Art, history ... and ice cream!

Exploring San Juan Island

For breakfast today we decided to go to the Cheesecake Bakery where we had enjoyed lunch yesterday. The coffee was pretty good, the muffins also, and we enjoyed having the view of the water and boating activity. Another bonus here is fast wifi, so we were able to catch up properly on messages and emails after the challenges of trying to get, and stay, online at the Nichols Street apartment.

San Juan Islands Sculpture Park

The plan today was to see something of San Juan Island beyond Friday Harbor. The weather had started dull and there was some light rain as we drove towards our first destination, Roche Harbor, in the north west of the island. But as we parked at the San Juan Islands Sculpture Park on its outskirts the rain stopped, and it wasn't long before the weather started to get a little brighter.

The sculpture park is run entirely by volunteers so doesn't charge an admission fee as such, but does ask for a $5 donation per person, which is definitely merited. Not only is the collection extensive (over 150 pieces of sculpture in a wide variety of styles) but it is displayed in a pretty setting, with paths winding through wooded areas, past ponds and so on. Here are just a few of the pieces that particularly caught my eye:

One of my favourite exhibits was a group of pottery jars inspired by prayer wheels. Visitors were encouraged to write something of meaning to them (a name, a quotation, a prayer, a thought) on pieces of paper provided and to place them in one of the jars before spinning it. I videoed them in motion, and also another of my favourites:

Prayer Wheel sculptures

In addition to photographing, and videoing, the art work, we enjoyed seeing the barn swallows nesting in the entrance area and gulls splashing around on the pond.

Dotted around the park there are also a number of poems, all written by the same poet, D. M. Jenkins. These are pseudo-philosophical in nature and made us smile - here's an example:

[reproduced just as it appears on the sign, punctuation included]

Roche Harbor

From here we continued into Roche Harbor. I had expected this to be another town, like Friday Harbor but smaller, but we found instead a sprawling upscale resort village with a marina, smart hotel and cottages to rent. It served our purpose however in that it had a coffee bar down by the water and a shop where we could buy picnic fixings. We also browsed the small craft market and had a quick look at the old lime kilns nearby. San Juan was once the main location for lime production in Washington and traces of the industry's remains are still dotted about the island.

English Camp

From Roche Harbor we drove a little south to English Camp. This is the site of a former British Army base, dating back to a time when the border between the United States and British-owned Canada was under dispute. While using the 49th parallel made sense on the mainland, in the network of islands off the west coast it was impossible to draw a straight line between the two nations and the exact line the border should follow was hotly contested – Vancouver Island was accepted as being part of British Canada, but should the border separating it from mainland USA run east or west of the San Juan Islands?

There were settlers from both countries living on the island, and Captain Ken told us yesterday (while out whale-watching) how in 1859 the killing of a British pig by an American farmer, because it had eaten his potato crop, almost sparked a full-out war between them. With tensions rising, and each country continuing to claim San Juan as its own, it was agreed they could both establish camps here until the dispute was settled.

After twelve years of argument the border was settled through arbitration and the island confirmed as being in the US, but during the intervening period both nations had troops stationed here although no shots were fired and the pig remained the only casualty of what became known as the Pig War.

Today you can visit both military bases and see the remaining buildings from that time - English camp here in the north of the island and American Camp (which we didn't have time to see) in the south.

Lime Kiln Point State Park

Hopeful whale watchers at Lime Kiln Point State Park

Our next stop on our little tour was Lime Kiln Point State Park, named for the nearby lime industry activity. This is renowned as the best place in the world to see whales from the land, and orca apparently often pass by, but we had no more luck than when out whale watching with Ken on the previous day. Indeed it was from here that pod L had been spotted leaving the area to head further out to sea on the evening of our arrival on San Juan, two days ago. But although the orca again eluded us, the park did provide us with a pleasant spot for our picnic lunch, and some interesting displays about whales in the region.

Cattle Point

From here we drove further south to Cattle Point, right at the tip of the island. Here we took a walk to the lighthouse (which was closed off for repairs).

We also went down on to the nearby small beach from where we had great views of Lopez Island and more distant ones of the Olympic Peninsula beyond.

Back to Friday Harbor

Returning to Friday Harbor we took a stroll into town for ice cream at the Friday Harbor Ice Cream Co. on the waterfront (with a mind-boggling choice of 72 flavours!) On the way back to the apartment we browsed a couple of shops, buying an interesting native-designed trivet in the Arctic Raven gallery, which has some wonderful pieces of First Nations art.

In the evening we returned to Downriggers where we'd had such a good meal yesterday. This time both food and service were marginally less good (the black bean hummus starter we shared was nice and Chris liked his burger, but my cod tacos were a little dull and their margarita, with limoncello added, was too sweet for my taste) but we still had a good evening, liking the waterside setting and relaxed atmosphere.

And there was another great sunset to end our final day on San Juan Island.