Roche Harbor

While we end up in Friday Harbor pretty much every week while we're staying on Shaw, we always get in one trip to Roche Harbor. It's where the money people hang out - we just go to gawk and stare. We waited for a warm, sunny day for our annual Roche Harbor trek for lunch this year. It takes about a half-hour in the RIB so we like it to be fairly warm and it was a beauty of a day this year. Coming into the harbor there is always amazing. The new houses are huge and have a "look at me!" style of architecture that, to me, is so not-the-rest-of-the-islands. And the boats...well, let's just say there are a lot of really big boats kept there. Many of them never leave their slips, let alone leave Roche Harbor. Their owners fly in, spend the week or weekend aboard, then fly out again. The only way they see the rest of the area is by looking out the window of the plane. This year was no different. It's a busy harbor; partly because it's Roche, partly because it's also a US Customs port-of-entry from Canada. You can be sure there's always a line of boats waiting to clear customs. We managed to find a little spot to tie up. Those three larger boats are for sale. I could get the information if you're interested. Really, I could. We had lunch at the Fluffy Duck.

Also having lunch there was Paul Watson of the Animal Planet's Whale Wars television series. I didn't get a very good picture of him...I was trying to take it on the sly. I wanted Randy to start singing "The World is a Vampire" but said no.

It's where the rich and famous dine while in the Islands. Truely, these people are not going out in a boat. They had on long black dresses and pant-suits, lots of gold lame' on the women and (unfortunately,) lots of gold chains on the men. These people aren't from WA state; these people had dark tans. We don't have dark tans in WA state...we have rain with a few days of sun sprinkled in.

Roche does a great job on landscaping - it has probably the best-looking grounds in the islands. It's beautiful there...no doubt about it! I love the way this little chapel is situated overlooking the harbor. It's called the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Voyage. In fact, I bought a bookmark at the Island Artist's Studio that has a watercolor painting of the Chapel. I like it a lot. The other fun thing to do at Roche is read the names on the yachts. This year's winner was an obvious choice. We both knew it the minute we spotted it. Can't read it? Here, let me pull in a bit. Must be Seinfeld fans! Finally, here's a link to a walking tour of Roche Harbor. It's a great place to visit, even if you're not rich and famous! http://www.rocheharbor.com/walkingtour.html