Well I'm starting to get used to the bed and breakfast good life, and we slept until almost 7 AM.
Today's agenda included traveling to San Juan island and watching killer whales. There's some complicated system for ferry fares, but it seems it's always free for our bikes and us.
We just tie the bikes up on the side, and we're ready to go.
The ferries are front/back (sorry, bow/stern) symmetrical. This is done so that when bicyclists go to get their bikes, there's a good chance that they'll think they've been stolen.
The ferry got us to Friday Harbor in time for pizza at Cousin Vinnie's (Vinnie is from Long Island).
Then it was off across the island for orca watching ("orca" is the politically correct way of saying "killer whale"). We had to rush to catch the 1:30 show at the main orca hangout.
The weather was perfect again; this island is a bit hillier than Lopez, but the downhills were nice.
Here's the first orca check -- nothing yet.
I watched real good, but the whales were AWOL.
So it was back to Friday Harbor, through a bit of mountain range this time. Here I'm having a much-deserved root beer float. Root beer flavoring is used in toothpaste in Sweden, so Swedes don't generally like it. When I have root beer, I know that I'll have it all to myself.
Waiting for the ferry home:
We picked up a rotisserie chicken, and ate it on the ferry. I'm not saying we ate fast, but by the time the ferry pulled away from the dock, we were done.
Another 4.5 miles from the Lopez ferry dock to the hotel, in the setting sun. 40 miles total for the day.
Today was different, because Lena and I had different agendas. Mine was to try to climb Mount Constitution (2,409 feet high). Lena's was to not try that. So we split up, planning to possibly meet midday some time.
Also, we realized late Wednesday evening that I'd only have time for the climb if I took the 6:55 AM ferry. So I had to miss the fancy B&B breakfast.
To minimize weight, I left the B&B at 6:30 AM with no jacket. It was cold but not unbearable. I got to the the ferry landing with the sun coming up.
It was nine miles to the first place with breakfast -- here I am coming into "East Sound."
I fueled up with eggs with mushrooms and bacon -- not bad.
It was another 10 miles or so to the base of the mountain. This is a lake in Moran State Park (fourth largest in Washington).
The ride was hard, but the roads were nice. The climb consists of 3 miles of 9-12% grade, followed by 2 miles of less steep stuff. I had to stand most of the time (only two chain rings in the front), and rest often. Here's a typical butterfingers break:
Here's the view from the top!
Quite an interesting view, since the mountain is surrounded by water and islands.
This guy rides up once a year, and he did it without stopping. He's 79 years old.
Meanwhile, Lena was checking out some towns around the island (thanks for the cameraphone photos Tonya),
and we finally met up a the Orcas Island ferry terminal (where I got a free gelato for having climbed Mt. Constitution).
We ended the day with a sturgeon dinner, and another sunset
and went to bed early.
One last great breakfast, and we caught the 12:10 ferry back to the mainland. The problem with this was that it put is in Seattle's Friday Getaway traffic. The backup was horrendous
No one should live like this. After 50 miles of stop and go, we had to get off the freeway at all costs. We got off on route 7 in Tacoma, but this alternative consisted of 20 miles of uninterrupted strip malls, and traffic light backups. Finally we got out of the megalopolis, and were rewarded with relaxing forest driving.
In fact, right around dinner time we came to Elbe, Washington, and the Mt. Rainier Railroad Dining company.
This consisted of a number of railroad cars converted to bars and restaurants with cabooses for lodging.
We headed into the dining car
and had a delicious BBQ chicken dinner.
Did some quickstop camping at Maryfield Lake, and we were ready for...
Not much to report for this final day of the trip. Had a nice breakfast at Spiffy's restaurant. The most notable feature of this restaurant was this warning at the bottom left corner of th menu.
The asterisk is for many of the items on the menu. "Waitress? We'd like to split an order of raw or undercooked animal product."
I also noticed this great investment advice from the Oregon Lottery:
We zipped out to the coast south of Eugene, along the Umpqua river,
and got home at dinner time. 1,430 car miles and about 240 person-bicycle miles of great trip.