Island Hopping San Juans Day 3

Island Hopping San Juans Day 3
April 20

We spent our second full day island hopping.  We left early in the morning and rode front row in the ferry to Orcas Island.  We had a delicious breakfast in Eastsound at the Island Skillet.  Then we spent the rest of our time in Moran State Park.  It was one of the most beautiful places we saw during our trip.  We drove to the top of Mount Constitution, stopping at a couple of view points on the way up. We walked up to the top of the tower and enjoyed the view for a while.  Then we took a little hike to see Cascade falls.  There were a few different falls along the way, and they were all beautiful.  I wasn't up for big hikes, but we stopped a couple of times on the way down at places that looked pretty and hiked a little ways in each time.  We sat on the beach for a while on Orcas Island waiting for our ferry time.  I just relaxed while Matt went shell, creature, and crab hunting!

We only got to see Shaw Island from the ferry, but we continued on to Lopez Island and spent the rest of our day there.  It was small and flatter than the other two islands, but very beautiful too.  We ate dinner at an overpriced restaurant with mediocre food overlooking a beautiful view of the water.  Most things looked closed when we arrived.  You never know what will be open in the off season, especially on a little island, they just seem to open and close when they feel like it!  The nice lady at the Heavenly Fudge shop gave us the recommendation to eat at the Galley.  We liked her a lot, but we will choose differently next time!  Her much better suggestion was that with the amount of time we had left to drive down Fisherman Bay Rd, stop and see the very old, pretty church that is always unlocked on the way, and then hike to Shark Reef Park.  It was a hike through thick forest and trees, and a beautiful opening walking along the cliffs and water at the end.  We watched the sea lions and otters playing on the rocks and got to have a view of our lighthouse on San Juan Island from across the water!  By the time we finished this hike we were pretty exhausted and we needed to get back to catch the last ferry to the island where we were staying.  It ended up being almost empty, which was a fun experience.  The ferry workers kept playing jokes on us, having us drive around in circles, and then admitted that they are very efficient when there are a lot of cars and that they get thrown off when there are only a few!  We enjoyed our front row view of the sun setting on our way home for the night!