High Altitude

Jeff on top of the mountain
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We woke up today and since the weather was beautiful we decided to tour Orcas Island. Breakfast first though! The spread for today started with coffee, tea and baked pear. The pears even came from the trees on the grounds of the B&B. Max joined us for breakfast again this morning. The second course of breakfast was wonderful potatoes fried with herbs and an omelet made with salmon and cream cheese. I have to admit, it never occurred to me to put salmon and cream cheese in an omelet, but it was amazing!

Snow on the picnic table
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We headed out and our first stop was Moran State Park. Mount Constitution is located in this park. At just over 2400 feet, its the highest point in the San Juans. The drive up to the top is a fairly narrow twisting road. Luckily for me, Jeff was driving! As we went up and up there was a 10 degree drop in temperature (according to the car's reading). There was evidence of snow at the top, but not on the road, just on the path and trees in the shade. Only us and a few other hardy souls braved the cold today for the view. We stood by the edge and checked out the view, which was amazing. After taking some pictures, we climbed to the top of the lookout tower and looked around some more. Both frozen by that point, we headed back to the car.

Lookout Tower
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We had debated staying at Rosario Resort, but had heard some negative reviews about it. We decided to drive by since we weren't that far away. We headed down the mountain and headed for the main road. Once we turned off the main road we found ourselves on another twisty road. Eventually we made it down to the water and the resort. We didn't go inside, but just looked around the grounds. It does seem as if the main building isn't being kept up all that well (which is what we had heard in reviews). The resort buildings up on the hill looked newer and in better shape. The grounds are nice and the view is pretty, but I did have any "hotel envy" while we were here. We frequently check out other hotels (or cruise ships when we are on cruises) and I always rate where we are staying against other places when we look around. When we find places that we have "hotel envy" over, they go on our list as a place to stay next time. Sometimes it leads to regret too about where we are staying, but not always. Anyhow, we loved The Place at Cayou Cove, so no envy here.

My roaring fire
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After looking around Rosarios, we drove further out on the island before heading back to the B&B. I got a fire started again and we enjoyed hanging out and watching the sun set. We decided that the burgers we had seen at the tavern the other night sounded tasty, so we headed back there. We each got burgers and they were great!

Completely stuffed, we headed back to the B&B. We got the fire going again and settled in for the night.