South Whidbey State Park

We went south to Whidbey Island to explore south Whidbey State Park.  We started on the trail shown on the left side of this map.  We hiked the upper trail (in bold) and came back on the trail that cuts through between the upper trail and the road.    Around 3 1/2 miles in all.

I can't believe I didn't get a photo of all the large trees on the first part of the trail.  Loved this walk in the forest.  Only saw 5 people the whole way.



Lots of large downed trees had become nurse trees.

Some of the way had a boardwalk.

A few places were steep but it was mostly level.

Interesting how this tree root formed a bench.

Ferry back to Anacortes

This was taken after we had driven onto the ferry.

Coming into Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, WA.

Coming up to the ramp which was lowered to come over the top of the ferry.

Walking passengers got to leave first.

Mt Baker.

Clover Point Park

Nolan took 360° photos of this park on a point.

That's the Olympic Penninsula in Washington across the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Kites were being flown in the middle of the point.

Beacon Hill Park

Kids were playing at this water feature.  They would push buttons and the fountain would do a variety of things.  Just look at the different water spouts in the following photos.

There were lots of beautiful flowers in the park.

 

Very interesting succulent.

 

I have no idea what this plant is called.

A Monkey Puzzle Tree!  Too bad it's in the shade.

Closer look at the branches.  They are very stiff.

 

The view from the top of the hill.

Walk around Victoria's Inner Harbor

Electrical and telephone boxes around Vancouver Island were beautifully painted.

Float planes were landing in the harbor.

These small ferry boats were zipping back and forth across the harbor.   They were so cute.

This "pirate boat" just wandered around the harbor.

Then we saw this small cruise ship entering.  It was way larger than anything else.

It looked even larger in person.

It docked on the opposite side of the harbor.

Closer look at one of the shuttle boats that was zipping around the harbor.

Victoria Bug Zoo

OK, we know this is a kid's thing to do but it was very interesting and we enjoyed it.  Kinda pricy though.  Look at the fee categories.  What a hoot!

The zoo consists of two rooms of bug-filled displays and two people displaying and describing some of the animals.  We got a kick out of watching the kids.  Some really wanted to hold the bugs and some ran to the back of the pack.

This describes the bug in the next photo.

Nolan is holding up his finger so you can see how large it is.

Not all the creatures were let out of their cages.

We saw lots of these while walking in Florida.

I got to visit with this one.

Scarab Beetles.  Looks like they are trying to make more beetles.

This is a huge Rhino Beetle.  See how big it is in comparison with the orange slices?

This was quite the display that took up two walls of one of the rooms.  There was a large case containing a leafy branch.  It was covered by ants cutting out pieces of leaves.

A tube led from it to a wall of enclosures for each colony.

The wall of enclosures and another container containing a branch.