San Juan Island with little Kids

I’m Eva and I’m eight. San Juan Island is my favorite place and Orca whales are my favorite animals. First I get to take the ferry to come visit (make sure your Mom & Dad make reservations!), that’s so cool. There are puzzles on the tables that other people have started and if I get tired of that I can walk (no running, yes, Mom!) around the ferry boat about 12 times and then we are in Friday Harbor.

Right where the ferry parks, there is the best ice cream shop in the world. They have over 70 flavors, that’s more than my little brother Max can count! There is a park on the water too, where you can eat your ice cream and sit on Popeye’s statue. Popeye is the one-eyed seal who lives here. She knows me.

Friday Harbor is nice because everybody likes kids. There is the Toy Box, my favorite toy store, for when we forget our kite or the Frisbee. And the San Juan Florist, an old-fashioned candy and flower store, with giant glass jars filled to the rim with every candy I’ve ever seen.  The last time I was in Friday Harbor, I spent all my birthday money there. We even get to go to fancy restaurants with mom and dad because they have lots of yummy food that I like trying and they don’t make me feel funny just ‘cause I’m a kid.

My little brother is still in a stroller (my old one) so until he finally learns how to walk, we’ll have to do stroller friendly things. There are lots of stroller friendly things to do on San Juan Island. Here are my five favorite ones:

That’s a fake tooth from a whale, that’s how big they are

1. Whale Museum

The Friday Harbor Whale Museum by the Toy Box is a really cool (and fun!) natural history museum. There are whale skeletons, a phone booth where you can listen to the whales sing, and a really nice gift shop, where I got my whale hoodie. You can even pick a whale and adopt him. You don’t get to take him home, it’s more like helping them, and you get a certificate and a photo and stickers and notes from your whale.

2. Lime Kiln State Park

Most people call it the Whale Watch Park, because it’s the best place in the world to see whales from land. It has everything: a light house, an interpretive center and stroller friendly trail, picnic benches right on the cliffs, the biggest trees and a rebuilt old lime kiln a little ways into the park, which looks like an ancient tower, but it’s not good for the stroller.  I once saw whales here so close, that I could see their eyes. I love to climb around on the smaller cliffs and make dolls out of Bull Kelp.

3. San Juan Sculpture Park

The 20-acre Sculpture Park shows over 150 pieces of amazing art along five marked trails through meadows, woods, along Westcott Bay and around a large pond. My Mom gets, what she calls her “art fix” here, while Dad, Max and I are working on the Starfish Project. It’s a huge starfish shaped sandbox, filled with stones and shells and driftwood, where you can make your own art. Oh, and kids are free.

4. The Pool at the Earthbox Inn & Spa

Whether you stay at the Earthbox Inn & Spa or the Bird Rock Hotel, you get to use the pool house at the Earthbox. It’s heated, there is a hot tub and a sauna and in the summer Mom & Dad can sunbathe on the pool patio by the flowers while Max and I get to play in the water as long as we want.

5. Whale Watching

I have been whale watching with the San Juan Safaris twice now and can hardly wait for next time. They are super nice people, all the little kids get a life vest and binoculars and they explain really well what you see, the birds and the sea lions and of course the whales, which ones they are, if it’s a boy or a girl whale and how they can tell them apart from the patches on their backs or from their fins. On the last trip I saw a baby whale. They are already six feet long when they are born! When I grow up I want to live on San Juan Island and work for the whales.