Things to Do in Camano

Film enthusiast Roland Fernando entered the movie-rental industry more than 30 years ago, building Video Express into a movie emporium that carries hard-to-find and vintage films, independent releases, and blockbuster hits. Walls lined with blue neon tubes evoke a retro movie theatre, leading customers along shelves stocked with children's movies, dramas, horrors, comedies, documentaries, and Woody Allen's napping nook. The store also stocks video games for Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360, and offers one or two-day console rentals.

As any triumphant team of athletes can tell you, winning is exhilarating. At Sportball, though, instructors focus on the quieter joys of athletics: improving motor skills and life skills. Their noncompetitive instruction—aimed at babies all the way up through tweens—covers eight popular sports, ranging from soccer and volleyball to hockey and golf. With age-appropriate, child-sized equipment, they help youth develop balance, strength, and coordination. They also nurture the self-confidence that will one day be needed on the soccer field where each grown kid will take the bar exam.

Abkhazi Garden is the "garden that love built"—Prince Nicholas Abkhazi, a Georgian prince from Russia, and his bride Peggy settled in Victoria in 1946 and promptly began construction on the garden that they would refer to as "their child." Likened by Princess Peggy to an unfurling Chinese scroll, the blossom-brimming garden's meandering paths lead visitors around natural rock outcroppings, between sky-stroking garry oaks, and through the hedges where gnomes power photosynthesis with their stationary bikes. Along the banks of the garden's three small ponds, the songs of dozens of bird species cascade over guests and the resident turtles. Views of the Juan de Fuca Strait and the Olympic Mountains peek through the gardens' perimeter amid azaleas and the Abkhazi's prized rhododendron woodland area. Inside the now-public main house, a restaurant—open from March to November—sends platters of eggs benedict, niçoise salad, and scones with jams and Devon cream to tables nestled in the great room, where cozy seats overlook the garden.

Outer Island Expeditions' fleet of kayaks and boats safely cruises at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour through frothy crests ebbing amid the striking sights and wildlife of the San Juan islands. Venturing as far as 50 miles into Canadian waters, whale-watching excursions foster personal rapport between patrons and boat-side orcas, gray whales, or humpback whales trying to learn human etiquette for future espionage missions. Tours of Stuart Island's Turn Point lighthouse begin aboard a 22-foot Kodiak skiff, which buoys patrons through 16 miles of waters inhabited by sea lions and porpoises before they disembark and hike to the lighthouse's historical museum. Fishing charters set sail in search of ocean creatures and potable salt water from all of Outer Island Expeditions' four launch points: Smuggler's Villa Resort, Semiahmoo Resort, Lopez Island, and The Willows on Lummi Island.