On Friday Craig and I drove up to Marysville in Snohomish County, just north of Seattle. We actually took the day off just to avoid the horrible traffic that develops from Tacoma all the way through Everett pretty much every single day.

Tiffany and Jeremy bought a house in Marysville and moved in Labor Day week-end. We met her at her work and she took us from her work to her house via an old farm road.

Her house is great, a big fenced back yard, a newly remodeled kitchen, wood floors and lots of natural light. Her brother Shane came down with his girlfriend Crystal and six tuna steaks that he’d brought in off the boat that morning. We had an incredible dinner of steak, tuna, baked potatoes and salad. Yummy!

As luck would have it, Craig’s cousin Mike and his partner Jan were also in Marysville to visit some of her friends. We met up with them for breakfast and shared food and stories.

Then Craig and I loaded up the car and headed up to Anacortes where we left our car at Betsy and Doug’s and loaded up our bikes and rode to the ferry terminal to cross over to Lopez Island for a night camping.

It turned out that Betsy was going to be the captain on our ferry and thus, one of the dreams I’ve had ever since Yonna told she was a captain was realized—I got to hang out in the wheel house. It was incredible to carry on a conversation with Besty awhile at the same time she read satellite pictures and worked with the quarter master to take us across the sound.

The ferry was full of other bike riders, both those loaded for camping and those there as credit card tourists. It was exciting to see. This was my first time loading my bike up so completely and yet it worked just fine. I was amazed to pass people on the hill that were riding unloaded while my bike was so packed, but if there is one thing I’ve learned about myself and hills, I have to ride at my pace.

We had a site reserved at the Lopez Farm Cottages, which was under 2.5 miles from the ferries and boasted showers and morning coffee. Unfortunately, my internet reservation led me to set up camp in a small loop that had already closed for the season, so just as we left camp to bike around the island we were told we’d have to move to the other spot. Luckily, he agreed to let us make the move after dark and use the light for exploring the island.

We rode through the one block village and then on down to Otis Perkins Park. It was a beautiful day and thrilling to see so many bike riders of all types out and about. On our way back we stopped at the Galley for a beer and a snack.

We sat at the bar by the pool table and got to experience of bit of the culture that small island living cultivates. We also met Robert and Sara Lynn a newly married couple currently living on Orcas.

The conversation kept us at the Galley a bit longer than we’d planned and so when we left we made our way home in the dark (except for our bike lights mind you) with hardly a car passing us by. We found our new campsite and then headed over to pick up our tent and re-make camp. Afterwards, we went to the pavilion/restrooms and met some friendly people from Seattle sitting by the fire. We sat with them for a while and chatted and then retired for the night.

The next morning I found that there was no coffee in the canister. We took it as a sign to load up and head into town for coffee and breakfast. It was a beautiful day and Craig spotted a hardly used version of almost the same model Trek 520 he rode around Australia. Within the half hour I saw someone ride past on my same year’s model Trek Pilot 1.2, a first for me.

We caught the 12:30pm ferry back to Anacortes. The ferry was filled with bikers, those of us coming from Lopez were loaded in the back, but there were bikes all through the ferries that had been loaded at the earlier island stops.

We made it back to our car, and with 3 quick stops got home before 8pm, which meant we could get Thai take-out, because I love coming home and carrying on my vacation for the rest of the night!

This post is tagged bikes, camping, ferries, san juans