The only way to see the San Juan Islands is by kayak.

I came to this conclusion after experiencing this amazing corner of the world with the Dickman family from Pennsylvania - a family of seven. We spent three days kayaking and camping in the San Juans and made some amazing discoveries.

The first day we paddled 10 miles to Cypress Island from Anacortes. Jeff and Chris, guides for Anacortes Kayak Tours, started the trip when they carried four triple seat kayaks down to the beach in Anacortes and helped the family load the gear into each kayak's center cockpit. The guides instructed the family a bit on the beach about paddling, instruction which was then put to good practice working across Guemes and Bellingham Straits to Cypress Island.

It was a typical Northwest day. Gray clouds high in the sky kept the light soft, but no precipitation came down. Everybody was in high spirits, even Amy Dickman, 16, who got splashed some in the bow as she plowed through the remnants of a wake left by a large tugboat passing by ahead.

We arrived at Cypress Head, a jut of land connected to Cypress Island, and made lunch on the small isthmus connecting Cypress Head to the rest of Cypress Island. Jeff and Chris were quick to get a tablecloth out and were soon slicing up heaps of fresh fruit and vegetables to make sandwiches. The whole gang was hungry, but keen to move on. We paddled up the east coast of Cypress Island to Pelican Beach and set up camp. All told, it was a journey of roughly 8 hours.

Chris and Jeff whipped up a great pasta dinner while the family took time to relax or explore some of the lush island. The meal was made complete with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert as we watched the light fade from the sky and fell asleep to the light lapping of the waves on the stony beach.

Day two was our touring day. Flapjacks for breakfast was a hit, and we soon left camp. We left our camp set up, and this made for lighter boats as all we had onboard was lunch.

The tide was extremely low, and this exposed some amazing sea life in the lower reaches of the inter-tidal zone. Gnarly purple starfish clung to the vertical reaches of dark wet rock, sea anemones were closed up and hanging like white sacks from small overhangs, and the bull kelp was a thick weave that was difficult to paddle through. In some places, small kelp crabs could be seen, trying to hide on the stems or under ribbons of the kelp.

Having just past slack tide, the currents of the

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