March 16, 2000
Enjoy Friday Harbor during the quiet months
By HILDA ANDERSON
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER
The streets of Friday Harbor on San Juan Island are practically empty this time of year, a far cry from summer when hordes of visitors crowd the sidewalks, shops and restaurants.
The slower pace provides the perfect atmosphere for a weekend retreat. But if you insist on making your getaway an active one, the island has plenty to offer in the attractions department as well.
Tops on the list is the Whale Museum at 62 First St. It's easy to find. Just look for the two-story building with a colorful whale mural splashed across the front.
The waters around San Juan Island are home to three pods of Orca whales with a population approaching 100. In recent years -- partly because of the two "Free Willy" movies made in the San Juans -- worldwide attention has focused on the mammals.
The first floor houses the museum store selling whale-related items -- photos, paintings, T-shirts, videos, posters, tapes, toys, reference books and activity books for youngsters.
Whale murals cover the walls flanking the staircase to the second-floor museum and recorded sounds of the three pods -- J, K and L -- set the mood.
Upstairs, a whale skeleton some 15 feet long hangs from the ceiling. Interpretive signs explain whales, part of the cetacean family and the only aquatic mammal that never comes out of the water. You'll see a side-by-side exhibit of a human brain and the brain of a 64-foot-long adult female whale and learn about the two types of whales -- toothed and baleen.
Cases hold barnacles, the marine crustaceans that colonize on the bodies of whales, and jars of parasitic worms -- one 27 feet long. You'll see pictures of each of the whales in the J, K and L pods.
One of the really neat exhibits is in a phone booth. Enter, close the door, press one of 10 buttons and you'll hear recorded sounds of various whales, dolphins, seals and walruses. Each, such as the haunting sounds of the humpback whale, is distinctive.
You'll learn how whales use sonar echolocation to determine their location and explore their surroundings. A large wall map shows where whales can be found along the Pacific Coast, from the tip of Baja California to the Bering Sea. Photos capture the 1997 sighting of whales in Dyes Inlet near Bremerton.
In a small room with cushions on the floor, youngsters can sit while they look at the collection of children's books about whales. Masks made by students at the Spring Street School in Friday Harbor hang on one wall.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $5, $4 for 62-plus, $2 for all students, under 5 free. For additional information, call the museum at 360-378-4710; access their Web site at www.whalemuseum.com
If you're in Friday Harbor on a Saturday this month or next, visit the San Juan Historical Museum. You'll find it at 405 Price St. off of Spring, the main street through town, in a two-story white clapboard farmhouse built in 1894.
We visited the museum for the first time earlier this month and got a whole new perspective on island living. These days, getting to the San Juans is easy. You simply hop on a Washington State Ferry at Anacortes or fly there on Kenmore Air or Harbor Air. The museum makes you realize how isolated life must have been there 150 years ago.
When you start your visit, pick up a copy of the self-guided tour of the museum from one of the volunteers on duty.
Museum furnishings were used on the island in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The sheet music of "A Song of San Juan," written in 1916 by island resident Olive Kirk D'Arcy, sits atop an old organ, a 1905 wedding gift to an island bride and groom.
Among the many historic photos is one of Christopher Rosler, an aide to Capt. George E. Pickett (later to gain fame at Gettysburg in the Civil War), stationed at American Camp during the 1859 Pig War. Family portraits show Rosler, who had a farm on the island, his wife and their nine children.
The war began over a pig, owned by the British Hudson's Bay Company on the island, which was shot by an American settler who found it rooting in his garden.
Several historic buildings have been moved to the grassy area at the rear of the house. In the carriage house is a 19th-century buggy used by the local midwife who delivered between 500 and 600 babies. Next to the carriage is a picture of her and her husband, who was the sheriff.
The 1895 jail used for more than 40 years cost $234.50. Inside it is a picture of evangelist Billy Sunday who came to the island to preach a temperance sermon in 1910. The next day, the men of Friday Harbor marched to the polls and voted 3 to 1 to outlaw liquor in the town. (Women couldn't vote at that time.)
From May to September, museum hours expand to Thursday through Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. Admission is $2, $1 for 6-18, under 5 free.
If you like browsing in galleries, you'll find 10 of them in Friday Harbor. We visited two. The Garuda and I at 60 First St. specializes in ethnic artifacts, beads and jewelry. The sound of water running into a pond where goldfish swim, the smell of scented candles and the chatter of colorful zebra finches create an exotic atmosphere.
Island Studios at 270 Spring St. features the works of close to 100 San Juan Islands artists. You'll find jewelry, paintings, pottery, beeswax candles, soaps, hand-painted picture frames, wrought-iron hooks and brackets, glassware, flavored vinegars, clothing and Asian-style, heavy iron bells to grace a garden.
Some three dozen restaurants offer everything from pub food to gourmet fare. We like to stop for lunch at Angie's Cannery House Restaurant at 174 N. First St. overlooking the harbor. A moderately priced, local favorite, it offers a good selection of sandwiches (each named after a San Juan Island), soups, salads and homemade desserts such as chocolate decadence, fruit pies and tiramisu. Lunch daily, dinner Wednesday through Saturday this time of year.
Locals recommended Downriggers, on Front Street a block from the ferry dock, for its consistent quality. The emphasis is on seafood with salmon, halibut, snapper and whole Dungeness crab prepared differently each night. Other offerings include Northwest crab cakes, oysters panko, rib steak, baby back ribs, steak and prawns, chicken and pork loin medallions. Entrees with soup or salad are $11.95 to $24.95.
The two-screen Royal Theatre on Spring Street shows first-run movies nightly with matinees on weekends. Admission is $7 for 17-64, $5 for 13-16 and 65-plus, $3 for 2-12.