The Road Scholar program concluded after the 7:30am buffet breakfast. Catherine and I made peanut butter and jam sandwiches to have for lunch on the road. We left the motel about 10:00 to further explore San Juan Island.
We did not find a few caches and found some caches. We visited Fairweather Park near the harbor, found a benchmark at the Court House in Friday Harbor, photograped a huge Pacific Madrone tree, the Lime Kilm Lighthouse and the Lime Kilns at Lime Kiln Park, and photographed Roche Harbor and the Hotel de Haro.
The story of Roche Harbor began more than 200 years ago, in 1787, when Captain de Haro and his crew became the first Europeans to actually sail among the forested San Juan Islands. In 1886, John McMillin transformed a sleepy Hudson Bay outpost into a full-fledged lime works and company town with a population bigger than Friday Harbor (800+ residents). Seven decades later, the Tarte Family restored buildings and cleared the way for Roche Harbor’s metamorphosis into a boatel and resort. Catherine photographed the McMillin house now a hotel.
I had a cup of Earl Grey hot tea in the lobby of the Hotel de Haro where I saw Theodore Roosevelt's signature on the hotel register in a glass case. Catherine and I wandered around the hotel's formal flower gardens. We saw the old lime kilns. I parked on the hillside and walked across to the fenced gravesites. Regrettably I did not visit the Mausoleum housing the McMillan family, the founders of Roche Harbor. John McMillan was a Sigma Chi as well as a Freemason, so he built the mausoleum with a lot of symbolic architecture.
We purchased Deli sandwiches, chips, Diet Coke and candy bars at Kings Market in Friday Harbor to have for dinner in our room. I cleaned out and organized the car. We headed home the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment