Lopez Island 2024

[Originally sent as email travelogue, Monday, April 8, 7:19 pm.] Some people have a "friend group," and some people simply have a few great friends. This past weekend I filled my role as part of a close friend's group of other friends—specifically, those in his upcoming wedding party. Let's go through them all! NOTE TO GABRIEL: Don't panic. Settle down. I'll be nice, I promise! For example, here is something I thought a lot about over the weekend: you can judge a person by the friends he keeps, and this is a great group of people. It could be argued this is all you need to know about Gabriel to know he is good people.

Brian So. My friend Gabriel (not pictured) is getting married—on "May the 4th," because he is a Star Wars nut—and instead of a traditional bachelor party, he asked the friends who will be groomsmen to join him for a weekend in a shared cabin on Lopez Island. There were five of us who made it, and when I arrived at the Anacortes Ferry Terminal a solid hour early for the 12:35 pm ferry, I texted the group a solo selfie at the terminal with the note, "I like to be early." Literally seconds later, I saw Andy (center in the above photo) get out of his car. Two cars ahead of me. Goddammit! There went my weekend. Truly moments after that, Brian (to the right in the above photo) was seen walking toward us, from maybe two or three cars behind me. So of course I had to take this group selfie, and then send it—I just checked my text records while writing this, and the two photos were sent literally two minutes apart. Naturally Gabriel thought this was hilarious. Anyway. The four of us joining Gabriel for this weekend included three of his best friends and one of his brothers. I have known Gabriel 29 years; we met in college. The two other friends are from high school, so of course all the others have me beat in longevity, albeit only his brother by a wide margin. Brian, the guy to the right, might be characterized as the "normal" one. To the untrained eye, anyway. There was literally a discussion about neurodivergence and how apparently all of us would be diagnosed as such if asked enough questions (really, who wouldn't: another point made was: what is "neurotypical," anyway?) and I was like, "What's weird about Brian?" I don't know any of these people besides Gabriel very well anyway, so honestly they all seem like normies to me, notwithstanding my other friend Danielle's penchant for saying "Normal is a cycle on a washing machine."

I suppose you could say Brian is one of the quieter ones. The cabin we stayed at had all sorts of things to do stocked in it, games and puzzles, even a record player with a bunch of vinyl records nobody played. Brian put together a 300-piece puzzle on his own between Friday and Saturday. He did hold up two and ask which one he should put together, and I chose the one of doughnuts for him, so that's what he did. This photo was a snapshot of maybe the only extended period of quiet over the weekend in the cabin—which is not a reflection of how loud people are per se (settle down!) but the fact that only three of us were there, as Andy had gone to help Gabriel get his kayak down to the water (more on that later!). To the left here is Garret, Gabriel's brother, the only one of us ever to sit and read a book—a kind of irony, as he insisted to us all that the only time he ever reads a book is in a cabin.

Pay no attention to the people in the red jackets. I have no idea who they are. The person with arms in the air is Gabriel. To the left of him, his brother Garret. Andy and I hiked the 470' elevation (roughly the height of a 43-story building) Chadwick Hill Trail to the second-highest point on Lopez Island, which was very steep. Gabriel, who recently injured his foot, and Garret, who is stil recovering from major back surgery several months ago, both made the very wise choice not to make the climb, although they both very much wished they could. But I had heard the word "viewpoint" and was like, I am going up there! Andy joined me. Of the fully able-bodied people in our group, Brian—seen in the tan puffy jacket to the right—stayed behind to keep Gabriel and Garret company. If there had to be a super chill sweetheart in our group, at least someone else was there to take the responsibility off my shoulders. (To be fair, they're kind of all super chill sweethearts.) This photo was taken with the zoom on my iPhone camera, from atop Chadwick Hill. Thus, they were barely able to see us as well. Side note: of the five of us, Brian was the one who had apparently been to Lopez Island many times, making him a bit more knowledgeable of the island than most of the rest of us. (It's fairly likely Gabriel has been there multiple times as well.) I never asked him, but for all I know Brian has already hiked up the Chadwick Hill Trail before.

This is a photo of Gabriel, at what became my favorite spot on Lopez Island (thus bumping Chadwick Hill to #2), Spencer Spit State Park—but it's also my favorite moment with Brian. It was the one time I was alone with him, as we had all driven there separately as our last stop on the way back to the return ferry on Sunday. Brian and Garret had both arrived at the park at the same time I did, but by this time Garret had already driven ahead to the ferry as he had the greatest concern for getting there on time. Andy hadn't arrived yet, but Gabriel arrived shortly after, and he walked out on a separate strip of land toward us on Spencer Spit. In the distance, Brian noted, he looked just like the famous old shots of Bigfoot coming out of the trees. Brian actually texted, Gabriel, do a Sasquatch pose please We both took pictures. Have I mentioned how much I love "Live Photo" on the iPhone? It allowed me to pick a different frame from the second or so of video that any "Live Photo" takes for photos, which was what allowed me to select a different shot where his arm is visibly swinging. As a result, it looks similar enough to the 1967 "Bigfoot footage." I was delighted.

Garret Gabriel asked us all to take a covid test before meeting, a reasonable request which we were all happy to do. Plus, after others of us sent photos of our negative test to the group, Garret sent this delightful rendering of his negative result. He seemed to feel bad later that he forgot to send an actual photo, which apparently he intended to do, but this image had been convincing enough to the rest of us. It was the highlight of our Friday morning.

Four of us made it onto the 12:35 ferry from Anacortes on Friday, but Garret, who was coming from Puyallup—and thus the furthest away—had to make his ferry reservation for the 4:30 sailing. He got to the cabin around 6:00, and by about 6:30 we had all headed down to the beach right by the cabin, which was on the western shore of Lopez Island, about halfway down the length of the island. North to south, Lopez Island is 15 miles long; it's 8 miles wide. At 29.81 square miles, it is the third-largest of the San Juan Islands in land area, behind Orcas Island (57.3 sq. mi.) and San Juan Island (55.05 sq. mi.). Lopez also has the third-largest population, at 3,156 versus 8,632 on San Juan Island and 6,000 on Orcas Island, thus making Lopez the most rural of the three. Only one other San Juan island is served by Washington State Ferries: Shaw Island, and that one is only 7.7 square miles with a permanent resident population of 188. Anyway, that's Garret in the above shot. It's my favorite of the pictures I got of him. He noticed oysters out on those rocks, and one of the guys—I think it was Andy—slurped one down right then and there. I almost threw up.

Gabriel took this photo, of Andy (foreground, pointing), Garret (right), and me, on some rocks shortly before Andy and I climbed the Chadwick Hill Trail. I just thought it was a particularly good photo of Garret. Hey, why don't I crop it to just him? There, that's better.

Gabriel also took this photo of Garret reading his book. This was definitely the best photo of Garret taken all weekend by anybody.

Matthew Shortly after we arrived at the cabin on Friday—after killing a couple of hours because we couldn't check in until 4:00—Gabriel and I walked straight down to the water, which involved sliding down this rather steep hill of rock. I had to squat down and kind of crab-walk down part of the way, for fear of slipping and hurting myself (which Gabriel, going down ahead of me, actually did; amazingly, I actually survived the entire weekend without so much as breaking a nail!). I went down rock faces like this at least three times over the weekend, two of them coming back down the often uncomfortably steep Chadwick Hill Trail.

PCC shout-out! We all made our own personal pizzas for dinner on Saturday, using a lot of ingredients Andy purchased at his local Edmonds PCC. I noted that Field Day is our value brand, and Andy was like, "Yeah I can't afford Rao's." (Rao's pizza sauce is $6.19 right now; Field Day, in a slightly larger container, is selling at $2.29.) Has anyone ever taken a more beautiful amateur photo of Field Day pizza sauce? They should be paying me for this. I might even consider sharing a percentage to Gabriel for appearing as an extra.

Another PCC shoutout! We have long been selling Lopez Island Creamery ice cream—although I'm not sure I have ever bought it myself. (I've surely eaten it, just because of all the ice cream taste tests I've participated in, it's grueling work.) It was the first thing I thought of when I found out I'd be going to Lopez Island, actually. Their island store was closed when we were by the store on both Friday and Saturday, but finally they opened at 11 a.m. on Sunday. I had to have some. This is their peanut butter cup flavor. I asked for one scoop, and the young woman working the counter proceeded to put two scoops on my cone. I asked, "This is one scoop?" She replied, "Yeah if you order two scoops you get four." Does it stay standing? Andy came into the store with me and got some ice cream too. At first he was going to order two scoops because he wanted two flavors, then he saw how I was served and discovered he could get two flavors in "one scoop." After multiple others in the group paid the entire tab at different places we were at (out for drinks or at a coffee shop), I paid for Andy's and my ice cream, saying "It's the least I could do," which was fundamentally true. Hey, none of the other guys came in! EDIT: I just discovered their ice cream factory is actually in Anacortes, on the mainland. What. We've been deceived!

And here we are at my favorite spot on Lopez Land—I would come back to the island just to come back to this spot: Spencer Spit State Park. The island across the water—very small by comparison, 70 acres total (Spencer Spit State Park itself is 138 acres)—is Frost Island, and at low tide you can walk to it on Spencer Spit. I was disappointed to discover it was not low tide when we were there, but maybe next time I go I can time it more deliberately. The view in virtually every direction from this park is absolutely gorgeous. I was the one in our group who was hell bent on going out there, and we were only able to stay for about half an hour before we needed to head back to our return ferry. Totally worth it! I was so, so happy to have been able to go there.

Andy If there were any one of us who was the superstar of the group this past weekend, it would absolutely be Andy. That's him standing in the background at the counter in the cabin kitchen, beyond Gabriel showing Brian his lightsaber. Andy not only brought an astonishing amount of food—much of it from PCC, a very popular store among this crew—but in so doing he covered dinners and breakfasts over the entire weekend. He did a ton of cooking. People often asked if he wanted or needed help, which he generally declined. He's to be the Best Man at the wedding, and perhaps as the person traditionally expected to host a bachelor party, he pivoted that cultural obligation into doing by far the most to make this weekend a success. (Side note: Gabriel and I were the only vegetarians, but with the exception of some shellfish the rest of them ate—which Gabriel eats—all the meals were vegetarian, including a ton of veggie meat substitutes Andy brought that were quite delicious. I had actually brought some vegetarian pepperoni for the pizza dinner Saturday night, and Andy even had some of those of his own!) I hesitate to say Gabriel thanked him "profusely," but it was just a few steps short of it. I was like, we get it, you appreciate it! To be fair, Gabriel isn't used to this level of generosity from friends. God knows he never gets it from me, as my greatest contribution was to stand around looking pretty. (And buy Andy ice cream! Also, as always, as is plainly demonstrated here, I can always be relied upon to be a very detailed historian, which does tend to be appreciated.) To give further credit where credit is due, Garret brought a big tub full of snacks and sweets; Brian brought two big bags of cookies (from a PCC deli!); and I actually did make one thing—twice: stovetop Indian chai, which I now have years of practice at making. Gabriel loves it and had some both times I made it, though Sunday morning he combined it with coffee to make what he called a "dirty chai," which horrified me but whatever, it's his party! He loved that too. The first time around, Garret declined, until he saw how I was making it and said, "Oh you're making fancy chai?" That's right! Anyway the point is none of this comes anywhere close to the unparalleled contributions Andy made to the weekend, in food, time, and effort. When it comes to being "Best Man," Andy fits the bill.

Andy and I even had our own private moment! It must have lasted, I don't know, forty minutes! Hiking up Chadwick Hill Trail with him was the first time Andy and I ever did anything just the two of us. Granted, it was just due to extenuating circumstances—it would have been even more fun for all of us had Gabriel and Garret had the capability of climbing up as well. Some of the trail turned into rock faces so steep that I rather worried about going back down when we were on our way up, imagining myself slipping and breaking my neck. But hey I'm here now, so I made it! I have to say though, any fears I had getting up there were totally worth it. I really love the San Juan Islands, it's truly beautiful in every direction, and this is especially so at any high-elevation viewpoint like this. There's a bit of a meadow-like clearing at the top of the hill so of course I had Andy record the raw footage of what I intended later to make a Sound of Music video.

I didn't even mention yet that Andy had souvenirs made: small Glencairn whisky glasses, with personalized engravings for each of us with our initials and the date of the weekend we spent together. This one, clearly, is the one I got. I'm not a huge bourbon fan but I poured some into my cup in honor of Gabriel, since he loves bourbon and brought a bottle of it. There was one sip of it I kept in my mouth for several seconds in an effort not to burn my throat and instead it burned all over my tongue. Some people walk over hot coals for their friends, I sear my tongue instead! I didn't hate it.

This was my pizza for dinner Saturday night. Delicious! I asked Andy if he made the dough from scratch, and he said he bought it—from PCC.

Gabriel View of the water-facing side of the cabin Gabriel chose for us all to stay at, which slept five . . . and had one bathroom. I was a little worried about that, but my being an early bird while the rest of them were night owls really worked in everyone's favor: both nights I was in bed around 11:00, and then woke up around 6:30 or 7:00, and thus I was finished with the bathroom by the time the rest of them were waking up. I was also somewhat concerned about all the shared space—aside from being in the bathroom, the entire weekend was totally devoid of privacy—although honestly less so; it turned out not to be a big deal at all. The upper level was the sleeping quarters, with one queen bed and three bunk beds; no one else seemed to want it and I was happy to take the top bunk, being easily the smallest of us all to fit in that little space anyway. Gabriel took the queen bed, being quite justified in not feeling too bad about it—he was the guest of honor, after all. My bigger concern was not having to sleep downstairs where people would be up late, and Andy happily slept on one of the couches.

I took this shot of Gabriel right after Andy handed us all our commemorative whiskey glasses. It's such a great photo of him, even he really liked it.

Andy took this picture of Gabriel in his kayak, right after taking a video of him literally asking him to take his picture. Once that was done, Gabriel paddled over to the water near our cabin, where he also wanted me to take his picture—which I did from the cabin, before taking my own video of him paddling away. I wasn't even in the kayak, and all of one day after the weekend ended, I am already feeling nostalgic about it. Truly, what a great weekend. This was my first time spending more than just a day trip on any of the San Juan Islands. Highly recommend. Five stars.

I can take credit for this one! After our time over at Chadwick Hill (or Watmough Bay, the stunning body of water at the bottom), we made our way over to Shark Reef Sanctuary, which has its own stunning views atop coastline cliff sides on the east side of Lopez Island. The largest of the smaller islands in the water behind us is called Deadman Island, and San Juan Island could be seen across the San Juan Channel from where we were. We were all walking along the trail here through Shark Reef Sanctuary, and we happened upon a small group of people camping there, some of them having strapped hammocks between trees, most of them now sitting on the ground looking out at the water, evidently looking for wildlife in the sea. There was also a bench there, on which sat a young woman with a British accent and glasses that significantly magnified her eyes. She commented on never having seen an otter before, and briefly marveling at seeing a seal with four limbs. We passed her a little ways and paused to admire the view ourselves, and then it occurred to me this would be a great spot to get a photo of all five of us without it being a selfie—something from further away than arm's length. I suggested we ask the nice young woman on the bench if she'd take our photo, which I then went and did; we even stood right in front of her so she wouldn't have to move far from her bench. The end result, in my mind, is effectively the "cover photo" of the entire weekend. When I posted this to my socials, I wrote the caption "Gabriel and the NewTon Bombs," which I chose after deciding against "Paunch Parade." Gabriel, Andy and Brian are all the same age; Garret is two years younger and I am one year older. This puts us all in our mid forties, although once I have my birthday in April I'll be only two years away from 50 not that that bothers me or anything I swear no really! Anyway, we're all much more mature adults than we were, say, 25 years ago in college. The perfect age for a group getaway without any stupid drama or dipshittery. I really can't stress enough what a great time I had, and I got the sense that the rest of them felt the same—particularly (hopefully) Gabriel, the center around which this particular group revolves.