Voyager

I am a Trekkie. Have been since James Kirk fought his way across the galaxy. I have enjoyed all the Star Trek movies. The TV series; Generations, Deep Space Nine, Voyager.
Now, while we have been here on San Juan Island, I have had access to the entire collection, all seven years of Star Trek Voyager. Captain Janeway, Tuvok, Ensign Kim, Paris, and my favorite Seven of Nine.
If you are not a trekkie, or have forgatten, the starship Voyager has been thrown a gazillion light years away from home. Janeway and her crew are traveling through uncharted space encountering unknown aliens and un-thought-of situations along the way back home.
This morning as I was walking the girls, I came to the conclusion that R and I are a lot like Capt. Janeway and her crew. We spend a lot of time alone in a far away place, meeting new people, eating new food, visiting strange lands on our trips to and from our homeland.

We are fellow voyagers!

Live Long and Prosper!

Monday Oct 25, 2010

Our first Monday off duty.

The other volunteer couple, who were parked nearby, left the island Saturday. It’s lonesome around here. They took the early ferry to try to get the jump on the winter storm that was threatening NE Utah and southern Wyoming as they traveled I-84 and I-80 heading east to Michigan. Today should be their crux travel day. Because the elevation of the Interstate is over 6000 ft for the whole state, it the weather can play havoc on travel through that area from now until late spring. It is bad enough traveling in snow and ice, but doing it with a large trailer attached to you makes it even more interesting. Good luck, Bob and Mary.

The rainy weather is upon us. Saturday was actually quite nice, with lots of sun in the morning, almost warm but becoming mostly cloudy, cool, and windy in the afternoon. Listening to the weather forecast made us expect rain and wind for the whole day so when the forecast was wrong, nobody complained. The wind, however, did pick up during the night. It blew in about sunset and left before morning, but it made the darkness even darker with its ebbs and blows during the time in between.

This morning, Monday, as I said before is our first Monday off. Prior to this, we worked Sat, Sun, Mon, & Tues. and Bob & Mary worked Wed, Thurs Fri, & Sat. That way there was a volunteer couple at the VC to augment the ranger staff. Now that one couple is gone and we leave on the 31^st and the visitor count has dropped considerably, the winter schedule has been put into effect. The VC is closed Mon & Tues. and hours cut from 8:30-5:00 to 8:30-4:30. Wed. R and I start our last four day stint. It has been a good run.

We have learned a great deal. We had never been to the San Juan Islands and had not even heard of the Pig War or the politics of the time in this area. Learning the “story” and the history of the place is always stimulating. But the real fun comes in learning what Paul Harvey used to call “The rest of the story”. The pleasure was in the finding out about the small stories that occurred behind the scenes, the characters that were players in the drama, and the seemingly innocuous occurrences that changed everything or prevented a larger possibly disastrous event from happening.

Examples:

One of the rules of the joint occupancy was the limit of 100 soldiers from each country on the island at one time. So when the British Engineer came to English Camp to survey the site for the placement of buildings, he came in civilian clothes so he would not affect the count.

The arbitrator sent by President Buchanan, General Winfield Scott was selected because of his successes as a negotiator in previous actions. But the poor man was not fit to travel especially in those times. To travel from the East to the West meant a journey by ship down the east coast, a hurried 5 hour train trip across the Isthmus of Panama (hurried because of the fear of getting yellow fever), followed by another ship journey up the west coast. The trip took six weeks. Scott was a big man! He stood 6’5” and weighted 385 lbs. He suffered from gout, pleurisy and had broken his collarbone falling off a horse a short time before his trip west so he was probably not happy to be selected for the task. Because of his mobility issue, he never set foot on land while he was here and did all of his negotiations aboard ship. Going from one ship to another required climbing ladders which was not possible so he was lowered in a basket from one to another. Even with all his physical difficulties, General Scott was able to negotiate with British Admiral Baynes and James Douglas, Governor of Vancouver Island, to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. No war.

Fog

The word for today is fog. (The picture was taken on a better day.) It was a star filled sky when I walked the girls last night. The fog moved in overnight and was a thick as soup this morning for our walk. Morning fog is not unusual this time of year, but at 2 pm it was still thick enough to prevent us from seeing the nearby prairie, let alone the water. Watching the boats trolling back and forth along the coast is a what makes sitting at the breakfast table is a treat. Not today. I had to imagine that I could see even a tree.
I am writing this at 4:14 from the library and it is still foggy out there. No relief today. The weather is going to get wetter and windier through the week-end. Winter is getting closer.

A Fall Morning

The walk to work in mid October. The air is as still as a church on Monday morning. The birds are still having their morning coffee. The sun is drifting through the fog looking for the ground. It is going to be one of those days that you would like to bottle up and save for the middle of January.

Rosario

What is Rosario?

It is the name of the place, a resort on Orcas Island that dates from the early 1900’s. Robert Moran was a man who owned a ship building company in Seattle. He arrived in Seattle penniless and built a shipbuilding empire along with his two brothers. Moran become Mayor of Seattle in 1888, after the Great Fire had destroyed the downtown district. He dealt with the problems of the city while building his shipbuilding business. Through his outstanding efforts the city rebuilt better and stronger and he was easily re-elected. His company built all sorts of ships from fishing vessels to warships. The high point of his business career was when his shipyard built and launched the flagship of the Navy's "Great White Fleet", the USS Nebraska built in 1904 and used through WWI.

In 1904 Mr. Moran health was in danger. The doctors gave him only a few years to live, so he gave up the business life and moved from the city to Orcas Island where he started to complete his retirement home which he named Rosario. It was hub for visitors, congressmen and business alike. Rosario became known as a resort for the rich and influential. (Incidently, the island life was good for him because he lived until 1943).

Today it is still a resort. http://www.rosarioresort.com/ You can still stay at Rosario. You can get married there. 22 “rooms” are available. All of the accommodations are detached but close to the “house”. Some are motel suites. Others are individual home units. All have gorgeous views of Cascade Bay and the surrounding hills.

The main building houses the offices, meeting rooms, and a couple of restaurants on the main floor and a spa and pool in the lower level. The second floor has been left mostly like it was when Mr. Moran lived there. Stained glass is dispalyed in the windows and lighting. The woodwork is amazing! The floors, built-in drawers, even the doors with their unusual hinges reflect the attention to detail that is prevalent through out the structure. The second floor also contains an auditorium that contains a huge 1900 Steinway Grand Piano and an enormous pipe organ dating from 1913. Free concerts are held in this room at regular intervals that feature both instruments. During the fall the concerts are held at 4pm on Saturday. It would be a joy to attend.

It’s a Thursday. Laundry Day so as we sit and wait for machines to do their thing, R reads and I write. At least for a time. It is a late morning so we will have to go for lunch before long. Maybe to try out a new restaurant. It might be a good day for fish and chips. You would think that on an island, fish would be easy to find. I have heard that in the summer you can purchase fresh fish on the docks. But like everything else, the off season has affected the number of fishermen in Friday Harbor. Now is a good time to come to the island if you are trying to get away from the summer hoards. No lines at dinner. No long wait at the ferry landing. Empty roads and beaches. No reservations are needed at the hotels and probably the B & Bs. Of course the temperatures are cooler and the sun is more hidden, but this area does not compete with Cabo or Rio for warm sunny days during any time period.

You come here to get away. Maybe it is from the hustle and bustle of Seattle. Or the signs of corporate or commercial America, the Wal-Mart’s, Home Depots, McDonalds, or Starbucks. Maybe it is for the beauty that surrounds you. Maybe it’s the water, which also surrounds you. Whatever the reason, it is a special place. Not only this island, but any of these San Juan Islands and any of the other island that dot the charts of this area. The people who live here are different. Different from you and me. Different even from those who have a “place” on this or another island that they come to occasionally. I’m not sure if I can explain, but they look at things just a little differently. If you were to move here, it would take quite some time for you to be truly accepted as an “islander”. All of that being said, as we have roughly two weeks left on our "duty" here, when the time comes, we will be ready to "move on". I'm ready to be on the mainland again. I'm ready to resume our water aerobics routine. I miss our Wednesday night dinner and a movie. It will be nice traveling with out planning around the expense and limited time frame of the ferry. I miss Costco hotdogs!

Sunday at American Camp

It’s Sunday morning. There are four of us here at the Visitor Center waiting for the first person to come through the door. Three of us have set up a guess as to when the first person will walk through the door.

RW 10:15

JB 10:25

JW 10:35 (ps RW won. It was 10:10)

Hopefully we will actually have some visitors today. Since the calendar has switched around to October and the weather has switched around to fall, our attendance has dropped off dramatically. September was still good. R& I were stationed at English Camp on Sat & Sun and had about a hundred visitors each day. I really enjoyed being there. It has a totally different “feel” there. It’s much more scenic and serene and more historic buildings (four). Building and keeping up the fire in the fireplace at the barracks was a highlight for me and visitors too. Many of them commented on seeing the smoke from the chimney and smelling the fire drew them in. When you think of it, open fires are becoming a thing of the past. Most fireplaces are being ignored or are converted to gas. Gas fires are ok but they don’t crackle or pop or smell like real wood fires.

Speaking of buildings, American Camp is about to increase its number of buildings by one. Currently there are two historic buildings on site. The laundress’ quarters and one of the officers quarters. The laundress was the wife of a soldier who was paid to do the laundry for the soldiers. A portion of each soldier’s salary was deducted from his salary to provide her pay. It was hard work but it provided a nice boost in income to the her family. She was required to be married. If her husband died she had 60 days to remarry or she would lose her position and her house. With all the unattached men on a military base finding a new husband would have not been a challenge.

Here you can see the officers quarters, the laundress house on the far left and the visitor center in the background.

The other building on site is one of the officer’s quarters. It is a duplex in design with a hallway in the middle and a couple of rooms on each side. The outside is has been restored and painted white. The interior waits for its time. An extensive white picket fence surrounds the entire camp area but the building sits by itself. But not forever. Soon, another building will be placed next to it. Currently named the Brown house because of the man who purchased it long ago, it sits on a corner in downtown Friday Harbor. Since being moved from American Camp in the 1870’s it has had many uses, being remodeled and added on to several times, finally ending up as an art gallery. The owner of the building wanted a new building so instead of just tearing the building down, contacted the NPS to see if they were interested in it. So the NPS is getting the historic building by moving it off the property and the landowner does not have to pay to have it demolished. It will sit right next to the existing officer building. It’s truly a win-win situation. The moving day has not been given, but it will be a momentous occasion.