We awoke this morning at anchor in Echo Bay at Sucia
Island, a delightful state park that we explored yesterday. With the sunrise
over Mt. Baker behind us, we headed to the town of San Juan Island’s Friday
Harbor, the county seat and “hub” of the archipelago. It’s a picturesque town
with a beautiful harbor, filled with all kinds of vessels.
We saw numerous Dall’s porpoise on our route. They’re
about 350 pounds, black and white, and can reach speeds of up to 35 mph. On
Whale Rocks, we spotted numerous Steller sea lions growling, rumbling, and
jostling for position with Mt. Baker in the distance. Mt. Baker, with an
elevation of 10,800 feet, is an icon in this corner of the Pacific Northwest.
It’s an active volcano in the Cascade Mountain Range—the same range as Mt. St.
Helens that erupted back in 1980.
San Juan Island is where the infamous Pig War dragged
on for 13 years. It began in 1859 when an American settler shot and killed a
pig belonging to a British subject. Due to border ambiguities, it was unclear to
whom San Juan Island belonged—the Americans or the British. The “war” finally
ended with peaceful negotiations; the only casualty being the pig. Today,
Canada and the U.S. share the longest, unfortified border in the world.
Friday Harbor is home to The Whale Museum, the only museum in the world dedicated to killer whales, those legendary black-and-white creatures of the Northwest. The museum, an educational experience, showcases marine mammal skeletons and displays that tell the stories of the animals that live in the Salish Sea.
