Orcas Island Birthday Getaway

Look­ing toward Van­cou­ver Island

Map of Orcas Island and nearby San Juan Islands

We cel­e­brated my birth­day with a quick trip to Orcas Island, mid­way between north­west­ern Wash­ing­ton and Canada’s Van­cou­ver Island.

Orcas Island is lushly green, blessed with beau­ti­ful views of the Sal­ish Sea as well as rolling val­leys, forested hills and moun­tains.

It’s a mag­net for hik­ers and bik­ers — but not a place to visit if you’re addicted to always-on smart­phone access or tex­ting. Cel­lu­lar cov­er­age is spotty, at best.

Deer Harbor

Beau­ti­ful inn, even on rainy days

Old boats near the inn

Kayak­ing and boat­ing in Deer Har­bor

We stayed at The Inn at Orcas Island in Deer Har­bor, at the south­west­ern cor­ner of Orcas Island.

The inn is an upscale B&B, much like a Euro­pean bou­tique hotel. Its set­ting is glo­ri­ous, per­fect for sun­set watch­ing or canoe­ing the tidal inlet that leads to Deer Har­bor. The innkeeper is very wel­com­ing, and makes guests feel quickly at home.

Deer Har­bor is a favored des­ti­na­tion for boaters and hik­ers — peo­ple who want to avoid the tourist con­ges­tion in East­sound. The islanders who live there con­sider it to be very remote (a 20-minute drive from East­sound).

We had hoped to bring kayaks and/or our tan­dem bike, but were dis­cour­aged by a rainy weather fore­cast. (Luck­ily, the rain storm arrived a day late.) The weather would have been per­fect for either kayak­ing or bik­ing.

Hiking Along the Shore

Instead we spent the morn­ing on a 6‑mile hike, bask­ing in the unex­pected June sun­shine, and work­ing out kinks from the long drive. Our walk took us to the end of the road, along the shore­line. The pub­lic path fea­tured har­bor views, long vis­tas over­look­ing the Sal­ish Sea — and bloom­ing trees and gar­dens every­where.

Pacific North­west drift­wood

Along the way we strolled through a tidal pre­serve at low tide. Mul­ti­ple types of sea­weed, algae and tidal pool crea­tures were on dis­play. My hus­band, a for­mer biol­o­gist, could have spent hours exam­in­ing that beach…

Exten­sive log­ging through­out Cas­ca­dia means it’s easy to spot mag­nif­i­cent exam­ples of drift­wood along the water’s edge. Atlantic drift­wood seems puny when com­pared to these West­ern giants.

Farm-to-Table Mecca

Island trees block the wind

Much of Orcas Island is rural, home to small fam­ily farm­ers and crafts peo­ple. As a result the Sat­ur­day morn­ing farm­ers’ mar­ket abounds with hand­i­crafts, arti­sanal cheeses, fresh pro­duce, local fish, meat and dairy prod­ucts.

At the farm­ers’ mar­ket we dis­cov­ered and fell in love with Monastery Cheese from nearby Shaw Island, a raw cow’s milk cheese with a flavor/aroma pro­file rem­i­nis­cent of French cheese. This cheese is made in tiny batches by an order of Bene­dic­tine nuns who live in the Our Lady of the Rock com­mu­nity.

East­sound restau­rant own­ers pride them­selves on buy­ing from local farm­ers, for­agers and fish­er­men — their source of ultra-fresh, farm-to-table good­ies and shell­fish.

We had planned to explore sev­eral restau­rants, but found our innkeep­er’s break­fast to be so boun­ti­ful that it was easy to skip lunch. On Thurs­day night we enjoyed a spec­tac­u­lar din­ner at Sazio di Notte, an Ital­ian eatery in East­sound — one we highly rec­om­mend. The chef waited on us per­son­ally, and explained the prove­nance of all the key ingre­di­ents and his inspi­ra­tion for each prepa­ra­tion.

On Fri­day night we were invited to dine at a friend’s nearby home. We feasted on wild salmon he had caught the day before, as well as fresh greens and peas picked shortly before din­ner. Hap­pily, we had brought along a bot­tle of Aven­ni­a’s sauvi­gnon blanc to com­ple­ment the meal.

Home to Artists and Craftsmen

Orcas Island Pot­tery

Sea­side shop­ping

We recov­ered from our hike with tours of local art stu­dios and pot­tery shops, before head­ing back to the inn for show­ers and din­ner.

We fell in love with Orcas Island Pot­tery, a sea­side stu­dio that fea­tures a truly spec­tac­u­lar set­ting for dis­play­ing hand­made pot­tery. Many of the wares are dis­played out­doors in the gar­dens, grouped by color, artist or style. On a sunny day the ocean view must dis­tract the shop­pers…

My hus­band had a fun time shop­ping there, choos­ing a set of serv­ing bowls for my birth­day gift. We put them to good use when we got home, fill­ing them with super ripe straw­ber­ries and cher­ries from a road­side stand in Ana­cortes.

Getting There

Orcas has become a pop­u­lar get­away des­ti­na­tion, so ferry lines can be long. If you miss the ferry, you could wait sev­eral hours.

We mis­read the ferry sched­ule, and found our­selves with 3 unex­pected hours to spend in Ana­cortes. Luck­ily, we stum­bled upon a fab­u­lous spot for lunch, the A’Town Bistro, located in the his­toric sec­tion of Ana­cortes. Like the Orcas Island restau­rants this bistro prides itself on local farm-to-table ingre­di­ents and hand-crafted beers and ales.

Plan on at least 5 hours to get to Orcas Island from the Seat­tle area (dri­ving + ferry + wait times). For week­end com­muters with plenty of money, fly­ing to Orcas is a faster alter­na­tive.

No mat­ter how you get to Orcas, it’s well worth the trip for food­ies, week­end ath­letes or boaters. Or peo­ple who just want to relax at an island inn, or hang out in the charm­ing shops and cafes in East­sound.

We can’t wait to return to Orcas.