San Juan Island

Joop happily barbequing

San Juan is a beautiful pastoral island.  The house we are staying at is at Mitchell bay  on the west side of the island.  The location is very remote and we have amused ourselves by lounging about the house and yard and cooking meals on the barbeque. For some reason the Americans seem to prefer charcoal briquettes over the good old propane – so we have been forced to relearn the stacking of the briquettes and the layering once they are molten. Mostly we cook vegetables – our meals have been delectable and I must commend the Washingtonians on the clearness of labeling for both organic and local.

View from our deck to the bay

South beach on San Juan Island, American Camp

The history of the island is very entertaining. For some reason the “British” aka Hudson Bay Company – as part of their diversification from fur trading decided to invest in sheep farming on this island in the 1850’s. They happily imported Hawaiians for the task and were quite successful. The borders between the Americans and British were not clear around this area  - apparently the  Oregon agreement said 49^th parallel and channel but no one knew which channel – the Haro or the Rosario straight.  This meant that the San Juan islands were contentious property.  The Americans that tried to settle the area were quite hostile and  very racist towards the Hawaiian settlers. Somehow a pig from a Hawaiian farm on the south of the island was irritating a neighbouring American farmer by escaping the fence between the two properties and rooting around the American garden.  The Hawaiians laughed uproariously as their pig foraged around the American garden. This upset the American farmer so significantly that he shot the pig. This created quite a disturbance between the British and Americans.  In a dispute that lasted from 1850 to 1872 both powers had military settlements on the island and were poised to fight. Luckily this never happened. It was the last military dispute between Canada and the US. The military posts were on opposite ends of the island. The Americans had an encampment on the South point which was nothing but grass lands – completely exposed. Apparently this was confounding to the British; they could not understand why the Americans would set up camp in such visible and vulnerable spot. They simply didn’t know that the American commander had graduated 59^th out of 59 graduates! The British post on the north end of the island was secluded in a calm bay and heavily forested. 

Beautiful rocks from South beach

Grass lands of American camp

We visited both spots and loved the scenery in every area. On the south beach of the American encampment I searched vainly for any type of shell or sea glass and was forced into collecting rocks as they were the only things outside of driftwood.
I loved the grasslands of the south island. The meadow bird calls, the smell of the hot grass and the sound of the sea – so perfect.

Looking at Grandma's cove, American Camp

Beautiful grasslands American camp

British camp with wierd Dutch guy with ear feathers

The British camp was on a secluded bay on the Northwest part of the island and it too was very pastoral and beautiful but there were many more trees.  On one of our walks through the woods we were startled by this loud swooshing above our heads – 2 bald eagles were flying at top speed through the trees  - navigating the narrow spaces between the tall trees at break neck speed! 

Relaxing on deck

Mitchell Bay Haven

Our vacation home is right next to the British park. It is a lovely home – the front nothing but windows looking onto the bay with herons standing about in the muddy shallows when the tide goes out – the only sound is the buzz of hummingbirds surging about and dive bombing god knows what. We had a visiting dog  - a black lab – that the guest book said used to visit with a white goat. Somehow the dog visits without the goat. He is very darling – in dire need of veterinary attention – I did my best and attempted to treat his significant lameness etc…

Dear little visitor without goat

Lovely rocks from South Beach

Lavender farm

We visited a lavender farm – the undulating rows of lavender even not in bloom look soft and blurry – it evokes a funny feeling as thought you just can’t focus. I love the farms scattered around the island – such beautiful majestic old farmhouses – most at least 100 years old – all meticulously cared for and maintained – many are sided with weathered cedar shingles. The pasture fields are filled with such tall grass that we assumed that they must be bogs or sloughs  - how else could there be such tall grasses not being grazed – and then we saw herds of cattle dwarfed by the grasses. I’ve never seen the like.

Silver fox kit

The highlight of my trip was meeting a dear little silver fox kit. For some reason he was completely unafraid of me and let me stand and photograph him from a distance of 2 feet for at least 15 minutes. During that time he yawned and groomed and hiccupped. He darted back into his culvert when bikers went past but with just me there he lounged about without a care. I still cannot reconcile the experience.

Horsetails taller than me at British Camp

Young Hill, English Camp

Young Hill

Interior of Mitchell Bay Haven

Cows dwarfed by grass