After taking our first trip to the San Juan Islands last Fall, we knew we would be back! Our first island visit was to Orcas Island in the off season. We took a late Fall trip to Roche Harbor this time. We woke early and were in Anacortes to catch the ferry to San Juan Island as the sun was rising. What I love about the three hour trip out to the islands is that half of it is on the ferry. We are able to get out of the car and enjoy the gorgeous Pacific Northwest scenery by boat. Logan could run around and get energy out. On our ferry ride back home, we saw whales!
We arrived to Friday Harbor around 10:30am and it was only a 20 minute drive to the Roche Harbor. Roche Harbor was such a charming place and I already want to go back. We booked a super last minute stay through hotels.com and found room for under $100 a night. My only advice is to make sure you read carefully when you book because I reserved a room in the historic hotel that had a shared bathroom for the hall. I didn’t even know this until we were checking in — there were rooms available since it was off-season if we wanted to upgrade but we decided to stay in this room. It ended up being fine for one night since we were literally the only people on the entire floor. The shared bathrooms were really nice but not something I would have wanted if the hotel had been crowded and we were staying more than one night. Next time, I would book one of the charming cottages on the property with more space and a kitchen. After seeing some of our videos below —- you might see why we would also consider making this a day trip since sleeping with Logan wasn’t exactly fun. Our first stop on arrival was at the Lime Kiln Cafe on the property for lunch.
We checked into our room shortly after lunch and decided to take a little hike to the Mausoleum. It was a fairly short hike and Logan got to see lots of deer on the way.
Logan was borderline delirious so we decided to attempt a nap in the hotel room. BAD IDEA !! It was a waste of an hour and our energy. Logan jumped on the bed singing “no more monkeys jumping on the bed” and fought laying down. An hour later, we opted to head to the playground on the property. The weather was beautiful and we had such an amazing late afternoon hanging here as a family.
We ate dinner at Mcmillin’s Dining Room and the food was good. Our dining experience was a little stressful. Logan was so tired and basically causing quite the scene during entire dinner. Ryan and I were downing our glasses of wine quickly and trying to keep Logan from bothering others in the restaurant. I noticed an older couple that kept staring at us and I was so embarrassed. As we left I was going to apologize to them if we ruined their dining experience. They were sooo nice and told us how entertaining Logan had been. This whole time I thought they were annoyed by us but they said they enjoyed watching Logan and his love for life. Logan is exhausting but I will say he does have such a love for life and has an absolute blast wherever he goes. He loves people and is a charmer. If only my little free spirited child would take naps 🙂
We headed back to the room after dinner and after quite an effort we finally got everyone to sleep. Mason was awake a few times in the night to nurse and Logan was up at 5am. Not exactly a restful night for the parents. At 6am, we packed up and headed out. We spent the morning walking around the property and then taking a drive around the island. We stopped at a cute cove we had all to ourselves and enjoyed the scenary. What a beautiful island and I can’t wait to come back!
VIDEO CLIPS FROM OUR TRIP
Playground
Ferry