Last year we went to the Okanagon for my birthday and this year we decided to visit the San Juan Islands. Although they are only a short ferry ride away, I'd never been there before.

We (husband, dog and I) took the ferry from Sidney BC to Friday Harbor, WA. We had to clear US customs and immigration in Sidney and didn't expect any problems since we had our passports and the dog's vaccination certificate. Were we surprised when the customs official told us that we couldn't bring the dog's food (dry pet food that we purchase from our vet) into the US and made us dump it into a garbage can. Apparently, pet food is considered an agricultural product. Does that mean we couldn't bring in our corn flakes or cheerios either?????

The Washington State ferries are more basic than the BC ferries but they cost less and are considered part of the highway system. If only ours were treated the same way.

We stayed at a pet-friendly B&B for two nights in Friday Harbor and explored San Juan Island. We visited a great lavender farm that sold lots of products plus showed how the lavender oil, etc. was extracted.


We also visited a alpaca ranch where we met some of the alpacas (so cute) and I bought a skein of baby alpaca yarn to knit myself a scarf. Some of the yarn was dyed and some were the nature colours of the alpacas and include photos of the source animal.


San Juan Island was the location of the pig war (fighting between the American and British over ownership of the islands) and the British and American camps are preserved as National Parks. We went to see both but it was so windy that day that we were almost blown away.