SIDE TRIPS part twelve—The Orcas Hotel

Construction for the Orcas Hotel began in 1900. It has since been restored to reflect that Victorian Heritage. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

They gave me the key to room two.

It had open windows with a view over the Ferry Dock and was furnished with antiques.

The rocking chair was designed for someone just my size. I wondered if I could make it fit in my car. A handmade quilt covered the brass bed and a photograph of a young woman in shades of gray hung on the wall. The shared bathroom and two showers—clean and plenty of hot water-- were down the hall. Octavia’s Bistro downstairs served seafood and steak. I recommend the shrimp marinara with Portobello mushrooms. I learned Octavia was the old innkeeper. She ran the place for about 40 years. Her friendly ghost is said to haunt the place, walking about at night.

I wondered about the identity of the lady in the photograph in my room.

I spent some of the evening working on a watercolor sketch of the ferry landing and Shaw Island across the channel. The big boats came and went, but they looked enough alike to serve as a model for my painting. The bed was comfortable and I was soon asleep. Alas, in the night I had to make a trip to the loo. Clutching my room key in my hand; I made the LONG march down the hall, barefoot and wearing my big tee shirt and pajama bottoms. I tried not to think of Octavia. The wallpaper pattern on the walls reminded me of something. At the end of the corridor a single light was SHINING. I turned the corner half expecting to see two little girls.

“Come play with us.”

“Come play with us…foreveerrrrr.” But there was only a very clean bathroom with polished white fixtures. Back in my room I lay awake in the big bed. The night breeze lifted the lace curtains and ruffled the tassels on the lamp.

It seemed I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard a voice that sounded metallic and far away. “All drivers bound for Anacortes, please line up in lanes one through five. One through five please.” (Photos of The Twins borrowed from Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King’s movie, The Shining)