We managed to do a few other things besides climbing Mount Constitution twice … but not really all that much.

We stayed all four days of our San Juan Islands trip on Orcas, thanks to a Groupon deal for the lodging.  That proved a little much, especially in still-rainy April. Much better would have been to spend some of those nights on at least one of the other San Juan islands, for variety’s sake. Gorgeous as the Orcas roads are, there aren’t that many of them, and we ended up retracing our routes much of the time (and not just up and down that mountain).

We practically had the island to ourselves at that time of year — great because it was so peaceful; not so great because maybe it was a little too peaceful over four days.

Now that we’ve seen more of Bainbridge and Whidbey, with Vashon looking good on the radar, we’d perhaps opt for any of those over Orcas.  Easier to get to, more diversity both on and off the bike, and you still get a ferry ride.  Of course, we still have to hit the other San Juans …

And the scene is entirely different in the warmer months. Whale watching, kayaking and whatever else normal people do would be fun. Next time!