Spring in the San Juan Islands, WA

The path to the Garden Cafe.

Virginia has tucked little surprise pots of flowers throughout the Inn.

20 Plastic Things You Didn’t Know You Can Recycle

Bottle and jar caps: Weisenbach Recycled Products accepts clean plastic bottle caps, plastic jar caps, flip-top caps from personal care products and flexible snap-on lids (e.g. butter tub lids) to turn into funnels and other items. CapsCando.com

Brita pitcher filters: Preserve’s Gimme 5 program accepts Brita-brand pitcher filters for recycling. Visit preserveproducts.com/recycling to find a location or learn how to mail them in. Visit PreserveProducts.com/recycling/gimme5.html to find a location or learn how to mail them in.

Compostable bioplastics: Find a municipal composter at FindaComposter.com

Computers and other electronics: Find the most responsible recyclers near you at e-steward.org/find-a-recycler. Your local Best Buy store will also accept many types of electronics, large and small – from television and gaming systems to fans and alarm clocks. Beat Buy partners with responsible recyclers that do not ship items overseas, including Green Business Network™ member Electronic Recycles International. You can bring three small items per day to Best Buy for free. The comp[an charges a fee to recycle large electronics. BestBuy.com/recycling.

Eyeglasses: Your local Lions Club collects them for people in need.

Fishing line: Mail to Berkley Recycling, which turns it into fish habitat structures: 1900 18^th Street; Spirit Lake IA 51360.

Gift cards and customer loyalty cards: Fill out the form at www.earthworkssystem.com/Consumers/to recycle them. (Accepts conventional cards only, not bioplastic/compostable cards.)

Ink Cartridges: www.RecyclePlace.com pas $1 each and will recycle them (Also see #12 Technotrach.)

Pantyhose/tights: No Nonsense collects all brands of hose, tights, and knee-highs to be recycled into other products. NoNonsense.com/PantyhoseRecycling.aspx.

Plastic Packaging: Many pack-and-ship stores will take packing peanuts and bubble wrap. For drop-off locations for foam blocks, contact ht eAlliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers.

Polypropylene (#5) plastics (all types): Preserve’s Gimme 5 program accepts all types of clean #5 plastic, which iare turned into Preserve personal care and kitchen products. Drop them off in the “Gimme 5” container available at select Whole Foods and food co-ops. Visit PreserveProducts.com/recycling/gimme5.html to find a location or learn how to mail them in.

“Technotrach”: Organizations and schools can earn money for recycling ink cartridges and small electronics like cell phones and I-pods through ProjectKOPEG.com. Recycle a large box of CDs, DVDs, jewel cases, audio and video tapes, small electronics and ink cartridges for $30 (includes postage) through Green Disk, 800.305.3475, GreenDisk.com

Telephones: Call to Protect (donateaphone.com/calltoprotect) refurbishes cell phones for domestic violence victims. Take corded and cordless phones to a local Best Buy for recycling.

Sports Equipment: Resell or trade it at your local Play It Again Sports outlet, playitagainsports.com

Tennis balls: reBounces restores old tennis balls that have lost their bound. ReBounces.com/recycle.

Tennis shoes: NikeReuseAShoe.com turns them into athletic flooring. Soles4Souls.org and OneWorldRunning.com sends still-wearable shoes to runners in need in developing countries.

Toys: Domestic Metals and Plastics accepts plastic toys of all types for recycling. Dmpgreen.com.

Trophies: LambAwards will break your trophies down and remake them into new ones. Email internet@lambawards.com, and put “recycling” in the subject line.

Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: send to Tyvek Recycle, Attn. Shirley B Wright, 8401 Fort Darling Road, Richmond, VA 23237. More than 25: call 866/33-TYVEK.

Yoga Mats: RecycleYourMat.com accepts yoga mats for recycling.

Source: “20 Plastic Things You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle,” Green American, November/December, 2011, p.17.

Island Events – April and May 2012

April 5 – 29: “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” is the spring production by Island Stage Left. Plan to catch a performance of this powerful show that celebrates the resilience and the human spirit – “the profound faith in human happiness to triumph over despair.” Director Helen Machin-Smith reports “The audience last night howled with laughter and quietly teared up, so bring your sense of humor and a Kleenex from now until April 29th!”

This professional theatre company believes that everyone should be able to enjoy top quality plays, regardless of their financial status. All of their productions are free of charge to all islanders and visitors, though donations are certainly welcome. Island Stage Left rarely disappoints.

Playing Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30, Sundays at 4:00, at the San Juan County Fairgrounds.

April 7 – Spring has finally arrived, in all her glory, and the San Juan Island Farmer’s Market begins Saturday, April 7^th at the Brickworks, right next to Coho Restaurant. Running every week through the summer from 10:00am – 1:00pm, the market features a colorful array of island goodness.

April 14 – Sea Shepherd Cove Guardian volunteer, Erwin Vermeulen and  Sea Shepherd’s Director of Intelligence and Investigations/Cove Guardian campaign leader Scott West will speak regarding Vermeulen’s 60-day imprisonment in a Japanese jail and landmark acquittal by a Japanese judge after being accused of “pushing” a Dolphin Resort employee while documenting the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan.

Presentations are from 6:00-7:15pm at the Friday Harbor Grange, 152 First Street, immediately followed by “Meet and Greet” at the Sea Shepherd Gallery 7:15-9:00pm, 155 Nichols St. Reservations recommended, donations requested. See www.seashepherd.org/upclose for more information.

April 21 – The Great Island Clean-up organizers are at it again, mustering up volunteers to pick up litter on beaches and roads. Don’t for a moment think that all this litter comes just from islanders; besides what locals may toss, it washes up on beaches from distant shores far and near, and travels in with vehicles from off-island, creating an unsightly blight on the landscape and deadly consequences for the unsuspecting animals, birds, and marine life who ingest it.

Friends of the San Juans’ Jana Marks, who has been handling the beach clean-ups for the last 10 years, believes that overall, we are getting better, as she has seen slightly less litter than in past years. Her thought is that perhaps people all over the world are just getting better at managing their waste, and are more conscientious about picking up. Another factor is that boating standards have become stricter and she’s seeing less debris from docks such as chunk of Styrofoam. She also believes that more people are simply picking up trash that they see, rather than walking by it. Whatever it boils down to, as Jana says, “We are the problem, and we are the solution.”

The Great Island Clean-up is the day before Earth Day, Saturday, April 21, from 10:00 – 12:00. Volunteers wills attempt to clean all major county roads, beaches, and the Town. If you would like to turn your San Juan Island getaway into voluntourism, contact Stephanie@tuckerhouse.com for details. ”Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations.” – Jean Paul Richter, German novelist.

April 22 – “Rabbit Tales” A fireside chat about the history of rabbits on San Juan Island from the 1930s to the 1970s. This will be a casual, informative and entertaining gathering of island families sharing stories about the bygone days with rabbits. Historian Boyd Pratt will present a slide show on the history of island rabbits and then moderate the story-sharing portion of the program. Please bring your rabbit tales to share, and any historic island rabbit-related photos or memorabilia.  3:00 – 5:00 pm at The Grange Hall, 152 North First Street.

May 19: The annual Friday Harbor Labs Open House is where kids (and adults) get to tour the Labs, meets the scientists and students, and check out the reserach facilites. In other words, it’s a cool place for kids to get excited about marine life and the study of marine eco-systems.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Labs will be open for self-guided tours; scientists and students will showcase their marine science research, answer questions, and provide demonstrations. It’s a hands-on day for kids, and a great way to inspire budding scientists and naturalists. For more information, see their website: http://depts.washington.edu/fhl/events.html#openhouse

 

A Day At The Inn: Guest Becomes a Real Winner

The clean air and gorgeous surroundings of the islands beg visitors to get out and enjoy nature while they’re here. That may include whale watching, kayaking, bicycling, hiking, or even a leisurely sail. But one of our recent guests took that a bit further by enjoying the scenery while running the Run Ladies Run Half Marathon. Not only did Maron Resur run – she came in first place!

 

You might think she had been training for years, but Maron tells us a different story, one to inspire even the staunchest couch potato. She ran cross country in high school, but “was really bad!” She picked it back up last July at age 32, and without the pressures of high school peers and competition, she simply found it fun to do.  With her maximum running distance at 2.5 miles, Maron enter her first half marathon in November, and couldn’t believe she could actually run that far! Her sense of accomplishment compelled her to run in the Vancouver and Bothell half marathons, and within seven months of starting to run simply to feel good, she became the first place winner of the race here on San Juan Island. Asked what was going through her mind during the race, she said “I couldn’t believe no one was ahead of me.”

Maron says it’s the air quality that made the difference in her performance. Raised in the Midwest, she feels the pollen and industrial dust contributed to her lackluster performance in high school. Here the air is much cleaner, and the encouraging organizers had the race route and aid stations set up very efficiently. “The people were SO nice!”

Running 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 50 minutes, “the worst girl on the cross country team” became a real winner on San Juan Island!

An Island Character

Sometimes small communities can produce some pretty outlandish “characters,” and like them or not, they become a part of the “flavor” of the island. But there’s one character here that casts a spell on pretty much everyone who meets her – she’s our beloved dromedary, Mona.

Actually, she doesn’t belong to us, she belongs to islander Steve King, who bought her after seeing an ad in Little Nickel, but she’s become a favorite of every island resident and visitor alike. And there’s the problem:

People want to show Mona how much they like her, and the only way they know how to do that is to feed her. But this winter, Mona developed a skin disorder, due in part to diet. Her caretaker, Gregory Scherzinger, suspects there are other factors at play with local wildlife, particularly deer. None-the-less, now that Mona’s hair is growing in again, we would like to caution all of Mona’s visitors to please use sense when giving Mona treats: nix the popcorn, hotdogs, potato chips, candy and all other junk food. According to Gregory, “She’ll pretty much eat anything (hats are a favorite grab) though she would only eat that if she was really hungry. As camels are grazers, good grass is what does best for her. She loves apples and potatoes, though I don’t feed her more than one or two apples when I do, as they have a lot of sugar in them and [are] not that great for her in quantities. Carrots are good.”

Gregory also cautions that Mona is very friendly, but “one should always be conscious of her. She is a big animal and has her own mind. If she doesn’t like something she can grab pretty hard with her mouth, so anyone feeding her or posing for a picture with their back turned while facing the camera needs to be aware and just pay attention.”

If you haven’t met Mona yet, she’s usually hanging out in the pasture on Roche Harbor Road across from San Juan Vineyards. Bring carrots!

You can visit Mona online, https://www.facebook.com/MonatheCamel. To read how she came to San Juan Island, see the San Juan Journal article http://www.sanjuanjournal.com/lifestyle/27133819.html

Natural Easter Egg Dyes and Edible Nests

We’ll be pretty busy preparing scrumptious breakfasts for guests this weekend, but if you feel like “getting back to the earth” on the holiday this weekend, try using natural dyes for coloring hard cooked eggs. It’s amazing what colors you can come up with. An edible nest to display your pretty eggs is the perfect container. Just follow these easy instructions:

Chop fresh or dried materials into tiny pieces. Use non-aluminum container, boil each color separately using 1 gallon of water, 1/2 cup of vinegar (to set the color) and ½ to 1 cup of ingredients. Once boiled, dyes can be stored in the refrigerator for later use. Cook eggs before coloring them, but don’t bring them to a rolling boil, which can cause cracks in the shells.

To cook the eggs, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to the water in a pan, and bring the liquid to a light simmer. Add the eggs and remove the pot from the heat. Let the eggs steep in the vinegar water until they are cool enough to remove by hand.

Colors will vary depending on how much of each ingredient is used and how long the egg soaks in the mixture.

Bark: boil one hour; Brown = ash, birch, walnut, maple, hemlock

Black = alder

Gold = eucalyptus

Red = bayberry

Twigs and leaves: boil two hours

Gray = blackberry plat

Yellow = poplar leaves, peach leaves

Lime green = lily of the valley leaves

Vegetables and berries: boil 45 minutes

Red = red onion skins, raspberries, beets, strawberries, red cabbage

Yellow = onion skin

Blue = blueberries, boysenberries, red cabbage

Green = spinach, squash, kale, parsley, new mint leaves or new ivy leaves

Brown = coffee grounds

Orange = carrots

Orange = boil 4 cups of onions skins and 2 tablespoons of vinegar in a quart of water, simmer 30 minutes

Pink = beets

Purple = blackberries, red grapes

Flowers: boil 15 minutes

Green = morning glory

Beige = red bougainvillea

Blue = cornflower, larkspur

Red = bloodroot poppy, red zinnias

Yellow = goldenrod, dahlias, marguerites, dried marigolds

Other:

Brown = turmeric, brewed coffee

Yellow = chamomile tea

Wrap eggs with rubber bands or drizzle with rubber cement over the shells before dying to create interesting designs.

Source: Green Hotels Association

 

Edible Nests

If you’d like to make edible nests to display your cute, natural Easter eggs, you can quickly pull them together with Kataifi, which is shredded phyllo dough available in the freezer section of grocery stores and specialty stores.

Preheat your oven to 375° degrees F. Brush large muffin tins or pie tins (depending on the size of nest you want) with butter.

Separate the shredded phyllo (8 ounces) into bundles and cut each into 2-inch lengths. Place the shreds in a bowl and use your fingers to separate them into a loose pile. Toss them with 3 – 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, a tablespoon or more of sugar, and a bit of cinnamon in you like.

Divide the shreds into the tins and press into the bottoms and up the sides. Cook until golden and crisp around the edges, about 15 minutes. Let cool and remove them carefully from the tins.

They’re now ready to nestle your beautiful, natural eggs into them.

 

Joy House History

We were thrilled to hear from Mr. M. J. (Jerry) Hemphill, who sent us photos and his personal history of what’s known in Friday Harbor as the Joy House. To us, it’s the Upper Tucker House, our main check-in and guest pubic area.

Jerry’s father (Melville B.) inherited the Joy House from grandfather William in the dividing of the family estate in the early 1940’s. Jerry visited the house often as a child in the late 20′s and early 30′s when his grandfather still lived there, and later when occupied by his aunt Edna and uncle John Nash. It was his understanding that the house was built by one of the Jensen’s, a local shipbuilding family.

Rock in the way of completing the basement was his most significant memory of the house itself. At the time Jerry’s relatives owned the home, among the families living nearby are those we recognize from Friday Harbor street names today including Tucker and Geneste.

Loading their belonging into Blair King’s produce truck, Jerry’s family moved to Port Orchard Jan 1, 1941 when he was 13 years old. He didn’t really want to leave his young friends and neighbor Harry Wilkes, behind, but he was looking forward to the adventure of it all, little realizing how it would shape his life. The relative isolation of the Island in that era was its own security blanket, something that keeps memories of the island intact today.

After working 47 years for the Federal Government, Jerry retired with his wife to Buckley WA, to be near his children. We’re waiting for him to come back to the island and revisit the house of his youth.

A Day At The Inns – Wet Feet!

This is the time of year that we focus our attention to our physical plant by giving guest rooms and suites a bit of a face lift in preparation for the summer season. On January 4^th, on-site innkeeper Erin Dannelly rolled out of bed and padded barefoot into her kitchen. Still fuzzy headed from sleep, it took her a moment to register that her feet were sloshing in water – her apartment had flooded! Just like last year, the island was deluged with another intense week of heavy rains and winds, and many locals found themselves with “waterfront property,” dealing with flooded homes and impassable driveways and roads. It was almost a year to the day that we finally licked the water problems in our nautically-themes Shaw Suite; but nature and old homes have a way of asserting their will! It gives us a whole new perspective on how Spring Street got its name. Living on a huge rock, it seems water will always find a way in when it wants to. After some repairs and trenching, and cleaning up the mess, Erin was relieved to be back to a dry apartment again and get back to her winter project list.

One of our recent guests told us that red and yellow, the colors Erin just painted our Goose In The Pond cottage, are the hues of “good luck” in the Chinese culture. Here’s hoping some of that good luck will stay with us through out the next year of winter weather.

Also sporting new wall tones: Roche Harbor Cottage and the Garden Room Café, lightening up the rooms to go with our brighter mood for the coming year.

Island Artists’ Works Adorn Tucker House Walls

 

The Upper Tucker House walls and Garden Room Café are now adorned with art works by a number of noted island artists, all featuring scenes from the San Juan Islands. Island Studios owner Claudia Fullerton selected pieces from her gallery to display in our main guest public areas, matching each painting and print to the wall colors. We are amazed at how beautiful the pieces look on our walls!

 

Stroll through the sunroom, the living room, the upstairs hallway to view these lovely pieces. Don’t miss the back hallway – turn up the dimmer if the light is low – where you’ll find a intense watercolor landscape by Kristy Gjesme and what Stephanie, our Guest Services Coordinator, has dubbed “the Whale Wall,” featuring photos by Whale Watch Captain Jim Maya.

 

Since the art is for sale, in these colorful scenes, you’ll find valuable souvenirs from your island stay; reading the artists’ stories will give you inspiration to get back to nature in the beautiful San Juan Islands:

 

Terry Domico is an internationally known professional naturalist and photographer who lives on San Juan Island. Terry’s photographs present beautiful images of landscapes of the San Juan Islands.

Claudia Fullerton started working with glass in the early 1980s. Over the years she has created many original stained glass windows, and began adding fused glass to her palate in the mid 1990s. She lives on San Juan Island and is the owner of Island Studios in Friday Harbor, the largest gallery collection of local artisans in the San Juan Islands.

Kristy Gjesme finds inspiration for her watercolor originals and reproductions in the beauty and solitude of her home, the San Juan Islands. Gjesme expresses this spirit in her paintings by exploring the brilliant colors she finds unique to the Pacific Northwest. She is a well-known and much respected watercolor artist and teacher in Friday Harbor.

Lanny Little’s goal as a painter is to create images where light, color, and paint interact to produce a unique and moving visual experience. His painting process is not a spontaneous activity but is instead a thorough and meticulous process that involves capturing the subtlety and intensity of light and color. His paintings capture a variety of landscapes and images from the San Juan Islands.

Teresa Smith creates beautiful paintings in watercolor and acrylic. Teresa is inspired by nature and she intuitively creates and paint personal impression of the environment that surrounds her. Many of her paintings reflect the landscape and images of the San Juan Islands.

Nancy Spaulding works in pastels to capture particular moments and places in such a way that their essence is instilled in my mind and the memories can be shared with others. She feels that the more deeply we explore our surroundings, the more we are sensitive to what goes on there. Art is her way of sharing her feelings of place. Nancy’s hand-made books are also in the guest rooms and suites for visitor’s comments.

Jim Maya

Jim Maya is a retired teacher and life long naturalist who found his passion in the magnificent orca whales off the coast of San Juan Island. He is a whale/wildlife charter captain who never misses an opportunity to visit our beloved orcas, and has captured some of the most amazing photos of Southern Resident pods and transients.

 

More works by these artists and others can be seen at Island Studios, 270 Spring Street. For a full array of whale and wild life photos, contact Jim Maya at captjim@interisland.net or http://www.mayaswhalewatch.biz.

 

Sunny Skies Herald Spring

The last few days of sunny skies have everyone cheering for Spring’s arrival. And have you noticed the amazing sunsets we’ve been having lately? Yes, it’s true, we live in a post card!

New Orca Calf – Just in Time For Christmas!

Exciting News! It’s been kept quiet to make sure all parties confirmed, but NOAA’s NW Fisheries Science Center and the Center for Whale Research have confirmed that on December 17, 39-year old J16 (Slick) gave birth to a new baby calf in Puget Sound, probably only a few hours judging from the fresh fetal folds, before being seen and photographed by veteran field researcher Candice Emmons of NWSFC.

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Guest Shares Christmas Gift Giving Ideas

We are tired of the “commercialized” Christmas.  How many times have we all said that??  This year we have decided to do something about it. 

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Island Events For the Holiday Season

The town is always lovely in December, with storefronts decorated and lights twinkling everywhere. There’s no trace of the hustle and bustle of mainland cities – a peaceful calm fills the air, and there is truly a sense of joy everywhere on the island.

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Wedding Photographer Available

We love hosting weddings on the lawn at the Lower Tucker House – the ancient willow tree adds such gentle beauty to the setting.  One of the weddings were had the privilege of hosting and catering this summer was captured on film by free lance photographer Jonathan Steinberg.

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Free Tickets!

No one likes to pay taxes, but here’s a chance for you to recoup some of the lodging tax that you pay on hotel rooms. Thanks to funds received from the Friday Harbor Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, the Whale Museum is able to offer free Vacation Passes to our inn guests. The pass is good for

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Are There Ghosts in Friday Harbor?

Does the spirit of one of these women linger with us still? We’ve had guests tell us they heard strange sounds while staying in the Victoria’s Flower Garden suite in our historic 1898 Tucker House. One even told us she heard a nice, grandmotherly voice, clear-as-a-bell, tell her “It’s time to get up, sweetheart.”

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Tucker House Named One of 10 Best

The Tucker House was just named one of 10 Great B&B Escapes for Fall on Smarter Travel.com.  They particularly loved our Dine and Dream Package, offering special room rates for guests joining us at Coho Restaurant for our San Juan Vineyards Winemaker Dinner on Friday, October 21 and the Westcott Bay Cider/San Juan Distillery Dinner on Friday, October 28.  View details on the website.

Smarter Travel.com is the largest online travel resource for unbiased travel news, deals, and timely expert advice. We are honored to be included in their selection of Trip Advisor 5-star rated inns.

Fall is the perfect time to travel – the weather is gorgeous, the crowds are gone, the savings are starting, and the beauty of the islands is bathed in the golden light of autumn.  As they say on Smarter Travel, “Why stay home when you can spend the weekend away enjoying all these seasonal spoils?”

Four Orca Calves Receive Names

After several weeks of public voting with more than 6,500 votes counted, four Southern Resident Community Orca calves have new names! The newly named babies are: Notch (J-47), Saturna (K-43), Mystic (L-115) and Finn (L-116).

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Historical Home Tour

Wouldn’t it be cool if inanimate objects had a voice?  Like old homes for example; think of all they could tell us about the families they sheltered. 

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More Than Just Whale Babies in these Waters

Our local orcas are so magnificent, it’s hard not to place all our attention on them.  But there’s more to these waters than orcas.  Whale watch captain Jim Maya regularly gets lovely photos of all kinds of wild life, as seen in this shot of a sea otter giving her pup a ride.