Day 1 - We spent our first day hiking up Mt. Constitution. After two miles of hiking, we reached the top (elevation, 2000 ft.) and hiked another 2 miles to get to the tower. From the tower, we could see Vancouver to the north and both mountain ranges to the east and west -- the Cascades and the Olympics, respectively. It was a spectacular view! Worth every drop of sweat. On the hike up, I was lamenting the fact that people could take the easy way up by driving to the top. That is until my knees starting throbbing, and I realized that I couldn't make it back down! Jason had to descend alone, and come back to "rescue" me with the car.  

Day 2 - We took a whale-watching boat ride. The owners of our boat had bit roles in the movie Free Willy II, so they had a few photo albums full of mementos, including some candid photos of actress Teri Hatcher sans makeup. It took about an hour to reach "J pod," where we got to see a few resident orcas swimming around. Even more abundant were the hundreds of other whale-watching boats circling around J pod. For the most part, the whales don't really mind all the visitors, so said our guide, and they have ways of telling you to bug off.

The boat tour was five hours long, so we toured some of the other islands, many of which are owned by the rich and famous. One island, according to our guide, used to be owned by John Wayne. He imported all kinds of exotic birds and animals, and then he routinely hunted them with a high-powered rifle! Eventually, his island neighbors complained about the noise and he stopped. A couple of the islands are for sale, by the way, if you're interested.

Day 3 - We rose early to catch the noon ferry back to the mainland. Since we had about three hours to spare, we figured we'd wander around near the dock and get some breakfast before buying our tickets and parking our car in line. Luckily, we ran into a friend who told us that the next two ferries were already sold out! So, we scrambled back to our car and raced to the ticket booth. The last ferry of the day was only half full, we learned. So we bought our tickets and parked our car in line. We had about seven hours to kill, but at least we were lucky enough to get off the island that day. Jason would have had a lot of explaining to do.