Birthdays are the best !

 Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE birthdays.  Whether it's my own, or even helping others celebrate theirs, I just think birthdays are awesome, no matter what your age is.    Given that belief, I was obviously highly anticipating my 25th birthday, and for good reason! Jon, not normally the planner in the family, put lots of thought and organization into October 8th.  I was really starting to get curious when he told me he'd made a list of everything he needed to remember to pack and do. 

 The Saturday before, I'd received a box from my parents with  four separately wrapped presents, one each day till my birthday!  I got a hummingbird feeder, a bag of shower gels and lotions from Bath & Body, some super comfy Seahawks pajama pants, and some really awesome Sanuk flip flops.  Then that day I woke up to some amazon love in the form of 4 new cds from my parents, brother, and sister-in-law, and a gift certificate to a clothes company from my buddy Leah. 

 So before my adventure even began, I was doing well already.  But then it was time for the adventure! We got up bright and early (6:45) and got ready, dropped puppy off and daycare, and then headed for the Anacortes ferry; we were headed to San Juan Island!  The awesome part was that we were renting a 3 wheeled moped called a scoot coupe! He was so cute!! So we got off the ferry, grabbed some coffee and pastry (when you have breakfast that early, you start to get hungry for lunch early too), and then rented our 3 wheeled friend for the day.  We thought we'd have plenty of time to make it all the way around the island since it's only 55sq miles in area. 

 However, the max recommended speed of the little scoot coupe was only 25mph, and we soon discovered it takes a lot longer to get places at that speed.  So anyway, the plan was that we'd sightsee a little while, come back to town for lunch, then go out a little longer after lunch before catching the ferry home at 4:15.  So we set off for American Camp, where the US had soldiers stationed in the mid 1800s.  Unfortunately, because of the shutdown, we couldn't drive right up to the camp and park, we had to park a little south of it and then hike to it.  We enjoyed the hike and the beautiful scenery and stopped to read all the informational signs along the way, but by the time we got back to the coupe we realized it was already almost 1pm.  :(

Since we were already out that direction, we drove out to the southern most tip where the lighthouse was and took a few minutes to take some birthday pictures.  The sun finally broke through and it was a gorgeous day!  On our drive back to town for lunch, we saw a mama and baby deer :)  We finally stopped for lunch, which was delicious!  Jon found it in his planning, and everything there is fresh, made from scratch, locally and seasonally grown.  I got a "haystack" made of spaghetti squash, some kind of nut pesto, marinara sauce, and something else, and Jon got an egg salad, peanut, chutney sandwich.  Really delicious!  At this point it was already like 2:30 or something,  and we had to return the coupe by 3:45.  So we realized we could either head to the west coast to Lime Kiln State Park where there's supposedly great whale watching, but we'd basically have to turn around as soon as we got there, or we could stay in town and browse.  No way we'd have time to make it to the north tip and see British Camp.  So I made an executive decision that we'd stay in town.  Always leave something more to do at a place so you'll go back.  So we went next door and got the most delicious peach pastry and some tea, returned the coupe, and spent the rest of the time browsing the used book store :) We each got something, and a Christmas present for someone, and then the ferry was there and it was time to head back!  That night we had leftover greek food, finished watching My Fair Lady, went out to Toppins for some fro-yo, and had sparkling cider.  Good planning, good weather, and a good day for turning 25!