My 13th Birthday!!!!!

Last week I turned 13!!!  Eeott and Papa drove up for my birthday. They arrived a few days before and stayed until the next day. For my birthday breakfast Mom and Eeott made egg & bacon croissants.  Yum! That was the first time we had that and it was great!  We also enjoyed birthday donuts.  I opened presents and cards in a hurry because we had a ferry to catch that would take us to San Juan Island. I requested that we visit San Juan National Historical Park (we had never been there before) and spend the day on the island.

Here are some breakfast pics:

Eating and opening up the gifts

I'm the birthday girl!

The table and croissants...and that's me eyeballing that doughnut and someone trying to take it!

Blowing out my candle!

 Gifts & Decorations


Some gift opening:

Opening my gift from Auntie Sharon....

....An Oregon Ducks towel (Go Ducks!)

And a horse book!

An art book from Eeott & Papa

God blessed me with one of the best birthday gifts I could ever ask for while aboard the ferry. The captain came on the radio and said that there was a pod of Orca whales on the Starboard side of the boat!!! Everyone rushed to the windows to see. There they were splashing through the water!  Before long, Orcas were surrounding us. The captain stopped the vessel, and everyone stared in awe at those wondrous creatures. Absolutely amazing.

Eeott captured a video of a few of them:

We arrived at San Juan Island National Historical Park a little while later. There are two areas in the park to see: the American Camp (located on the south side of the island) and the English Camp (north side). The history of the "Pig War" (mid 1800s) is quite interesting. I recommend researching it for your own curiosity. :-)
We toured the American Camp first and checked out the visitor center.

Mom :)

Eeott & me

Esther :)

An overview of the American Camp with two out of three remaining buildings

This is the building where the women washed clothes

Sören standing in front of a monumental boulder

 After a short walk around the American Camp,  we drove to Lime Kiln State Park for a picnic lunch:

The Lime Kiln Lighthouse built in 1919

One of the Light Keepers' houses

Group photo

The Tribe of Benjamin

After that we went to the English Camp:

Esther looking up at the British flag

On a hill overlooking part of the English camp

Inside the flower garden

The Blockhouse (the top half is original)

A building

We earned our "Junior  Ranger" badges 

That evening, we hurried back to the ferry terminal and bareley made the ferry. No whales this time!

                                               The View

Father-Son picture

 A Happy Family

We stopped and bought some fish & chips in town and then ate it at home. Eeott and Lillian made a pecan pie with vanilla ice cream! :) 

Papa, Eeott & me