Brian and I used this past weekend as an opportunity for a mini getaway and to check out a potential venue on Orcas. We left Seattle early Saturday morning and headed up to our first stop - La Conner.
Waiting for breakfast
La Conner is a cute little town in the Skagit Valley, two hours north of Seattle. After a delicious breakfast, we headed to Tulip Town to check out the tulips in bloom.
The tulips were in full bloom that weekend and we were lucky enough to see them on a nice day. There were tulips of every color and there were just rows and rows of them.
So many tulips!
The colors were so beautiful
Stopping to smell the tulips
We then had to hurry on over to Anacortes to catch the ferry. No matter how much we plan, it just seems like we are rushing for the ferry. Since we were walking on it wasn't too bad of a rush. We could just basically park the car and buy our ticket at the counter. The only problem is that we parked in the further lot so there is that feeling of anxiety as we are walking towards the ferry terminal hoping that we will make it just in time because the next ferry wouldn't be around for another few hours. Luckily for us we made it and didn't even have to make a run for it.
The ferry ride from Anacortes to the San Juan Islands is a beautiful one. As soon as you step on the ferry and pull away from the dock you immediately feel like you are on vacation. It seems like you are more than just 2 hours from Seattle. The ferry ride, depending on which one you take, is about an hour and a half. Plenty of time to completely unwind and start adjusting to "island time". The ferry we took had a few stops before arriving at Orcas. We stopped at Lopez and Shaw.
This is the view of Orcas as we approach the dock.
Leaving Shaw and heading towards Orcas
Gotta back up and rewind for a second....
Shortly after we got engaged, I started browsing wedding venues around Seattle. At this point we hadn't really decided what kind of wedding we wanted so I was looking at everything big and small. During that search I came across some beautiful venues but I was drawn to the Orcas Hotel. I showed the website to Brian and he liked it too. The only catch was that it is a smaller venue so that would mean we wouldn't be able to invite that many people. After some discussion we agreed that we both would like a small and intimate wedding where our loved ones could spend the weekend with us and just share in our special day. Since we don't all get a
chance to get together very often this seemed like a great opportunity for everyone to get to know one another better and party! I made a reservation for Brian and I to stay at the Orcas Hotel on Saturday, April 25th to take a tour of the property and meet with a wedding coordinator. That weekend (4/26) also happened to be our 2 year anniversary so what better time to do it?!
Ok back to docking on Orcas...
View of Hotel from Ferry Dock
As we got off the ferry we saw that the hotel was not far at all. It was so easy to walk off the ferry and straight to the hotel. We checked in, dropped off our stuff in our room, and met with Samantha (the wedding coordinator). She showed us photos of some weddings that they had hosted at the hotel. She asked Brian and I what our vision was for our wedding and showed us around the property. She told us what they had done in the past and what options we would have. She made us feel very comfortable and answered all the questions I had.
That's it for now. I'll write more later. Take a look at the collage above of some photos we took of Orcas Hotel.
