Sorry I am not posting this real time, but I promise to get my act together. From our trip up north 8/6 – 8/14.

Another glorious week on Beach House in the San Juans. Glorious in terms of the weather and the fact CRAB season is open. I LOVE CRAB …it is the perfect food and so exciting to pull up the pots and have those mean crabbies come rushing at you.

The females are spared the trip to the dinner table as you can only keep 6 1/4 inch males. I am not really sure if I should share this but the dungness crabs in the San Juan Islands are far bigger and better than the dinky Oregon crabs. Okay, I said it but not to worried cause you really need a boat to get out there and get’em.

I told you they were monsters!!!

We had a nice cruise from our marina in Anacortes over to Westcott Bay which is on the west side of San Juan Island. Found a nice anchorage near the seafood farm (more on that later).

San Juan Island has some great history and was actually occupied by the the British and the Americans at one point as there was a major dispute over boundary and which country had possession of the islands. http://www.sanjuanweb.com/history/

We love the plethora of substance fishing to be done, the orcas and the acess to so some great hiking trails.

Charming Mitchell Bay is just a quick whaler ride around the corner from our anchorage so we took a cruise over there one afternoon to look at the event renovations and maybe say hello to our favorite whale watch charter captain – Jim Maya.

Crab dinner with a bottle of sparking Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Oh, and the view doesn’t suck either!

Lots of walking and hiking to be done in sound this area. We spent one afternoon doing a 4 mile RT walk to Roche Harbor. We could have easily taken the whaler around ro Roche but we needed to put in some miles to feel really good about our bottle of wine a night habit.

Scored the beautiful shrimp at the fresh seafood boat in Roche and the clams, mussels and oysters at the seafood farm in Wescott. Our last night in Wescott Bay we feasted on the grilled oysters and the other treasures went in a seafood paella the next night.

 

After 4 quiet nights at Wescott Bay, we pulled anchor and cruised over to Hunter Bay off the east end of Lopez Isand to meet friends on the “Pinch Me”.

More crabbing, kayaking, feasting and general dubauchery ensued f0r the next 4 days. I forgot to mention that Bentley and Sucia had a great trip too.

I will spare you the drudgery of us refueling the boat, pumping the head and vacuuming up all the crab shells and pet hair. Rest assured, it’s not all fun and games on the Beach House! I thought you would enjoy this final photo which I took of the young gal who captained the very popular mobile pump a pooper at Roche Harbor.

 

June 25…Wally’s last day of wearing the Intel suit (khakis and a polo shirt) rolled by in a blur as we rushed around frantically getting the Roadhouse ready for its first trip which also coincided with Wally’s birthday. Our destination was the Columbia Sun RV Resort in Kennewick Washington.

I am guessing many of you are wondering…why the heck Kennewick? Well, 37 wineries in 37 miles, golfing, bicycle trails, farmers markets, Walla Walla winery’s only 60 minutes away….are you getting the picture??? Okay, we have some great friends who offered to host a party at their place on Canyon Lakes Golf Course for the old retired dude. PLUS if that wasn’t enough reasons, it was a really easy drive from Portland in the Roadhouse…except the wind. But that’s another story!

The resort was beautiful and a some friends had the site all decorated when we got there.

We had a wonderful weekend with friends, visited some great winery’s and feasted on amazing food provided by Chef Steve and his dessert chef Leslie.

We did manage to squeeze a trip over to Walla Walla to visit some winery’s and of course we had to go to Wally’s favorite haunt from college, The Ice-Berg. Best burger , fries and shakes ever…ate so much we practically couldn’t even taste wine. Don’t worry we did make it to Isenhower, Beresan, Balboa and Basel Cellars.