Last week started our 2007 season with a great weekend cruise in the San Juan Islands. We left Friday afternoon and cruised over to Sucia Island. Along the way we saw lots of harbor porporises, seals and sea birds. When we arrived at Sucia, our passengers, DJ and Jenni, went ashore for a walk and to watch sunset. When the returned we had Coq au Vin for dinner and a fresh fruit topped cheesecake for desert.

On Saturday morning we left Sucia for Roche Harbor on San Juan Island. Capt. Jeffrey guided DJ while he got to drive the boat. We arrived in Roche Harbor in the mid-afternoon and went on a walking tour of Roche that included a visit to the McMilian Family Mausoleum.

Roche Harbor was made famous by John McMillian when he started the Roche Harbor Cement and Lime Company. The Hotel de Haro is also in Roche Harbor. In 1906 Teddy Roosevelt was a guest of John McMillian at the Hotel de Haro. It was also a place where John Wayne would visit when he was in the San Juans Islands.

After visiting Roche Harbor we left for Garrison Bay. This bay was home to English Camp. A historic park that used to house British soliders during the Pig War that started in 1859. This war was a dispute between the Americans and British over the boundary between the US and Canada. The war got its name after an American citizen shot and killed a Husdons Bay Company officer’s pig as it rummaged through the American prized potato patch. The war eventually ended in 1872 when Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm I settled the boundary dispute. Luckily the only casualty of the was…the pig.

We spent the night in Garrison Bay and in the morning we had hand-made fresh croissants, eggs, pepper bacon and fruit smoothies for breakfast. We decided that our next desitination would be Jones Island. On our way to Jones Island we were greeted by some Dall’s porpoises that surfed on our bow. Once there everyone went ashore for frisbee or a walk. Jenni and Christine spent time watching a river otter and found some native prickly pear cactus.

We returned to Bellingham Sunday. It was a great trip and we had wonderful spring weather.