Home Life on a Northwest Island 50+ Things that Make Orcas Island Life Different

50+ Things that Make Orcas Island Life Different

  1. Time slows down the minute you get in line to wait for the ferry to the island
  2. Natural beauty surrounds you wherever you are
  3. Long, winding roads through the forest lead to beautiful harbors and docks
  4. The community genuinely cares about each other
  5. All your errands can be done within a couple minutes’ walking distance of each other
  6. Going to the store is a social event – you know half the people there
  7. Everyone has time to talk
  8. You know you’ll see every person again sometime, so every conversation on the street is meaningful
  9. Locals make eye contact and chat as they pass; tourists avert their eyes until they de-city-fy
  10. Most people have gardens and composts

    Our garden and duckies

  11. You can buy your veggies and meat from local family farms
  12. There is no hospital, lab, or specialized medicine; just general doctors
  13. Fashion is not an issue
  14. You can’t tell anything about people’s financial situation by their outward appearance
  15. There are no stoplights, chain stores, fast food joints, or malls
  16. The fastest speed allowed is 40 MPH
  17. We pay for every pound of trash and recycling that we discard
  18. Stocking up on food is a whole-day affair on the mainland
  19. It can be gray and rainy for two months straight
  20. Mail and FedEx packages fly into town on small planes each day
  21. Strangers wave to you from their cars, even if you’re a tourist
  22. There’s a festivity just about every week and sometimes every day
  23. Churches are genuine extended families of people who care about you
  24. I wear a down jacket for five months straight
  25. Power outages bring modern life to a halt
  26. There’s not much to do in town once it’s dark
  27. There are flower stands, egg stands, veggie shacks, and even a clothes shack where you can leave your money in metal boxes and jars on the honor system
  28. Artists, gardeners, ceramicists, sculptors, and painters abound here
  29. Away games take all day to get to and return from
  30. The mayor is an annually-elected pet (it’s a fundraiser for a local school)
  31. The Village Green in the center of town hosts summer Saturday farmers’ markets, summer Sunday afternoon concerts by local musicians, and all kinds of other town events
  32. Most families buy an annual $80 Airlift Northwest membership in case anyone needs to be airlifted to a hospital for emergency medical help
  33. We have our own film festival in the summer
  34. You can pick blackberries, pears, and apples to your heart’s content in the late summer all over the island
  35. Chopping wood is less a nostalgic old-country notion and more a survival activity in preparation for the cold months – most of us have done it (thank you, husband!)
  36. Dirt roads are commonplace
  37. You can kayak along the coast, swim in the lake, and climb to the highest point all in a day
  38. Wildlife is abundant – rabbits at the ferry landing, deer in your yard, eagles above, owls at night, geese on the shore, newts in the ponds, and the list goes on

    A lone gosling someone found on their way to church

  39. You have to spend $40-$70 every time you need to go off-island – that’s the ferry fee depending on the season and how many passengers you have
  40. The weather can change by the hour – or by the minute
  41. It’s a place where you can live out your passions – you may be the only one who wants a certain role in a play, you may be the only one volunteering in a certain capacity, your art will be in art shows, etc.
  42. The photo on the front page of the local paper might be a praying mantis, a missing dog, or your child
  43. Street names really are what they’re called: Enchanted Forest Road, Mt Baker Road, Prune Alley
  44. While walkers, bicyclists, and baby joggers abound in the city, my husband and I are often two of the very few people out in the elements
  45. There are so many school options for such a small place that it’s common for lots of kids to move around each year to find the best fit for that year
  46. Every island has its own feel; Orcas is welcoming, genuinely friendly, charming, and hilly
  47. Orcas has many microclimates; one area may report an inch of winter snow while another reports 16
  48. Diverse types of people are mixed together and coexist regardless of lifestyle differences
  49. Seasons dictate who you are; sunny summers are external and we never want to step foot inside; in sun-less winters I go internal and creativity takes over – pondering, writing, reading, art-making, etc.
  50. It never gets too hot or too cold
  51. No skeeters or other irritating bugs; just some harmless fruit flies in late August
  52. You can take an hour ferry ride over to San Juan Island to shop and eat at Friday Harbor, walk through the fields and beautiful gift store at Pelindaba Lavender Farm, and walk around upscale Roche Harbor where people from all over the world dock their fancy yachts to eat and shop
  53. You can take a day trip to the tulip farms in Skagit Valley where there are farms with hundreds of rows of brilliantly-colored tulips
  54. You can book a retreat away from the world for as long as you’d like at Our Lady of the Rock, a Benedictine Monastery known for its cheesemaking on the more isolated Shaw Island

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