One of my favorite memories from childhood was a vacation with my family when I was a young girl living in Puyallup Washington. My parents took us to the San Juan Islands just off the coast to stay in a cabin on Orcas Island.  I remember taking the ferry over to stay in a little cabin and getting to ride a scooter for the very first time in my life. My happy memories of that childhood vacation are something I will always cherish.

So when my dear friend invited my husband and I to spend a week with him and a few of our friends on his yacht in the San Juan Islands there was no way I was going to pass that up.

I’ll admit I was a little scared about flying again for the first time since COVID began but I decided I would put on my mask, pack my hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes to brave the airport and plane in order to go on this amazing trip.

Once we arrived at the Seatac airport we took a car service over to catch a Kenmore air sea plane that was to fly us over to Roche Harbor where my friend’s yacht was waiting to pick us up.  My husband was like a kid at Christmas getting to fly on a sea plane (it’s been on his bucket list) and you can imagine his excitement when he asked to ride in the cockpit with the pilot and they said yes.  

As we flew over the gorgeous terrain below it did my heart such good to see again how beautiful the world still is. These past months I’ve been sucked into letting news reports on TV be my only view of the world and so getting outside and seeing it for myself helped me to see that news only gives us the view of the worst case scenario situations when in reality there is an entire world of wonderful people and beautiful places that’s still there.  I highly recommend getting out of your house and going to visit somewhere because it lifts your spirits to remember all the good that still exists.

We were careful throughout the trip to keep our masks on whenever we left the yacht other than while eating meals and posing for pictures.  And while it wasn’t fun to wear a mask it did give me some peace of mind that I was doing what I could to respect and protect others.  I also appreciated that everyone else on the islands wore their masks as well because it helped make us comfortable to walk through all the little shops and enjoy all those little towns.

We visited several different harbors in the Islands but my favorite was our visit to Orcas Island. It was so fun for me to go to those places I’d gone to as a kid. I even got to re-enact a few of the old photos my parents had taken of me as a kid on the island and that was a lot of fun. Revisiting those places flooded me with happy memories from my childhood and filled me with an appreciation for all the many blessings I’ve had in my life…awesome parents, a wonderful childhood, an amazing husband and great family of my own, dear friends, health, and treasured experiences such as this trip was for me.

Get out of the house and relive some of your favorite memories. It does your soul so much good. Here are a few fun pics of our trip:

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )