and Mountains Ranges very well.

We soon discovered that there  were deer everywhere on the Island since they had no natural predators.  We pulled over so I could try to get a picture.  Unfortunately there a were a lot of branches in the way.  I also  didn't have a telephoto lens so this image is heavily cropped.