Last weekend we took a few days off work and headed north to see our wonderful friends get married. Traveling to the wedding location turned out to be quite an adventure! The wedding was being held on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington.

And right now, you might be asking yourself, how do you get to an island with your car?

The answer: You take a ferry!

Since the fall is typically an off-peak time to travel to the San Juan Islands, the ferry schedules were on the sparse side. In order to catch one of the early ferries on Friday morning, we traveled up north on Thursday night and stayed in a hotel close to the ferry terminal.

The thing about ferries is they only have so much space, so it’s important that you arrive early and get in line. The system is “first come, first serve.” We arrived at the ferry terminal about an hour and a half before it was scheduled to leave.

We hung out in line, enjoyed the views and eventually I decided to venture out and explore. I quickly found the Terminal Buzz and grabbed a pair of chai lattes to take back to The Renaissance Man.

We sipped chai, listen to music, and enjoyed each others company while waiting for the ferry to arrive.

Soon enough we were driving onto the Yakima Ferry headed to Orcas Island!

I’m not sure what it is about getting on a ferry, but all of your worries just seem to float away…

You loose your sense of time and the beautiful scenery captures your imagination. It wasn’t long before we ran into people we knew, which I suppose is what happens when you head to a wedding on a boat. With only a handful of ferries a day, your bound to meet people headed in the same direction.

While The Renaissance Man caught up with friends from college over a game of cards, I decided to stake out a nice window seat close to a power outlet.

I honestly don’t know if there is anything better than blogging from a boat! The gentle humming of the ferry engine, soft conversation of fellow passengers, and stunning views all made for the perfect setting. My creative juices started flowing and the words ran like a faucet out of my finger tips.

The ferry ride was only about an hour, but it felt like time stood still. I later told The Renaissance Man that we hand to come back, so that I could take the ferry around to all the different islands and spend a whole day blogging. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a nice hot cup of tea.

The ferry ride was the perfect transition to a wonderful weekend getaway.