Friday Harbor August 30, 2025

Euri and I took the ferry from Anacortes out to San Juan Island for the day. We walked around Friday Harbor, had lunch at San Juan Island Brewing, tasted wine at San Juan Vineyard, and finished the day out at Roche Harbor.

Taking the ferry from Anacortes

Getting there is half the fun. Washington State Ferries runs from Anacortes to Friday Harbor through the San Juan Islands, and the crossing takes a little over an hour. Check the WSDOT ferry schedule before you go.

The morning was gray and cool, so I was glad I brought a sweater for standing out on the deck.

Jereme on the outer deck of a Washington State ferry, with gray water and islands behind himAnother green and white Washington State ferry crossing gray water between forested islands

Friday Harbor

The ferry drops you right in Friday Harbor, the island's main town, under a sign with a couple of orcas on it. It's an easy place to wander on foot.

The "Friday Harbor, San Juan Island" sign with orcas, over the ferry landing

Euri made a new friend on a bronze bench in Friday Harbor.

Euri leaning on the shoulder of a bronze statue of a bearded man reading a newspaper, with a bronze dog beside him

Lunch at San Juan Island Brewing

We had lunch at San Juan Island Brewing, right in town. "Relax and enjoy" is printed right on the glass, and we took it as instructions.

Two beers in San Juan Island Brewing glasses on a wooden table

Wine tasting at San Juan Vineyard

After lunch we headed out to San Juan Vineyard for a tasting flight on the covered patio. By then it was a sunny afternoon. The flight included island-grown whites like Madeleine Angevine and Siegerrebe, plus a red. They grow their own grapes in the San Juan Island microclimate, so their estate wines are unlike anything you'll find on the mainland. We enjoyed it so much that I joined their wine club.

Jereme at a patio table with two wine tasting flights at San Juan Vineyard

Roche Harbor

We finished the day at Roche Harbor, on the north end of the island. It started as a company town: John S. McMillin built the Tacoma and Roche Harbor Lime Company here in the 1880s, and at its peak it was the largest lime producer in the Pacific Northwest. The company stopped making lime in 1956, and the town became a resort. (National Park Service)

Euri waving in front of the white Roche Harbor general store

The Hotel de Haro, which McMillin built in 1886 for the lime company's visitors, still looks out over the marina.

The white Hotel de Haro with its long porches, above the gardens and flags at Roche Harbor

Some of the old lime kilns are still standing, and Euri ducked into one.

Euri standing in the arched opening of an old stone lime kiln

The harbor was full of sailboats, cruisers and kayaks.

Sailboats, motorboats and a yellow kayak in Roche Harbor

Driving around the island, we also spotted a garden gnome standing guard in the moss on the side of the road.

A garden gnome with a red hat standing on a mossy stump among ferns

Heading home

We caught the ferry back as the sun was going down, which is a pretty good way to end a day on the islands.

A Washington State ferry coming around a forested point in the evening lightJereme in his hood and Euri smiling on the ferry deck at sunset

For more around the state, see my Washington travel posts, including a stop in Walla Walla.

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