It turned out to be a great going away memory for former Holly Elementary teacher Sandy Houghton.

As she was about to retire in June, the Grade 2 teacher took her class of 24 students on what's turned out to be an annual event for her class. The teacher took her students to Centennial Beach to toss a bottle filled with cheerful messages into the water. The students understood that the waters of the world's oceans are connected and that the bottle could end up anywhere.

"One child wrote, 'Look at a green tree with a trunk and you'll have 50 years good luck.' They were all good luck message and good wishes," she said.

The bottle was a clear wine bottle with the messages inside written on brightly coloured paper

Three weeks later, much to her surprise, Houghton got a reply from a woman who was walking the shores of Smuggler's Cove on San Juan Island -- an island on the waters off Washington Sate -- where the bottle had washed up.

The woman and a friend were watching orca whales jumping from the water when something caught their eyes. It turned out to be the glistening bottle resting on a log. The woman said she doubted the bottle was ashore very long because the island is filled with vacationers there for sea kayaking and orca whale watching.

Houghton said the woman and her friend were delighted to read the children's messages and felt they had found a treasure.

"It was a very special year for the kids and they knew I was retiring. So this was kind of a nice memory for them too," she said.

San Juan Island in Puget Sound is the second largest and most populated of the San Juan Islands, located south of Canada's Gulf Islands.