We Own a Real Estate Brokerage on Orcas Island.

We own a Real Estate Brokerage on Orcas Island. It was Ken's idea. Not that I don't have big ideas..but more of that later....That's him with his mustang Ranger with Turtleback in the background. This is a bird's eye view of the islands where we 'work'!

I had been licensed as a Realtor since 1986 and winning awards for being a 'high producer' since 1984. This was back in Hopewell NJ. Being a 'high producer' in those days meant you sold in excess of $2M in Real Estate. Wow, how times have changed. He joined me in 2001 at Coldwell Banker, where I was still winning awards. Being from a family where literally everyone owned their own business, he could not see why I'd work for a agency other than my own. He prevailed and we started OrcasDreams - Island Properties. His background is in construction. He's been building homes forever, first in NJ and then on Orcas as well as the out islands. We love working together and although many couples find it tough, we would not have it any other way! Here I am in front of our office on North Beach Road. It's near Wildlife Cycles and Teezers Cookies.Life as a Realtor has it ups and downs. Like this past two years. Well hold on to your seatbelt, 'cause if you think being a home owner has been tough, you should try real estate. Lots of agents have left the business, and I can understand why. Being any kind of producer sounds good right now. But, this is what we do, and frankly, we love it. We get to meet folks on the 'Orcas High', and share our lovely Island home with them. We get to help people with one the biggest decisions of their lifetimes. Where to live. Where to retire, where to raise their famies, and in that choice comes: how to live their lives. It is great fun, very challanging and a great honor.

My earlier life path was to found a free standing birth center in Princeton NJ. I had a passion for midwifery, and wanted to help families have the experience of a lifetime when birthing their children. I believed that giving good support, education and genuine caring would make a difference in the world - or at least to the families that came to our center. It would help families grow closer, and provide a loving and safe environment for a new life to begin. OK, so it was a rather large goal! I spent 12 years building this center from the ground up with an amazing group of women, assisting at births, promoting the center and educating families and professionals about an alternative to hospital and medicated birth.

It was the time of my life. I had a ball!

Well enjoying what I do seems to be a prerequisite for my work, and finding those family homes seemed like a logical next step. I had done the baby thing , it was time to send my kids to college and I needed to make more money. So, I became a Realtor. I sold homes in Princeton and Hopewell, I sold the Chocolate Factory in Hopewell, I helped many of the families I knew from Familyborn, our Birth Center, find their first home. Then the Stock Market crashed, my daughter went off the U. of Miami and my son to Martha's Vineyard, to get to know his Dad, and Ken and I wondered what the next step would be.

We came west on vacation in 1988, and made a bee line to Orcas Island. We were escaping the heat, the gnats and the crowds in NJ. We were backpacking and camping. I felt it would be more of an adventure that way. And..I was right! We slept in the youth hostel in Seattle after a dinner of dungeness at Pike's Place. We had bunk beds. I would not recommend it! Up at 4 am to catch a bus to Anacortes and the ferry to Orcas Island. The morning was foggy and wet and as the boat wove it's way through the islands, the fog lifted and the sun came out. I was enchanted!

It was like a fairy tale- Puff the Magic Dragon Land. We pulled into the ferry landing, the water was crystal clear, green and cold. the air was cool and salt, the sun warm on my cool skin, the island emerald green. . Before the cars unloaded, we walked off the boat. When my pink sneakers hit the ground, I exclaimed ' this is it!' "This is what?" said Ken. "This is where I want to live!" I had found my new home. " How do you know, you haven't even been here? " I laughed and said: "I just know!'.

Sailing To Stewart Island

Yesterday, our friends John and Yvonne from Crane Island, picked us up at Cayou Quay Marina in Deer Harbor to spend the day sailing over to Stuart Island. It was a perfect day once the morning fog lifted; sunny and warm, the end of the summer here in the Pacific Northwest. Our friends moved here ten years ago, when I sold them a home in Deer Harbor.

The Lighthouse Keeper's house.

Two years ago, I helped them sell that home to move to a waterfront home on Crane Island, where they could have a more maritime lifestyle. In order to get home, they take a boat, their own boat, rain or shine, wind or fog. They love it. Yvonne has taken up crabbing with a neighbor who lives in a small cabin on Crane, she has promised to take me with her next time. I was an avid crabber back east on the Jersey shore where I grew up, finding blue claws on the pilings, never really caring how big they were, it was the thrill of the chase that hooked me! But, here the reward is big- Dungeness!

John and Yvonne from Crane Island

Yvonne and I sat on the bow of the boat while sailing past Jones, San Juan, and Spieden Islands to Reid Harbor on Stuart. We had planned on lunch prior to hiking to the light house on Stuart. Just a mere 5 miles. They failed to mention the 127 steps (Ken counted) that reminded me of Bridalveil Falls in Yosemite, or the long uphill grade that went on forever...both directions it was mostly uphill-truly.

Can you imagine an island with no cars? Dirt roads used as walking paths, huge maples and firs on either side, vistas looking down golden meadows to a pristine bay with the mountains beyond?

Here is the path to the lighthouse from the dock.
We hiked to the lighthouse and the lighthouse keeper's home. Traditional red roof and white walls, it was charming, a big porch across the front over looking the water. It made me yearn for this life- even simpler than ours on Orcas. More in touch with nature. I had a chance to revisit that thought when Ken told me that in 1948 one lighthouse keeper moved to the island and then spent two months without power and had no running water, finally busting into the cistern to get fresh water under two feet of ice, which he hauled by the bucket full for drinking. The pay was $90 per
month.

Sitting on the dried grasses by the lighthouse, we shared two peaches from Coffelt's Farm on Orcas and a chocolate bar. Idyllic! We watched a porpoise swim in tune to his own music, the kelp waved in the changing tide, boats sailed by. I feel so very lucky to be living this life, surrounded by nature and the gentle climate of the San Juan Islands. Clear skies all summer, gentle rains in the winter, exceptional people as friends and neighbors. Yes, I am one of the lucky ones!
Stewart Lighthouse
As the sun set, we sailed home eating a picnic of sushi and crackers and cheese, sharing a bottle of good wine and stories about life on Orcas Island.