American Craft Distillers Association also Awards Silver to Spy Hop Barreled Gin Only three years after opening, San Juan Island Distillery has been honored with top awards by the American Craft Distillers Association at their annual craft spirits judging. This recognition for the Apple Brandy, for which the distillery was started, reflects the years of  Continue Reading

Thanks to a new “FANS Fund,” more San Juan Island families may now be able to receive financial help when signing up for programs at Island Rec. The new scholarship fund has been established by the nonprofit group, Families and Neighbors Support Island Rec (FANS), which was formed in 2012 to fill the gap between  Continue Reading

Tuesday Night Films at the Grange – Next week, April 1, Friday Harbor Film Festival presents a double feature: Eastern Rises, (48 minutes) is an avant-garde style documentary that follows a courageous band of fly fishermen who risk life and limb in one of the last wild places on earth – the remote Kamchatka Peninsula of  Continue Reading

Anna Maria from Coho sends this invitation to you… We have a special wine dinner coming up at the end of the month that we are really excited about. We all know Washington makes lots of wine – some, very good wines… and others, great wines. We will have the latter at our event on  Continue Reading

Hailey Loucks and Isabel Gabriel from the high school Community Projects class, are raising money to install beehives in the community garden out San Juan Valley Road. As part of their fundraising effort, they have organized a movie night for Friday, March 28th at the Grange, starting at 6:30pm and will be showing the moving  Continue Reading

It’s next Friday, Saturday and Sunday… Island teens take on witty dialogue, vintage costumes and farcical fun as they present Oscar Wilde’s classic play first performed in London in 1895. The play takes a satirical look at Victorian ways, the nature of marriage, the constraints of morality, hypocrisy vs. inventiveness, and essentially, the importance of  Continue Reading

Proud mom Diana Stepita sends this note over about her son Matt who’s in the WAS aerospace program… Friday Harbor High School junior, Matthew Stepita, has been selected as a Washington Aerospace Scholar for 2013-2014. Washington Aerospace Scholars (WAS), a member of NASA Johnson Space Center’s National High School Aerospace Scholars program, was founded in  Continue Reading

Just got a note that Island Inn at 123 West has been nominated for Evening Magazine’s contest. Here’s Scott with more… Hello Tim, Could you help spread the word by posting this on the Update? Happy Spring! The Island Inn at 123 West has been nominated in Evening Magazine’s annual *BEST Northwest Escapes* contest for  Continue Reading

County workers had to use the Public Works boat like a landing craft and even rappel down a steep embankment to remove sixty tires dumped illegally on a remote San Juan Island beach. The tires were a challenge to retrieve because they lay on a remote, rocky shoreline at the base of a bluff in  Continue Reading

This note just came in from Katie over at Friends of the San Juans… We just dropped 400 ‘drift cards’ – forest certified, biodegradable plywood cards, each with a unique serial number – along oil tanker routes in the Gulf and San Juan islands. We chose today because it is the 25th anniversary of the  Continue Reading