Day 8 - Lemons or Lemonade?

Today we got an early start, but apparently not early enough. The drive up to Anacortes took longer than expected, and we missed our ferry by 10 mins. Bernard called the place to let them know we wouldn't make it, when they suggested we look into a flight. By a stroke of good luck, we just happened to be driving past the San Juan airport. We stopped in, and were told that there was a flight leaving at 11:30am. So, for an addt'l $150, we decided to go for it.
It was well worth it! The flight only took about 15 mins, and our pilot was nice enough to throw in a little stunt on the way over.


Very cool! When we arrived at San Juan Island, we ate lunch and disembarked. The group was small - the 3 of us, plus one other person - which made it even better.

Unfortunately, most of the wildlife decided to take the day off, so we ended up seeing only some purple starfish and a sea otter. The water was mostly calm at a temp of about 48F, but we managed to stay pretty warm.
The tour lasted about 4 hours, and we arrived back at the shop around 5:30. Since we were told the next ferry was at 6:55pm, we decided to grab some dinner. We found an Italian restaurant called Bella Luna, which was pretty good, though overpriced. When we finished eating, we decided to head back to the ferry a bit early, about 6:40, to avoid another mishap. As we approached the dock, we heard the LAST CALL for the 6:45 ferry! Needless to say, we sprinted the rest of the way, and made it on just before they closed the gate! Lucky for us since the next ferry wouldn't have been till 8:00. The ferry ride took about an hour, and it was dark when we arrived in Anacortes. Our car was parked at the airport, so we walked. And walked. And walked. After about the 3rd mile, Greg broke into a sprint, and ran the last mile to the car. We were picked up around mile 3.5 and headed home.

We got back to Greg's house about 10pm, which was just in time for the beginning of raccoon warfare. Apparently, a family of 5 raccoons love to tear up Greg's freshly planted sod and look for grubs or bugs to eat. So, Greg installed the Scarecrow, aka "Scarecoon", a device that shoots a stream of water at anything crossing the perimeter. We watched for about 30 mins, as the raccoons tried every manuever to get to the lawn, eventually giving up. This is what I call reality TV :) They must've found a weak spot later in the night b/c a little bit of the lawn was dug up when we woke up.

It's about midnight and it's been a long day, so we are now hitting the hay!