Dear Friends of Doe Bay,

This month’s newsletter is dedicated to Kids and Hiking in the context of Doe Bay. Kids love Doe Bay and are always welcome, but before I talk about that, I have something for those of you who have no children (yet), and/or those who can get a babysitter for the second weekend in February. Celebrate Valentine’s Day at Doe Bay. It is a romantic place that will make you fall in love again, so I suggest coming with a friend, partner, lover or spouse or better yet, someone who fits all of those categories. Dinner on Valentine’s day will seduce you. See the details in the right hand column >>>.

Back to our themes of children and hiking. As a father of five, I have experienced restaurants as great as the Doe Bay Café that didn’t have a clue about feeding young ones. We pledge to feed your children well, quickly and economically. We are pleased to introduce our kid’s menu. I am pleased to promise to lose money on every child fed in the café. When some of our Café staff mentioned that “breakfast for $5.00 and dinner for $7.00 doesn’t work”, I smiled and reminded them that kids seldom come in alone. If a table of 6 toddlers toddles in, I will be proven wrong. Check out this menu and bring the kids.

Spring Break is a great family time and we still have cabins available. We also added a small swing and play structure that we thought would be more observed than utilized. I am pleased to say that it gets used by our guests and our neighbors very regularly.

Theme number two of today’s letter is hiking, because I am reminded that hiking is my favorite Doe Bay activity. We now can hike directly into Moran State Park from Doe Bay without ever driving anywhere. We enter on the outskirts of the South Boundary trail and as a result it is not unusual to hike for hours without encountering one individual. I was up last week and enjoyed some off trail hiking. Usually we don’t encourage off trail but at this time of year the undergrowth is beaten down from the snow so the game trails are easy to follow. And as I had to remind myself, it is an island so I can’t really be lost. Here is a brief video I made last week from one of my favorite lookouts, looking East to Mount Baker and SE to Doe Bay.

So come up and bring your kids.

Thank you and enjoy the rest of the newsletter.
- Joe
The Proprietor
Joe@DoeBay.com

Woodstock happened 40 years ago! Doe Bay Fest Celebrates Again this Year!

Plan Now for the 40th anniversary of Woodstock…. August 14, 15 & 16! Celebrate it appropriately at DBFest 09. If you would like to volunteer to assist with DB Fest or would like your band to perform, please write Joe@DoeBay.com.

Watch for our '09 logo soon!

First the background. We recently visited with Jim Krause (Bellingham based Author, Photographer and Designer) at the Doe Bay Café and he was talking about why he was at Doe Bay all week in the middle of January. We asked him if he would share his thoughts with others and his essay follows:

A guest column by James Krause

THE OFFICE IS FOR SUCKERS.

Last week, on the job, I got twice as much done as usual without putting in a minute of overtime. Oddly, too, I came away from it feeling like I'd just had seven days of vacation. Oh, and did I mention I never set foot in the office?

How does this all add up? The equation is simple: Doe Bay + a laptop. Two or three times a year, when I feel myself falling further and further behind in my work load, I throw some clothes in a bag, grab my laptop, catch a ferry to Orcas Island and make a beeline for Doe Bay. Once there, I get down to the business of business—as well as the business of c-h-i-l-l-i-n-g o-u-t.

If you’re a working person and have a laptop (or other means of putting the tools of your trade in a shoulder-bag), I have news for you: the office is for suckers. More work can be done elsewhere. And if that elsewhere is a secluded, utterly peaceful and wi-fi connected place like Doe Bay, you can not only get a huge amount of work done, you can unload a ton of stress while doing it.

Think you might benefit from a solo (or group) work/retreat like this? Read on and I'll describe my work/rest/play trips to Doe Bay in a little more detail. And by the way, I'm not getting paid to write this, and I don’t work for Doe Bay: I’m just a devoted fan of the place and I think the things they have to offer working-class people like me are too valuable to keep secret. Usually, I stay in Doe Bay’s hostel during one of these working getaways. I've also rented one of the small cabins. I like the cabins for their privacy, but I also like the hostel since it gives me the chance to hang out and socialize with other people during the week (I've made more than a few life-long friends during my stays in the hostel).

Work-wise, since I like to change my environs once or twice a day, I spend part of the day in Eastsound working on my laptop at a coffee shop, and the rest of the day working likewise in Doe Bay’s cafe. Let me say a thing or two about Doe Bay’s cafe. It sits on a bluff directly over the water and Its multi-paned windows have views of the bay and the water beyond. It’s a gorgeous spot, whether on a wet day when the rain is beating against the windows, or on a clear day when sunlight is streaming inside. Most of the time, I work in the cafe when it’s technically closed—the Doe Bay staff is kind enough to make it available to guests who need a place to work or study during the day. Coffee and tea are also available in the cafe almost all the time.

Other places at Doe Bay that are conducive to work and study are the Otter Lodge (a library and game room directly beneath the cafe); the hostel’s common area; the guest kitchen; wherever you’re staying (cabin, yurt, guest house, hostel or tent); and, on a warm and fair day, outside. Generally, during the weekdays at Doe Bay, I concentrate on my work from about 7:30 in the morning until 4 or 5pm. I also take a break for an hour or so around noon (more on this, ahead). I repeat this routine Monday-Friday and then enjoy a work-free (or mostly work-free) weekend at the end of it all. By the following Monday, as I hinted at in the opening paragraph, I'm totally on top of my work load and also feeling rested, rejuvenated and—amazingly—fully ready to head back to the office.

Other highlights of my stays include the open-mic on Thursday nights and the pizzas Abigael (the chef-in-residence) prepares for the event. I swear, these are The Best Pizzas You Will Ever Eat In Your Whole life. And speaking of Abigail, you absolutely positively cannot go wrong if you decide to eat in the cafe on the nights they're open (weekends during the winter and every night in the summer). The food is mind-blowing, healthy and beautiful to behold. And then there are the hot-tubs and sauna. During the weekdays, the minute I decide my brain is too fried to continue working for another second, I grab my towel and head up to the spa area. Once there, it usually takes between fifteen and twenty minutes for to forget I even have a job. And the yoga space! Instead of taking a "real" lunch break, I usually step into the yoga room for some stretching and mild exercise and then eat a modest lunch (I don’t know about you, but big lunches just make me want to nap). This noontime break totally preps me for another big work-related push until 4 or 5pm. And on the weekends, or during the times of the year when the sun stays up a bit longer, there are all kinds of hiking and biking options to consider. Kayaks operate from Doe Bay, too, during the warmer months.

For me, bringing a laptop to Doe Bay for a week is one of those classic win/win situations: I get about twice as much done as usual, and it also feels pretty darn close to taking a vacation. Maybe I'll see you there sometime if you decide to give it a try.

- Jim

There has never been a better winter to stay at Doe Bay. In the next few weeks, you’ll be seeing more music, movies, and café specials popping up on the calendar than you could possibly imagine. You’ll still be able to come to Doe Bay and have a personal retreat and some introspection, but you can also come and make like-minded friends, enjoy on-island hikes, and take part in on-site activities as never before. Watch our Events page for details, but

Every Thursday is open mic, beer and pizza from 5 to 10 with the music starting at about 7; and

Every Saturday is live music at the café starting at 8:30; and

Every Sunday is family food night and a movie in the café. Call for details. 360-376-2291.

If you’re thinking about organizing an Event between now and 2010, we’d love to talk to you. Yoga Retreats, Family Reunions, Weddings, Writer’s Workshops, Spiritual Retreats, Film Workshops, Dance Intensives, and more have been hosted at Doe Bay with great success. Let us know when you’re interested in making an event happen and we’ll help make it the success you want it to be.

We can’t wait to see you here again, or for the first time.

Be well. Be on the island,
~Harreld, Jami, and the entire Doe Bay Staff
office@doebay.com

If you are interested in spending from three weeks to three months working as a WWOOF volunteer at Doe Bay in our Organic garden, please contact us now. The calendar is already filling up.

As you now probably know, WWOOF is a worldwide organization of people dedicated to Organic gardening who trade labor for accommodations at farms throughout the world. WWOOF USA Website Doe Bay recently joined WWOOF and has already received a flurry of requests for stays. To Learn more, please see our website >>>

Group Work Retreats

Another volunteer option is to come up for a weekend with a group of able bodied folks. We tailor each visit, but the general idea is that we exchange a two-night / three-day stay for you and your group for a half day of work in the garden or on the grounds. The particular jobs are season dependant as well as a function of what the property needs. They may include pure organic gardening, trail or brush clearing, cleaning or painting or even brainstorming. If you are interested, please contact us by writing to DoeBayVolunteers@Gmail.com. Our volunteer coordinator (who is also a volunteer) will get right back to you.

Doe Bay has several positions open for Seasonal and Possible Year-round employment:

1.) Do you know a College Student looking for the Dream Summer Job? Please forward this to them! Applications will be taken until March 31, but positions will fill as qualified applicants are selected.

Doe Bay will be hiring several housekeepers, maintenance assistants, dishwashers and others for work from May through September. The pay is low and the work is hard. Did I mention that you will live in a tent and that there is NO TV on the property? Now, the bad news. You will spend your summer in one of the most beautiful places in the world. You will go hiking, biking and kayaking. You will learn about organic gardening. You will attend, and probably work at, dbFest 09. You will eat the freshest best food at the café at an employee discount. You will meet people from all over the world. You will probably get a taste of America in the 70’s and might even understand why your parents are the way they are, or not. You should be able to save a little bit of money and you will never forget the experience.

2.) Garden and Grounds Supervisor

Doe Bay has already received many applications and resumes but there is still time to apply for the position. Much of the preceding description applies but your duties will include responsibility for managing all aspects of the Doe Bay Garden. Our Garden is a showpiece for the Resort so teaching our guests what, why and how we are doing what we do. You will manage WWOOFER’s and other volunteers. The other flower beds on the property are also your responsibility as are the trails to campsites. The primary job is, of course, to grow great organic produce to support our Seed to Table program. This requires coordination with our Executive Chef to plan garden output, harvesting and delivery. Finally you will be Doe Bay’s representative at the weekly on-island markets, where we will sell our surplus production to locals and visitors. Only experienced gardeners with experience working cooperatively managing others need apply.

3.) Housekeeping Manager

This is an important job at Doe Bay as every guest will evaluate your work every day. We seek an experienced hospitality housekeeping manager for a job that pays below industry standards but allows a life style to die for. Organizational skills, management skills and housekeeping skills are all needed. The HK Manager will clean as well as manage cleaners, maintain records and systems and respond to guest’s needs. This will be an April through October job with the possibility of becoming year round.

We have a winner… Serge, our Russian friend won both first and second place. As a former employee, he cannot be awarded a free stay, but as a former employee, he will always get a free stay. If you are in Russia soon, please look for him and let him know that he is now famous.

Send your travel photos in showing you at an exotic location like Amsterdam or Moscow or NYC, for instance, and you will be both famous and a winner!
Joe@DoeBay.com.