For those who don't know, The San Juans are an island chain (or part of one) that edges up against Vancouver Island, but on the American side. Indeed, the most populous of the islands, San Juan, was the site of a standoff between American and British forces beginning before the Civil War, called the Pig War, for its sole casualty. At least two famous officers served on the American side: George Pickett, who later led the fatal Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg whose failure ended Robert E Lee's attack on the North, and Winfield Scott, who had led American forces into Mexico. The National Park Service man told me Pickett tried to start a hot war with Britain, and that sending him away was a condition of the peace treaty! But Scott had been more helpful.
The British and American camps are about five miles apart, on the east side of the island, facing Victoria. Orcas are known to prowl that straight, but we only saw smaller animals: deer, seals, a fox, a racoon. And lots of pretty harbors, and some unusual wild flowers, which unfortunately I didn't photograph. The American camp later became a sheep farm, and is now open meadow.
